The Krays - What If?

The Krays were arrested in 1968, but only after they had gone public, and had killed just too many people. If however they had kept their heads down, and restrained themselves, things could have been very different. The income stream from their ventures might have been channelled into legitimate investments. If (again) they had ridden the problems of the early 1970's and gone into property, given their influential friends and contacts how far could they have gone in business, media and the arts with wise distribution of their funds?

Could we have been looking at Life Peerages? Positions on notable bodies, almost certainly the BBC and perhaps one ITV board or another, and if a lurch was made into politics just what junior ministerial posts might they have had? Something in the Home Office, perhaps, to do with policing and public order? Maybe, given their experience, the Ministry of Defence dealing with recruitment matters? Or even the Treasury, giving much needed down to earth guidance on revenue raising, and schemes for redistributing income?

They might have been amongst the leading Quangocrats of New Labour after 1997. Then, of course they might have reached the heights of the financial sector, perhaps chairing banks and investment companies, and advising on financial regulation.

How different it all would have been.