Giving is in the air

Hooray for Bill Gates. Let's hope he's a trendsetter. OK, he's not exactly short of a bob or two - $48bn at the last count - but he has just given £400m to ensure children in developing countries can have life-saving vaccines.

Best of all, he says this is just a "down payment".

What would be even better is if it started a new fashion among the rich and famous.

The bling bling generation believe in the conspicuous display of wealth - think of the Beckhams on their twin thrones; of Wayne Rooney's girlfriend Colleen, of just about any flash footballer or TV star. If you've got it, they say, then flaunt it. Dazzle the rest of us and remind us of how much you've got. Even if, as so often happens, they look ridiculous in the process.

(Remember Dolly Parton's comment? "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.")

But maybe we're getting just a little tired of all that flash spending. Christmas spending was down last year as we seemed to tire of shopping for the sake if it. Instead, one of the great successes was buying gifts for developing countries from the Good Gifts catalogue. When inspiration fails, a goat for Africa could be the new M&S voucher - and a lot more useful.

The nation surprised itself by how much we forked out for the victims of the tsunami. There's been another Band Aid number one. A top line-up of stars gave their services free to raise over £1.25m in Cardiff at the weekend.

Sir Elton John gave a concert in Paris. Sharon Osbourne gave a generous donation and is organising another record with Elton and Phil Collins. Giving is in the air. So maybe the time is right for a change.

Instead of outdoing each other in the number of flash cars, impractical handbags or designer ripped jeans, maybe footballers and film stars with more money than they know what to do with can actually do something useful with it.

Not that we want them to lead dull and drab lives. No, a bit of glitter gives the rest of us something to gawp at. But if they flashed the cash at charities as well as on themselves, it really could make a difference.

Congratulations to the JD Wetherspoon pub chain for deciding to ban smoking in their premises. Great that the rest of us are to be spared the effects of passive smoking.

Next, of course, it would be nice to be spared the effect of passive drinking: no drunks staggering in the street, no pools of vomit, no drunk drivers, and Friday night A & E departments with time for the rest of us.

But with 24-hour drinking coming up, that's just a pipe dream.

Prince Harry has delayed his entrance to Sandhurst because he's having problems with his knee. So how come he can go skiing?

I don't know which cycling club was going through Middleton Tyas on Sunday afternoon (blue jumpers with white lettering. Know them?) but they were incredibly stupid. And not safe to be on the road.

They were cycling two and three abreast the wrong way down a one way road. And when I wound the window down to tell them so, one told me to "Calm down" - and another told me to "F*** off."

Charming.

Well, I hope their tyres go flat and their saddles are like razor blades. And next time they go en masse the wrong way down a one way street, they meet someone whose car's brakes aren't as good as mine.

This little piggy went to market...Jack and Jill went up the hill...This is the way the farmer rides...Bob the Builder.

We're not singing any more. Not to our children, that is.

Small children and babies thrive on songs and snatches, rhymes and riddles, counting games, hiding games and just general chit chat and attention from their parents. But we seem to have forgotten the knack.

So much so, that the Basic Skills Agency is having to tell us how to do it. "Sing in the car, in the rain, in the bath, when you're tidying up," they say. There's even a television campaign in Wales to remind parents to speak to their babies. It's a sad day when parents have to be reminded to talk to their children.

But some of us, of course, took it too far, and provided our children with an endless commentary on life.

We're easy to spot because it's a hard habit to break. We're the ones still saying enthusiastically: "Oh look at the big red bus!" when we're all alone in town and our toddlers have long since grown up and left home.

But at least they know how to talk.

Stella McCartney is vehemently vegan. Until it comes to her boots. All animal products are normally an absolute no no, but she arrived for a newspaper interview wearing leather boots.

It was alright, she told the interviewer, because they were "vintage".

Ah. I wonder if she'd have accepted the same explanation if the interviewer had worn granny's old mink coat.

The new massive European airbus is a double-decker super jumbo and will be able to carry 800 passengers. I can see it now: six hours to New York. And another six hours at the baggage carousel.

Schoolchildren are to face an exam in sex education. Would that include a practical?

Published: 26/01/2005