Victoria Beckham ...... What's The Point ?

I’ve never really understood what we are meant to admire in Victoria Beckham.

How is it that we still seem to know who she is, after all these years of doing nothing that would be considered real work?

I know that she is pretty busy these days, wondering around LA in impossibly large sunglasses and heels, but how is anything she does these days actual "work"? For years, this vacuous, empty headed woman, along with her daft, clothes horse of a husband have been all over the media and have riches beyond anything we could imagine. The crazy amounts of money that they must have been paid, in my opinion, cannot be justified. David will never save anyone’s life playing football and Victoria will never discover a cure for cancer doing……….whatever it is she calls her "job".

I’m sure Victoria sees herself as a busy, working mum and that she needs the team of people who rush about after her. They most probably have a job title of some kind and make endless calls saying things like "Hi, it’s Tabitha double-barrelled nightmare here, from Victoria Beckham’s office, just wondering if we can move the shoot to this afternoon, as she’s having her hair done at ten……and eleven…..and twelve….."

I know the kind of "shoot" I have in mind!

Seriously though, with all the awful things that have been happening recently involving youngsters, I think it is about time we actually looked at some of the examples people such as David and Victoria Beckham give us. I’m no child psychology expert and certainly wouldn’t want to claim that we can hold them responsible for gang culture and teenage murderers, but it can’t be healthy to see such little effort being rewarded with so much cash. It’s not as if we ever hear either of them speaking out about anything important. What do they think about the war in Iraq? When did we last see a Beckham interviewed on a serious news programme about third world debt? Is the image of David Beckham on "Question Time" purely for cartoon satire?
To me, the Beckhams epitomise what we are becoming as a society, which is shallow, selfish and only interested in financial gain in return for as little effort as possible.

As published in the 26th October 2007 edition of The Kemptown Rag.

“The Government Doesn’t Want You To Be Happy”

Ok, that might sound like something the "Voodoo Nurse" from "Little Miss Jocelyn" might say, but I do sometimes wonder how the Government actually sees the British people and whether or not it really cares about us.

Are we seen as the all important electorate and is all the "it is an honour to serve" nonsense true? Or are we just plebs they just about tolerate for the purpose of getting re-elected? I guess the answer depends on the size of an MP’s majority, whether or not they are seen as "rising stars", just there for the beer or total "has beens".

Part of the problem for me, as a born and raised here citizen, is that I don't think the Government is actually bothered about people like me anymore. I don't know where I, and others like me, are on their list of "priorities", but I feel it is very much near the bottom - if on the list at all. I certainly don’t feel very important to them, possible up and coming election or not.

I have a job, a mortgage and am law abiding. I have only been on the dole for brief period, which was an experience too humiliating for me to ever want to repeat it and I’ve not had so much as a free NHS prescription for over fifteen years. I don’t want, get or even expect anything from "the system", but I just feel like I am seen as tax revenue. I wouldn't mind so much, but giving the current Government tax revenue is similar to giving an alcoholic a crate of scotch. It will just end up the political equivalent of vomit down the duvet. I say that as a former member of the Labour Party.

In recent years, I've seen my salary fall and the cost of living go through the roof. Salaries do not keep pace with inflation and that's just how it is. I've worked very hard for what I have, but at times, life is just so tough financially and no one in power seems to give a damn. They just pretend they to when it is time for us to vote.

I see myself as a positive person and am not lazy, thick or illiterate, nor do I expect or have any desire to be "rescued" by trying to claim benefits. The paperwork is enough to put anyone off. Therefore having a full-time job should generate enough of a wage to cover the basics at the very least. Or am I being old fashioned to think this? If you have a flick through the jobs section of the Argus on a Thursday and see some of the salaries that are being offered that we are expected to live on, then it is understandable to see why people get so steamed up about immigrants coming over here to work. I know they work hard and I’ve have heard that argument used to the point where I am getting bored of it. I work hard and everyone I know does to, but I don’t see anyone writing an article in "The Guardian" about us.

In my opinion, immigrants are entitled to too much too soon and this is creating resentment from those of us who have being members of the "National Insurance Contributions Club" a lot longer. It isn’t as though this is some Eastern European version of "Auf Wiedersehen Pet", where plumbers and brickies come over to work, so they can send their wives back the change they’ve got left, after spending their hard earned cash on beer and hookers. Instead they’ve brought the wives and kids with them, which is fine in theory, but do we really have the resources to spare? Can local schools cope with having so many extra children, many of whom do not speak much English ?

I don’t think they should get NHS treatment, be entitled to benefits or council housing. There just isn't the spare cash to pay for it. I don't want to sound harsh, but the funds just won't stretch. At the very least they should have made five years worth of National Insurance and tax deductions before they get anything back.

It is such an important subject and needs balanced debate. It isn't about race, it is about being fair to all those who have worked their collective British born white/black/asian and many other coloured backsides off all these years and are starting to feel sidelined in their own country. If the Government really does want me to be happy, than it should start putting me and the millions of other similar people first.

An edited version of this article appears in the October 12th edition of The Kemptown Rag

Madeleine McCann

It’s been over four months since Madeleine McCann disappeared.

There have been times when it has been all over the media and times when it has been relegated to the “in other news” section of bulletins, where the newscaster reads a few words over some footage of Madeleine’s parents walking along the beach. Websites have been set up, money donated (over a million pounds so far), footballers have worn the missing girl’s photo on their shirts and all kinds of theories have been discussed at office water-coolers up and down the land.

Still, unfortunately, we just don’t know where the poor little mite is.

What amazed me at the start of all this back in May was the scale everything was happening on. The family seemed so well connected and the coverage almost global. I couldn’t help wonder whether everyone was being so receptive, because the McCanns were such a “nice” family. Not only are Madeleine’s parents married, but they are both professionals earning good money. There are no step-children or complicated extended families and although I’ve not seen any pictures of the family home in Leicestershire, I am picturing a beautiful detached house in quiet suburbia. There is no reason why it shouldn’t be this way and Mr and Mrs McCann have probably worked hard for it, however, would the media have been so willing to clear their news agendas for a single mum from a council estate ? Had the missing child’s mother been a tracksuit wearing heffa, with a gob as big as her hoop earrings, holidaying with her children, her boyfriend and his children, would we have been so sympathetic ?

Personally, I am not so sure. I was even less sure when, during a recent interview on Radio 4, former editor of The Sun, Kelvin Mackenzie, had this to say about the coverage of any suspicion falling on the Madeleine’s parents:

"I wrote about, just literally, three or four paragraphs in a column I do for The Sun, defending the McCanns and my readers, in the biggest outpouring of bile I have ever seen, literally sent me, probably in the region of 300 emails pointing out that I was giving them the benefit of the doubt because they were middle class and doctors, and if they had been a single black family, you would have been on their case morning, noon and night and I hope that isn't true, but I just wonder whether it might be."

What are we meant to say to that? Hats off for honesty? Or is it just journalists being journalists?

In many ways, it is very likely that when the news of Madeleine’s disappearance first started to reach the likes of Sky, BBC and ITN, the journalistic black humour came to the fore. They had a story that had almost everything they could wish for with plenty of opportunities to wear a sympathetic expression on screen, a real heart string tugging situation, an articulate and educated set of parents to interview, all against the backdrop of a sun-kissed location. All they needed to complete the set was a swift happy ending.

Part of the difficulty with situations like this, where the appetite for new information is so strong is that the news programmes feel it’s their duty to fill all bulletins with the latest developments, even when there aren‘t any.

In the days before Sky News became the UK’s first all day, all night news channel, we mainly relied on the BBC’s Nine O’Clock News and ITN’s News At Ten. We knew that there was big trouble brewing, when during a commercial break of something like Coronation Street, we would hear those infamous words: “We interrupt this programme to bring you an important news flash ……” and then seeing someone like Trevor McDonald wearing his best ‘concerned face’. A nation would collectively hold it’s breath and it’s tea cups wondering what was coming next.

Were we any less informed in the days before twenty-four hour live news and the internet? I doubt it and also think that the various editors involved could do a lot worse than sit down for a day or two and watch their own programmes. It’s perfectly possible, if nothing else, that they would find those “news tickers” that run along the bottom of the screen as intensely annoying as I do and have them removed.

As far as the coverage of little Madeleine McCann is concerned, there is too much based on too little substance. The hacks that have been camped out for weeks in Portugal would have done better to have done something useful………like help look for her.

As published in the 28th September edition of The Kemptown Rag