Down in the depths of political life, there are politicians who believe the rules don't apply to them, who blame their staff when things go wrong but take credit when things go well. Also lurking down there are politicians who feign shared experiences with the poor as a means of enhancing their credibility.
Lamentably, some of these politicians percolated to the surface in Hong Kong this week in the shape of Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen and Lau Wong-fat, the rural communities' leader who sits on the Executive Council.
Tang might possibly be excused on the grounds of ignorance but this hardly serves as a qualification for assuming the number one job in the Hong Kong government.
Born with a golden spoon in his mouth and enjoying the kind of upbringing that most Hongkongers can only dream of, Tang claimed that he knew about hardship because he had experienced it by visiting relatives on the mainland during his school holidays.
Tang seems to think that a spot of poverty tourism is the same as the real thing.
Yet he knows full well that, as soon as he crossed back over the border, he was back in the world of large apartments, chauffeured cars and the boardroom of companies controlled by his father.