Who have in the past provided to some of our top public
servants. Perhaps though trade in cannabis will drop off now its
street cred has been
severely damaged by the discovery that several cabinet ministers have indulged. They could
just about deal with Jacqui Smith perhaps. But your edgy teens probably
won't be too happy, one might suggest, with rocking Ruth Kelly as a role
model.
Tom Hunter
One could attempt to be a smart arse about this, but
why bother? A simple well done to the Scottish businessman is the only
sensible response to his delightful
philanthropy. Mr Hunter will give away £1 bn over the rest of his
life.
John Prescott
Some statesmen have statues in their honour. Our former DPM
has a turtle named after him - at the Yarmouth Sea Life Centre. Says a
spokesman: 'It's a tropical variety with a vicious bite and a temper to
match.' Tropical? Our John?
Pierce Brosnan
There's not
much that a retired James Bond can do and call it progress, but
playing Thomas the Tank Engine comes close. Watch out for those Exocet
missiles in little Tommy's tank, and tightly-sprung ejector
seats in the buffet
car.
Civil Court judges
They're getting new robes courtesy of fabulous designer
Betty Jackson.The current uniform, which is 300 years old, is being
abolished next year. Next month, police officers to be made over by
Alexander McQueen ...
There we all were, respecting the right of JK Rowling and her
publishers at Bloomsbury to not let anybody read the final Potter until
the lovely JK said we could. Then some pesky American
journalists got hold of a copy and told the world. We are torn between
thinking the Yanks mean-spirited and shrugging that it's only a book.
Ambivalence, us? Start of a trend.
Steaks
According to Japanese scientists, it's ecologically unsound to wolf
down a steak. They have calculated that, what with the cows' 'emissions'
and transport of food, 2.2lb of beef - enough for two sturdy souls - has
the same effect as the carbon dioxide released by A car travelling at 50
miles per hour for 155 miles. Get your head around that one.
Golf progressives
A growing group, we thought. Sadly, at a dinner to mark the beginning
of the Open Championship, Graham Brown of the Royal and Ancient's rules
committee gave a speech containing racist jokes. Only a bit of a laugh,
the good old boys said. As, with crashing predictability, you knew they
would.
Stockings
Sales down 50 per cent from 10m to 5m in the last year. The worst part
about this dip is the
licence it gave to chaps of a certain age to tell us more than we'd like
to know about their love of a stocking line.
If the sisters among us want to wear miserable tights, so be it.
Sunglass sales ...
And ice cream and bikinis and bottles of cold Mexican lager. Yep,
summer's playing hard to get again. A hosepipe
ban can only be round the corner.