I AM STARTLED BY THE RECENT spate of unexpected deaths of famous people. First and most famously we had the death of the popular comedian Michael Jackson, and only today we have heard of the death of the hardly any less notorious Irishman Stephen P. Gately, formerly of the “boys’ band” Boyzone. Most startling to me is the way that the tragic death of the singer was announced today on television: it is the first time I have heard the expression “in the house he shared with his husband” used in relation to a homosexual couple. I suppose the next startling event will be when a “boys’” band sings songs to boys rather than hypocritically pretending to like girls and thus morally stealing their money.
ON THE SUBJECT OF MORALS, MONEY AND DEATH, tomorrow will see one of the final movements in the exciting events surrounding politicians and their ludicrous expenses fiddling. While politicians had quite sensibly kept quiet and hoped that the public would forget about the whole matter, they are about to be surprised tomorrow, when they “come back to work” and get letters from Sir Thomas Legg telling at least half of them that they will have to pay back money, justify their expenses or walk the plank and die a political death.
ONE OF THE MOST RIDICULOUS CASES is that of Lord Paul of Marylebone (pictured above), a personal friend of Gordon Brown's, who is financially worth £500 million, and who claimed £38,000 for a flat in London in which, as he admits himself, he “never slept”, but states “it was my home.” Applying the same leap of logic to one's wife or mistress would be an interesting spin on how one sees the world and words. Or one’s wife and/or mistress. Or even husband, nowadays.
ON THE SUBJECT OF MORALS, MONEY AND DEATH, tomorrow will see one of the final movements in the exciting events surrounding politicians and their ludicrous expenses fiddling. While politicians had quite sensibly kept quiet and hoped that the public would forget about the whole matter, they are about to be surprised tomorrow, when they “come back to work” and get letters from Sir Thomas Legg telling at least half of them that they will have to pay back money, justify their expenses or walk the plank and die a political death.
ONE OF THE MOST RIDICULOUS CASES is that of Lord Paul of Marylebone (pictured above), a personal friend of Gordon Brown's, who is financially worth £500 million, and who claimed £38,000 for a flat in London in which, as he admits himself, he “never slept”, but states “it was my home.” Applying the same leap of logic to one's wife or mistress would be an interesting spin on how one sees the world and words. Or one’s wife and/or mistress. Or even husband, nowadays.
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