While I've got five minutes...

Jade Goody

...died on Saturday from that most devastating of illnesses, cancer. It is a horrendous way to go - I saw my nana's decline over the space of three months and it wasn't pretty. By the end, sufferers are shadow of their former selves at it's so difficult for relatives who are trying to remember loved ones as they were. Even more tragic is the fact that Jade was 27 - a mere sproglet!

Quite a lot has been made about Jade's reality TV star status. She came third in Big Brother in 2002 at the age of 21 and has since spent her whole adult life in front of the camera in one form or another. Over the years, I, like many people have deplored these pointless celebrities - individuals who are famous for no particular reason. However, with her passing I am feeling as bit more melancholy so I will say this. For the daughter of a one-armed heroin addict from a council estate to experience the sort of success that she has is nothing less than extraordinary. Throughout the later years of her short life, people constantly commented on the fact that she was 'one of us' - not a trumped up Victoria Beckham 'lite' with a supposed air of superiority. Even when she uttered racist comments to Shilpa Shetty in 2007 she merely reflected the intolerance and bigotted attitudes which I'm sorry to say characterise large swathes of our society.

Of course, it's a breath of fresh air to see someone who wasn't born with a silver spoon in their mouth making it 'big', albeit for no discerable reason - there is something seemingly democratic about that...it certainly wouldn't have happened 30 years ago and now that Jade's plight has led to a multiplication in cervival cancer smear tests, her family can at least take some comfort from the fact that she has a legacy other than being the first individual to take the reality TV 'bull' by the proverbial 'horns'. RIP Jade Goody!

Islamists - it's a shame a disturbing ideology is named after the world's greatest religion..

The other day a group of Islamists protested as soldiers returning from Iraq paraded in their own town. The most disturbing thing about this is the olive branch that it offers to the British National Party - all Muslims preach hate, all are unpatriotic, all would blow up 'our boys' givin half the chance etc..etc..

Fortunately, most people are educated enough to realise that the policy of a national government merely reflects where the army *goes*. These chaps who 'hate Jews' because of the policies of the Israeli government fall into a similar category. Soldiers are individuals with heads - they can think what they want, however they have a duty, a much more basically - they are doing a job. Furthermore, take politics out everything and at the end of the day these folks are doing a very tough job - the threat of being blown up, suicide bombings and mines are often matched by acts of extreme bravery. I can only imagine how pissed off those soldiers must have been. These Islamists represent a minority whose obnoxious views are as nauseating as their enemies in the BNP. Maybe these guys should team up - surely they could find some common ground. Oh, I've found some: H.A.T.E That's what these guys are pretty good at disseminating - hate is hate, i.e., neither black, nor white.

Hey, what am I talking about - they've already done this, well rhetorically anyway when it comes to the new spread in antisemitism. Quite a few Anglicans have jumped on the bandwagon too...oh, how I do like a good 'love-in' by the forces of evil - and herein this reflection has descended into a rant so I'll end it ..now..