A Collection of Writings
Ingrid Pitt Says...
Last month the media was whacking on about young Prince William using one of the RAF's Chinook helicopters to do a bit of high echelon showing off by dropping in to see his girl friend, Kate Middleton, while engaged in a training exercise. The reporters whinged on about the amount of taxpayers money being wasted and how only he could have got away with it. Probably true but I have had letters from a number of ex-RAF pilots saying that doing the occasional non-military fly past has always been in the curriculum. If you really do have a pointy head and smoke soup I guess you do have something to complain about. On the other hand, he is a Prince and just about the most eligible bachelor on the planet so you won't find a lot of females begrudging the peppercorn that outrageous bit of behaviour cost us all. I might have to think again if William decides to visit his girl friend now that he is on the bounding main. But I'll still wave my hanky as the bow surge laps my thighs as he makes his way up the river to Windsor. I did think the Queen suggesting the Kate got herself a job was a bit OTT.
Those self righteous finger-jabbers did have a small point. Prince William wasn't picking up the tab. This week the object of their vitriol is another young man who is paying his own way. And then some. Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and his clever girlfriend, Coleen McLoughlin, are spending £5,000,000, it is estimated, on a fairy tale wedding. Fairy tales are just that. Something that doesn't exist in the day to day world but is a pure flight of fancy for the imaginative mind. My fairy tale is probably not your fairy tale - and it's certainly not for all those who have been demonstrating their superiority by giggling at Wayne and Coleen's more extravagant and florid taste. The happy couple are receiving £2,500,000 for exclusive camera work from as 'glossy magazine' and bunging in another £2,500,000 just to make sure the fish is fresh and the champagne ice cream fizzes. I suspect that Peter Phillips will be gnashing his dentures over the second rate deal he got. And think of all that lovely lolly Rooney is putting back into circulation. A real philanthropist.
Our two heroes, Prince William and Wayne Rooney, are young men taking advantage of their wealth or heritage. They haven't promised me anything. Just taken advantage of their good fortune. I'm happy for them. Better that than the behaviour of the bunch of creeps who belly up to the tax free bar in Westminster and wallow in the fact that they have conned the public into voting them first class seats on the gravy train. When wannabe MP's are canvassing for the public vote they put themselves over as virtuous, caring servants. All they want to do is serve. Put the tick in their box and they will devote themselves to listening to your worries, caring for your future and never, ever thinking about themselves. Even before the votes have been miscounted they are filling in their expense account chits or, even worse, drawing the sort of money that thousands of people don't even get a year, for expenses which vary from electric light bulbs to thousand quid a roll wallpaper. From being devoted slaves they suddenly become preening, opportunists jostling for the next TV interview or giving self-promoting interviews to the tabloids.
Then there is President of the FIA, Max Mosley.
What was it Lord Acton said? Something like "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."