In this role I was required to sign a six monthly statement to confirm that I was still a “fit and proper” person to do my job. I don’t know about the others, but I never felt this was just a box-ticking exercise.

I took it seriously as I worked through the pages of questions and it reminded me of the commitment I had undertaken in taking on the role both to employees and customers, and then the wider community and society in which the organisation operated.

I knew I was accountable for my actions and there was pride in my accountability. The whole board was accountable. No-one suggested that the words be conveniently or retrospectively altered to cover up any misdemeanour I, or my fellow directors, might have made.

So in this context you can probably understand why the proposed changes to our Government’s “Ministerial Code” quite frankly horrify me – because people at the very top of our country are no longer going to be as accountable as before. They are at war with integrity.

After the Enron scandal and the financial crisis the UK Corporate Governance Code (published by the Financial Reporting Council) and regulation generally were tightened up to prevent further corporations failing. These measures also had the necessary long-term aims of rebuilding public confidence, reputation and trust in big business.

Many individuals, and society generally, suffered from the outcomes of these failings in business and it is incredibly important that this does not happen again.

Now large companies are expected to “comply or explain” which encourages them to reveal more detail on their governance arrangements so that they can be fully scrutinised –transparency and accountability are recognised as critical organisational requirements.

So this article is an action call and it may seem strange coming from a retired business woman. It is a call to ask you to stop for a few moments and simply put your hand on your heart, take a few deep in-breaths and get in touch with your own heart, your own decency, your own integrity, your own morality and your own humanity. Can you now say that you really don’t care what our government is doing in terms of eroding our national pride and reputation? I’m talking about this watering down of the ministerial code, making it fit the actions and behaviours of our politicians rather than the other way round. My call to action is not an act of religion, of politics, of sides, of lefty hippyism but a commitment to your values, to what is important in your life, in your community and your society.

Democracy is about us all having equal weight when we vote regardless of whether we’re wealthier, healthier, more educated; every single one of us has the right to vote and those votes to be equal – this is what people before us fought for. Democracy and freedom are often seen as going hand-in-hand, but where our democracy is being eroded is when the freedoms offered are not equal. When different rules apply to different groups.

This is why there has been such a fuss about “partygate”, not because a few people had sandwiches and drinks in the workplace, but, a time when we understood that our personal freedoms were restricted to aid our fellow citizens, we complied – and others, who clearly thought they have some privileged right to be more free tried “to get away with it”.

Freedom is not about doing just what you want, it is about everyone in society being treated fairly, following the same set of rules, and everyone in society being afforded the same dignity and respect even in the hardest of times.

The proposed changes in the code are another example of the application of different rules except this time, having been caught out they are getting in early and, quite literally, re-writing the code so they can’t be held accountable in anticipation of breaking them.

So, you might feel like there’s nothing you can do, that you’re too busy, that it doesn’t concern you. The fact is it does. In the corporate world, how the leadership operates sets both the tone and the culture of the organisation. It is no different in a country. If, say, dishonesty is accepted at the top, it sets the tone for the rest of society.

Our leaders actually need to lead by example, without exception, and in all walks of life, so that we can trust what is being said, so that we can be confident that our money is being spent wisely and in a way that is good for all society.

- Judith Maxwell is a retired business ethics consultant who lives in Huddersfield.

Integrity matters from the top down, as 'partygate' shows - Judith Maxwell