Soft Targets

The Bank Holiday – why should the banks have a holiday when people in essential services (nurses, police, fire) don’t get any special days?

What ever it is that banks have done for us they have been well rewarded for doing it. Extremely well rewarded. The question you should ask yourself during this shorter week is something like this: "Is it obscene that banks make huge profits?"

Apparently the Bank Holiday is a British tradition dating from the 1870’s but any visitor to these shores would assume that it is a day to celebrate half-price sofas and kitchen units. And are these items a rip-off the rest of the year?

Although I might appear angry, I am not. Frustrated yes, but angry no. Even though I watched Celebrity X Factor I am still below boiling point.

But that programme was like watching a slow motion car crash on the B road of life.

Never has so little been provided for an evening’s entertainment. Even when one of the judges had a go at two of the contestants (you can read the full details here) it still clung to life with the merest thread of hope.

These celebrities were rubbish before they opened their mouths. The 'singing' was dire, crass and offensive – and you won’t see that quote on the back of the DVD case!

It was pure guff from beginning to end. And that’s true – I watched it to the end – but I was transfixed, surely this couldn’t get any worse? It did. Like a leaf falling from a tree the quality declined until it hit the ground.

The only saving grace was the fact that some 'celebrities' who you thought were rubbish in their normal role slightly improved when attempting a tune.

People might say, "Calm down Xan, this is only a laugh and these well meaning celebrities are doing it for charity." Well I’m not laughing and I am not giving. It was appalling.

I am more impressed by my friend Emma who is taking part in Cancer Research’s Race for Life

Whereas Celebrity X Factor is like looking at the bottom of an empty bottle through the bottom of another empty bottle. The distortion makes you think there could be something in it.