Monday, February 16, 2015
GETTY
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has suggested the Government should subsidise food banks
If the benefits system is really failing and people are hungry through no fault of their own, then ministers have a responsibility to address that instead.
He is right, however, to point to the breathtaking amount of waste that goes on in this country at every level. Consider the contents of the ordinary domestic dustbin and then ask how much of it would still be there if we were existing on war rations. Next ponder the disappearance of so many repair shops.
Much worse is the utterly wanton waste of supermarkets which dump huge amounts of food at the end of every day. Why? Look no further than our old friend the compensation culture. Bosses are terrified of being sued if they sell stuff which has passed its sell-by date so they chuck it out instead.
It is monstrous. In the Third World any old mouldy crust will be seized on but here perfectly good, nourishing food gets thrown away for no reason at all.
Once I have put food in my fridge I never consult the sell-by date. My nose will tell me if it is off, not some stamp on the packet. Furthermore sell-by dates are very cautiously assessed and a lot of food has a lot of life left well after they have expired. For goodness sake let people buy it at their own risk.
It gets even worse when governments themselves are so worried about being sued that they deny much needed medicine to poor countries, which is what routinely happens.
When my mother died I took all her remaining stock of prescription medicine to her doctor and asked him to give it to a poor patient for whom prescription charges might be difficult. He was not allowed to, he said, because nobody could certify if I had been storing it in the right conditions at the right temperature.
IPOINTED out the blindingly obvious: that my mother would have been taking it had she lived and he would not have worried about that. He shook his head - the rules were immutable. So I asked if there was a charity operating in the Third World which would welcome it but was told the government did not allow the export of second-hand medicine in case it had been improperly stored and ministers were sued by the receiving country. Oh spare me but it's true.
I took it home with me and from that day until very recently various members of the family and I used it as need arose. We are all still here even though it was stored in a drawer and eventually passed its expiry date. Meanwhile in Africa they have had to do without.
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If the benefits system is really failing and people are hungry through no fault of their own, then ministers have a responsibility to address that instead
Ann Widdecombe
CILLA BLACK, 71, says she is "falling apart" with severe arthritis and deafness. She ascribes the latter to her youth in Liverpool's Cavern Club where music was continuously too loud. Sadly I suspect her words will be unheeded by those who spend weekends gyrating to deafening decibel levels in clubs up and down the country.
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THE outcry over the mother who was politely asked by Claridges to put a napkin over the proceedings when she decided to breastfeed her baby in its restaurant is synthetic and silly.
I am solidly behind Claridges. Every time I say this the response is "but it's natural". Yes it is and so is a long list of other functions the common denominator of which is that they are never to be done at the table.
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YET again the party leaders put themselves on the front of their Christmas cards as if the festival is about them. Nick Clegg appears in a Santa hat with adoring Miriam looking on, Ed Miliband and his wife play with their sons and David and Sam Cam pose with Chelsea Pensioners. At least the PM preserves dignity but Christmas is about the birth of Christ, gentlemen. Remember Him?
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Christopher Jefferies' story shows the importance of presuming innocence
I RARELY make an appointment with the television but mine is set to record The Lost Honour Of Christopher Jefferies, the story of the innocent academic who was suspected of murdering Joanna Yeates and then monstered by some sections of the press. I am very sorry indeed for Joanna's parents for whom the events of four years ago will always be as painful and raw as if they happened yesterday.
Nevertheless it is right to make this drama. Jefferies was a victim of today's failure to observe carefully the rule that a man is innocent until proved guilty. Some of the press and media and half the twitter sphere simply ignore that wise and once-unquestioned maxim.
It is right that we should look at the consequences and I hope this drama will cause us to pause and think. Well done, ITV. While on the subject of television, I fail to understand the annual outcry about too many repeats.
Surely we shall all be too busy making merry, playing family games, singing carols and admiring our presents to watch them anyway?
REX Cilla Black is suffering from arthritis and deafness
WHATEVER happened to our respect for privacy and the concept of minding one's own business? Throughout the past few decades I have endured the most personal questions about my sex life or lack of it and now a newspaper thinks it OK to ask the most detailed questions about my money.
It is of course a consequence of the modern tendency to talk about everything in graphic detail from those who appear on the Jeremy Kyle Show to Edwina in the jungle, pictured, chatting cheerfully about her one-night stands. Nobody expects anybody to be reticent about private matters any more. Indeed nobody seems to know what a private matter is.
This week I agreed to answer some questions for one of those regular newspaper columns in return for plugging my donkey charity Safe Haven For Donkeys In The Holy Land. I had contributed to the same column some years ago and thought it quite harmless and fun.
It had changed and the following is just a selection of the prying questions they thought it quite in order to ask: How much did I earn? Did I own my house outright? What interest did I pay on my credit card? What was the credit card? I refused to answer a lot of them and asked in amazement if anybody ever did answer such personal nosepokery. Yes, said the journalist, often.
Well you can't blame them for asking if everyone is so keen to tell but just why do people tell the press and media what they would consider deeply impertinent if raised at a dinner party? Or are these things now talked about over the soup?
ITV Edwina Currie chatted about her one-night stands on I'm a celeb
THE Duchess of Cambridge has appeared in public with ragged nails and the cameras zoomed in.
I expect the poor soul was doing what I regularly do which is give the nails a break from the varnish routine and let the air get at them. Well it wasn't much of a break and nails do need some time off the glamour.
Given that HRH is on duty year in year out perhaps the paparazzi could be persuaded to look the other way once in a while or in future years those nails will become brittle and unsightly.
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Kara Scott
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