I am about to write the most abhorrent, politically incorrect question it is possible to ask in this bureaucracy-ridden country of ours.

It is a very simple one: Whose fault is it?

For the simple fact is we now live in a blame-free society. Whenever anything goes awry, it is never any one person's fault.

Whenever there is an official inquiry into claims of incompetence, mismanagement or wrongdoing, a culprit is rarely produced, let alone punished.

A classic example is the police inquiry into the collapsed £5 million Paul Burrell trial. Remember the miracle of the Queen's conveniently resurgent memory?

The inquiry, set up by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens, neither names nor criticises any of the officers involved. Bill Taylor, former chief inspector of constabulary for Scotland, who carried out the review, said it was about a period of time which had passed.

It was water under the bridge and nothing radical or unexpected was found.

So no one was to blame for anything. No one will be punished or reprimanded, let alone sacked.

Astonishing as that may sound, what was even more extraordinary was the Prince of Wales's response.

He was apparently "very disappointed".

He believed he was misled by senior officers about the strength of evidence against Paul Burrell. He was "dismayed" they had escaped criticism.

This, would you believe, from the man who recently came through another inquiry into the sordid goings-on at St James's Palace.

Amid the swirl of accusations of gifts for sale and homosexual rape, Sir Michael Peat came up with a neatly turned little whitewash job that has quietly been forgotten.

Even though Prince Charles's main factotum Michael Fawcett was forced to resign, he was immediately rehired on a freelance basis with generously enhanced arrangements. Blame?

Now we learn no less than £500 million from the Government's education budget has disappeared into some mysterious black hole.

School standards minister David Miliband is sure local education authorities have it. Local councils are feeling down the back of their sofas but cannot find anything. Surely losing half a billion pounds is someone's fault?

The stampede to avoid any responsibility for the demand for £400 back-pay from Lianne Seymour, whose husband Ian was killed in Iraq, allied to the possibility of losing her home, was a travesty of all we hold to be decent.

Apologies from Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and everyone down the line to Royal Marine Captain Graham Adcock are inadequate. Do not expect Hoon's or Adcock's or anyone else's resignation.

And more dreadful news about the Millennium Dome. It has cost you and me £23 million since it was closed down a couple of years ago.

Overall costs to the public purse on the humiliating project are approaching £1 billion. Now the scheme to sell it off appears to be on the brink of collapse.

Whatever happened to sometime Dome minister and infamous Tony-crony Lord Falconer?

Blame! What blame?