THINGS are not what they seem.

Naughty Volkswagen cheated eco-tests designed to ensure cars rolling off its production line don’t sputter toxins into the air.

Now Samsung might have been trying to fool us too. According to reports this week, some of its televisions appear to use less energy in strict official lab test conditions than when you’re watching one in your front room.

I should point out that Samsung denies this but the European Commission has said it will investigate the claims. It makes you wonder though, doesn’t it, how much of what you’re told officially is actually true.

And how much, frankly, is bull.

There are two layers of reality to life. The sooner you know about this the better.

There’s the official news-reader-in-front-of-the-camera, stick-to-the-script reality where only official lines are peddled and shock is feigned when the dark underbelly of life is revealed.

Catastrophe, a capitalist corporation has misled us to gain a commercial advantage.

And then there’s the reality of the street, of the real world, the gossip-over-a-pint-down-the-pub reality. Where we all know what’s really going on.

Were you really surprised by the disgraceful things going on in the world’s stock exchanges and banks that led to the global recession? Were you really? Was it a revelation to you when it was shown that sections of our national press were guilty of nefarious tactics such as phone tapping to source stories?

Those trusted brands that hang in your wardrobe, that stand proud in your cupboards, that are delivered to your door in beautifully parcelled cardboard cartons – did you really think they were bastions of altruism?

It must have come as something of a shock to you then, to discover that they don’t always pay as much corporation tax as they might. Or that their employees manufacturing their products are slaving away in sweat shops earning a pittance in third world countries.

Many people, those who put their trust implicitly in the British Establishment, must have been shaken by the realisation that once feted and respected elder statesmen of politics and entertainment were in reality revolting serial paedophiles. Certainly I was sickened by the unmasking of Rolf Harris.

Having said that, who was truly surprised to learn Jimmy Savile was a depraved monster? The fact that he was a disgusting child sex abuser on a massive scale was a well known open secret for decades.

Times change and what is considered acceptable behaviour or practices also change according to the temperature of the age.

All these examples of wrongdoing might be depressing, but by exposing them and seeing justice done, we are witnessing a catharsis.