Frankie my dear, it’s time to give a Ma’am
AMEDIC has revealed that huge numbers of people are claiming to be wheat or gluten intolerant when, actually, they are not. Dr Max Pemberton writes in the press that he is sick of people claiming to have a food allergy when they ‘simply don’t like anything, or want to feel special’.
Between 20 and 40 per cent of the population believe they have food intolerance but according to Allergy UK, fewer than two per cent really have a reaction to food and only one per cent cannot digest gluten.
So many diners are making a fuss about ingredients and demanding special attention that restaurants are getting fed up and starting to ignore their requests, which puts real sufferers at risk. Only an ostrich (low in cholesterol and fat) could ignore the wisdom of Dr Pemberton’s argument to call a halt to this fashionable fad.
I have a serious intolerance for comics who enjoy making crude and cruel jokes about an elderly woman. While homage is paid, like Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, the woman who has served this country for more than 60 years is often the victim of cheap laughs.
It is ridiculous that people like Kim Kardashian, who achieved fame by tweeting and pouting are held in such high regard, while our monarch is ridiculed.
When comic Frankie Boyle chaired Have I Got News for You recently, his remarks about the Queen had to be cut before the programme was aired.
We pride ourselves on free speech, and poking fun at our leaders – including politicians – has always been a national pastime. Spitting Image was one of my favourite programmes, and yes, the Queen and ‘Philly’ and the Queen Mother were included. But it was witty and funny and never seemed deliberately vicious.
But Boyle’s remarks were said to be highly offensive and it was made very clear that that was why he was censored; very unusual in Ian Hislop’s programme that prides itself on pushing boundaries.
Isn’t it time for such performers to draw a line under the cheap and often very personal jokes and give the Queen a break?
She’s 90, for goodness’ sake, and looks increasingly vulnerable. You don’t have to be a monarchist to know it’s wrong…. and it must make many people, like me, feel very uncomfortable when it happens.