This column has a simple sliding scale when dealing with low-lifes, malefactors, miscreants and scoundrels.

It goes from the relatively benign but utterly infuriating to the the borderline satanic.

At the lighter end you have people who wait until it's their round in the pub before suddenly remembering they have an urgent appointment elsewhere, X Factor contestants, Daily Mail readers and Tory voters.

At the other you have arms dealers, bankers, the X Factor creators, Daily Mail journalists and Tory MPs.

Or to put it another way, at one end is Sam Fox, guilty mainly of crimes against intelligence and music, and at the other Liam Fox guilty of, well ...

This week the papers have been much intrigued with the ongoing saga of now ex-defence secretary Fox's links with his best man and former flatmate Adam Werritty.

Such trifling matters as Werrity swanning round with business cards claiming he was Fox's adviser ...

Or the fact he was running a charity, Atlantic Bridge - which was forced to close down by the Charities Commission for not being charitable enough - from Fox's Portcullis House office ...

Or the curious circumstances which led to their travel itineraries just happening to coincide repeatedly - on occasions when potentially huge business deals were being drawn up ...

Eyebrows have also been raised about the surely purely coincidental fact that Werrity happened to be working for a firm called UK Health at the same time as Fox was shadow health minister.

Personally I have more of an issue with the fact that Fox is hell-bent on pushing through the multibillion-pound Trident replacement, is attempting to block an inquiry into allegations of abuse and torture by British troops and carrying on the war in Afghanistan than whether he was too cosy with his pal.

He was a Tory minister - what did we expect?

But, as previously stated, there has been hot competition for the most crass behaviour this week.

To return to the theme of the gradation of degradation, the measurement of moral turpitude, and take an example purely at random ...

Would Fox's alleged behaviour be worse than, say, a gaggle of grasping insurers attempting to overturn a law passed by the Scottish Parliament granting compensation to sufferers of pleural plaques?

These blood-suckers were happy to trouser premiums and line their pockets for years but have fought tooth and nail to avoid paying out a penny to those made ill by employers who flouted health and safety rules.

This week five of the world's largest insurance companies - Axa General Insurance Ltd, Axa Insurance UK plc, Norwich Union Insurance Ltd (Aviva), Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance plc and Zurich Insurance plc - took their bid to have the law overturned to the High Court in yet another attempt to wriggle off the hook and avoid multimillion-pound pay-outs.

The court rightly threw out their ignoble challenge but rather than just stump up the money, they are still desperately scheming as to how they can worm their way out of doing the right thing.

It takes a certain kind of cold-blooded ruthlessness to see an issue such as this and think: "If we drag it out long enough maybe they'll all die. Right, that's sorted - let's go and cripple some babies!"

Say what you want about Dick Turpin but at least he had the honesty to wear a mask.