Mr Bates vs the machines

Every economic crisis needs a pharmakos, the ancient Greek term for the annual ritual in which a scapegoat or two is expelled, or even executed, to purge the community, assuage collective guilt and make everyone doing the expelling feel purified and sanctimonious.

The ancient Greek poet Hipponax – from late 6th century BC – seems to have explained how the condemned souls chosen as victims for the purging were thrown out of society. Some other accounts suggest they were thrown off cliffs. Hipponax was a satirical poet, the Private Eye magazine of his day. Incidentally, Private Eye is one of the publications, along with Computer Weekly, that did the most dogged and determined investigative work to unearth the Post Office scandal.