April 2009 Archives

Jade Goody's funeral said a lot more about the sort of third rate nation we have become than about the unfortunate Big Brother celebrity who became famous just for being famous.

Who one earth takes their kids along on a Saturday morning to gawp at a funeral of someone you don't know and have never met? There just because they have seen Miss Goody on telly. Funerals are not exactly a day out the world most of us live in.

But then again who turns up in pink shell suits or equally garish track suits to take pictures at a funeral as if it is some sort of carnival parade heading off to a village fete?

There seemed to be little in the way of respect or sympathy for the main character in this sad tale just a lot of mock grief and even more worship of celebrity.

Anyone else think that naming the heavy handed police operation against demontrators at the G20 summit after a bloody massacre was in bad taste?

Calling it Operation Glencoe either showed a lack of historical knowledge or a lack of tact - whatever the reason it showed a distinct lack of judgement.

I just love the way RBS shareholders are kicking up a fuss now the proverbial has not just hit the fan but smashed it to smithereens.

These of course would be the same shareholders who have been demanding higher and higher profits every year and not caring how they were made as long as the share price kept rising and the dividends kept coming.

As for Sir Fred Goodwin giving his ill gotten gains back . . . why should he? Obscene as his settlement was you can't blame him for accepting it and I suspect he has little inclination to help those who agreed it by getting them off the hook by discovering a remarkably well hidden altruistic streak.

He got away with it because those who agreed it knew nothing else but excess and didn't quite grasp that the chaos around them might just mean the trough was empty.

I was in a supermarket yesterday where an elderly lady was bemoaning the fact that most special offers were buy one get one free (BOGOF) or buy two for a heavily discounted price.

She was making the valid point that as she lived on her own she often could not manage to consume two of a product within the sell by dates or did not want to eat it the same thing for several meals.

I suppose she could shop with a friend but they would have to like the same things and sorting out the bill would be a nightmare. It would help of course if supermarkets made the reductions on individual items rather then included in BOGOF offers and multibuys.

IT was something I had vaguely noticed in the past and thought was unfair on single people, particularly the elderly, but how big a problem it is I do not know.

If anyone has any thoughts feel free

Now Gordon has finished his global whistle stop tour, presumably with his underpants outside his trousers, trying to save the world, he now has another chance to lead civilisation to salvation with the G20 summit.

We are now so much in hock that the world leaders will probably be asked for a whip round to pay for the shindig although no doubt some helpful MP can bung it all on his exes to help out.

As for leading the world into the Promised Land, Gordon could start by taking the leaders on a stroll to the nearby Square Mile and show them how it should not be done with a visit to the FSA headquarters where he could explain to everyone how not to regulate the financial sector.