OPINION – LESLEY-ANN JONES: Scott Mills’s sacking raises questions on stardom.
Scott Mills (Picture: BBC)
A welcome return for the queen of energy ballads
There appears to be one thing about publicly-funded pay packets out of all proportion to expertise and value, coupled with the adoration of listeners of their thousands and thousands, that goes to some presenters’ heads. How tempting it should be to stray from the realms of morality and decency.
Scott Mills was sacked by the BBC after the broadcaster realized that an alleged sufferer of an historic Met Police investigation was beneath 16. The police investigation closed in 2019 after the Crown Prosecution Service deemed there was inadequate proof to convey costs.
However let’s be clear: time makes no distinction. A person who was under-age 30 years in the past was beneath the age of consent, so couldn’t consent. Regardless of what number of years have handed, that was nonetheless the case then. Whereas we do not know the main points, mere claims of offences towards a boy beneath 16, with Huw Edwards’ crimes contemporary within the reminiscence, makes the BBC’s motion comprehensible.
Welcome again, Celine! (Picture: Getty)
Immortalised in haunting film theme My Coronary heart Will Go On from Titanic, iconic Canadian songstress Céline Dion has lived a life extra dramatic than any screenplay. She met her future husband René Angélil, 26 years her senior, when she was 12. He found her, masterminded her profession, fell in love with and married her, and fathered her three sons.
She then misplaced him to most cancers. Her brother, too. Grief manifested within the cruellest method: in December 2022 she was recognized with stiff-person syndrome, a uncommon neurological dysfunction that causes extreme muscle spasms and progressive rigidity. It robbed her of mobility and vocal operate. Her graphic 2024 documentary I Am: Celine Dion is an excruciating watch.
However take a look at her now! Just a little curvier. Much less gaunt. Plumper of cheek, extra golden of lock. The queen of energy ballads who appeared unlikely ever to sing stay once more after years away from the stage has introduced ten performances this autumn on the Paris la Défence Enviornment. Beg, borrow, steal. As swansongs go, from Dijon to La Manche, this one will cry the world the Seine.
Cell phone theft has successfully been decriminalised. Gone are the times of Plod dashing to the scene, of crime numbers and claims and court docket hearings. There’s an excessive amount of actual crime, they inform us. Although they don’t appear to be fixing a lot of that, both.
We’re on our personal, and should minimise our personal danger. Flip-flopping alongside the road following a map on-screen is asking for it. Familiarise your self with the route beforehand. Flip off the sound, stick the machine in your bag or inside pocket, and retrieve it solely when secure to take action. Whip it out on the bus cease and begin scrolling by your messages and it will be snatched. Use your loaf and no mistake. Piece of cake.
Farewell to a real legend
Rock’s biggest ever publicist Keith Altham represented the Who, the Stones, the Seaside Boys, the Small Faces, Van Morrison and Marc Bolan with a aspect order of Uncle Tom Cobley. His most storied PR stunt was persuading Jimi Hendrix to set gentle to his guitar. A pop journalist and scenester of the Swinging Sixties, he put the Beatles on the duvet of Fabulous journal and it shifted one million copies. John Lennon referred to as him, “You, Fabs Keith.” “KA” was one of many few Lennon opened as much as, as elaborated in my ebook Who Killed John Lennon?
Keith was a founding father of the Scribblers, Pluckers, Thumpers and Squawkers lunches, now generally known as the Scribs, attended by rock stars, music writers and PRs. Then Parkinson’s obtained him, and he light from our midst. He and I nonetheless went strolling for some time, placing the world to rights. His dying on Sunday, although a blessed reduction, was devastating. It’s usually stated of the dearly departed that nobody ever had a foul phrase to say about them. Of Keith, it was true.
Time to set this musty fable proper
Alas poor Cyprus, if bulletins are to be believed. The strategically-located gem of the Med is house to 2 main British Sovereign Base Areas, Akrotiri and Dhekelia, retained when Cyprus achieved independence in 1960. The US navy additionally use RAF Akrotiri for personnel and missions, whereas different nations together with France, Germany and Greece maintain non permanent presences there. The island’s proximity to the Center East – solely 200 miles and an hour’s flight from Tel Aviv – is alleged to be placing vacationers off. Cue snaps of abandoned seashores.
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“Poppycock!” snorts my childhood pal Mikey, a London-born Greek Cypriot who has lived in Limassol for years. “Israelis are flocking right here on vacation of their 1000’s. As for Jewish Londoners flooding in for Passover, it’s like Golders Inexperienced! Our vacationer business has not collapsed. The alternative.”
That Cyprus tourism depends on the British holidaymaker is a musty fable. “They don’t spend cash right here,” explains my chum. “All-inclusive bundle journeys are responsible. The Individuals, Spanish, Swedes, Norwegians and Israelis, the Russians, Ukrainians and Italians, then again, spend generously. Hold ’em coming! The Brits’ll be again. But it surely’s not the Eighties right here anymore.”
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