Doping

"Crossing an ethical line" is bullshit. There are no grey areas, they either broke the rules or they didn't and, as no charges have been brought by UKAD, WADA or the UCI, they didn't break the rules.

Only if you assume that 'the rules' are the only ethical standard around, but they're not. It's perfectly possible for someone to do something wrong for which no crime or offence is defined on the statute book. You can say, technically, that they haven't 'committed a crime' in that case if you assume that crimes are only defined by law, but I think most people would probably accept that you can use the term 'crime' loosely for things that the law hasn't captured.

In terms of judicial proceedings, of course, you're right that what matters is whether they broke the rules or not, and it is obviously useful to stick to prosecuting people only for what's been agreed in law, not least because different people's 'ethical lines' are widely different, but changing awareness of what is ethical or not can also lead to changes in law.

I do think it's a fallacy to say that 'as no charges have been brought by UKAD, WADA or the UCI, they didn't break the rules'--the reason why no charges have been brought may just be because there's a lack of evidence. I mean, they still don't seem to have been able to see through the concealment the Jiffy bag provided. :)

"Crossing an ethical line" is bullshit. There are no grey areas, they either broke the rules or they didn't and, as no charges have been brought by UKAD, WADA or the UCI, they didn't break the rules.

The problem is that isn't the ethos of Team Sky as Brailsford himself positioned it.

He didn't make it out as a box ticking, following the letter of the law kind of team, he implied Sky would win by following the spirit of the rules, not just the letter.

In the words of the report (my bold): “it does cross the ethical line that (team principal) David Brailsford says he himself drew for Team Sky.”

He must hate his former self right now because he's being bashed over the head by the DCMS committee with his own arguments.

What Brailsford was saying when Team Sky was set up is well documented: they would win clean, it would be "100% clean". They would win things "in the right way". He has said this too since, e.g. to Sky News in September 2016.

I don't think most reasonable people consider pushing the boundaries of the rules by exploiting medical exemptions 100% clean or winning in the right way.