I'm not one for forecasting the future,but here's one prediction I think will come true:

Ian Huntley will be found dead in his cell, killed by his own hand, probably by hanging.

It is after all,the way infamous killers seem to end up.

Fred West hung himself in his cell in 1995. Harold “Dr Death” Shipman hung himself in his cell in 2004.

Ian Brady, Moors Murderer, has been attempting to starve himself to death for years and unfortunately lost a legal battle to stop doctors force-feeding him. One day Brady will work up the courage to hang himself.

Huntley himself has already attempted suicide three times since being locked up for the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Long before Huntley completes his 40-year sentence in 2042, he will finally succeed.

And many people will say – justice at last.

Just as they said justice at last when Soham killer Huntley had his throat slashed by a fellow inmate at Frankland Prison in County Durham.

And they will be dead wrong. It is not justice – or anything remotely resembling justice – if you have to rely on a violent crack addict to do it for you. And it is not justice if you have to rely on a murderer to take his own life.

Huntley’s attacker, Damien Fowkes, is no shining bastion of goodness, or righteous vigilante.

Fowkes robbed a family at knifepoint to feed his drug addiction. His crimes may pall next to Huntley’s double murder but he is still a card-carrying scumbag.

We are in desperate straits if we are relying on the likes of Fowkes to balance the scales of justice.

According to his stepson:“Most people will think Damien is a hero,”. “I think he should be given a medal.” Fowkes is no hero to me. Anyone who can rob a family at knifepoint to feed their appetite for crack is just a different breed of pond life.

Fowkes claims he slashed Huntley’s throat with a razor blade “for Holly and Jessica”.

That was decent of him...but I reckon that he really did it to gain notoriety as the big man who slashed the throat of the Soham murderer.

As Fowkes’ career as a violent crack addict had previously revealed little compassion for innocent members of the public, I would guess that could possibly have even been his main motivation.

Do one of these front-page murderers – before they have the chance to do themselves – and you make a name for yourself inside.

Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, has been attacked with a broken coffee jar, half-strangled with a pair of headphones and had an eye gouged with a pen.

The Ripper has discovered what Brady has known for half a century and what Huntley is learning. If your murders make it to the front pages, then you will for ever be a marked man in prison.

And your life will be hell. As Shipman, West and Brady demonstrate, your life will eventually become unendurable.

Death will seem like the easy way out.

I look at that famous photo of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman smiling in their Manchester United shirts and I feel no compassion for Huntley.

I look at the faces of those two beautiful children, robbed of their lives, and Huntley just seems like a boil on the face of humanity.

But I can’t join in the general rejoicing that he had his throat slashed by some crackhead. And I will not join in the general rejoicing when Huntley is found – as he will be – dead in his cell.

Justice at last? No.

It will only ever be justice when we have the moral courage to administer it ourselves.

An honest days work?

THE nation loathes Ashley Cole so much I’m amazed Peter Mandelson hasn’t announced a Rat Scrappage Scheme for women who want to trade in old rodents.

But some of the stuff coming out of his wife’s “camp” is quite nauseating. Take an insider’s tribute to her “brave” return to work: “Ever the professional she just knuckled down.”

So what was her mentally draining job? Scraping a corpse off the M6? Tending to ­incontinent Alzheimer’s patients in a minimum-wage care home? No.


Getting her hair photographed.

For £500,000.

I rest my case......

Freedom Fighter or Terrorist? Depends on which side...

It's not often that I feel sorry for a celeb,especially one that rants nearly as much as I do,but today I feel sorry for Jeremy Clarkson.

He's being hauled over the coals for being open about the fact that on a recent meeting with Nelson Mandela,Saint Nelson thought Jezza was in fact an Astronaut.
When asked what the moon was like,Clarkson replied "It's rocky and dusty and there's not much gravity"

Ok,Clarkson could have pointed out that he is in fact a motoring journalist,but wasn't he just stating a fact?

Well, Saint Nelsons people most definitely do not see the funny side of things.So much so in fact that there was talk of the Nelson Mandela foundation refusing to accept the substantial amount of money that Clarkson had raised.

Now hang on a minute.This smacks just a little bit of someone getting sniffy and cutting their nose of to spite their face.Why should people go without help just because the powers that be have fallen out with a benefactor?Thankfully they have now seen sense and are willing to accept the donation

I've always missed the whole thing about Nelson Mandela.After all,the man isn't quite the saint that his people (and many left wing supporters) make him out to be.Sure the man served a long while in prison but for what?

Well,in 1961, Mandela became leader of the ANC's armed wing,which he co-founded. He coordinated sabotage campaigns against military and government targets, making plans for a possible guerrilla war if the sabotage failed to end apartheid. Mandela also raised funds for MK abroad and arranged for paramilitary training of the group.He was known as the Black Pimpernel.Not exactly the name for a peace loving person is it?

He's even expressed support for a few unsavoury people such as Gadaffi,Fidel Castro and the Lockerbie bomber.

Fidel Castro and Cuba.Now there's a thing. Praising it for its human rights and liberty.What human rights, what liberty? Perhaps he should go to the various nightclubs and ask one of the 12-year-old prostitutes which way her parents voted.

Mandela has also said in the past that he supports anyone who was fighting for self- determination. The IRA, the Chechens, Shining Path? What if I started a movement to bring about independence for Inverness; what if I blew up council offices there and shot a few policemen,would Saint Nelson be phoning me to support me?

For someone who has spent most of their life incarcarated in the penal system of South Africa,he's not really done badly has he? Does he live in the style of the people he tried to save from apartheid? No. Does he live in a tin shack in a Soweto ghetto? No.

What of other people who fought for the overturning of such an unjust system that exsisted in South Africa? What of Steve Biko? They've been overlooked by the powers that be in promoting Nelson Mandela as the saviour of black South Africa.

Have you heard of someone called Ismail Ayob? No,I didn't think so.Ismail Ayob was a trusted friend and personal attorney of Mandela for over 30 years. In May 2005, Ayob was asked by Mandela to stop selling prints signed by Mandela and to account for the proceeds of their sale. This bitter dispute led to an extensive application to the High Court of South Africa by Mandela that year.

In 2005, and 2006 Ayob, his wife, and son were subject to an attack by Mandela's advisors. The dispute was widely reported in the media, with Ayob being portrayed in a negative light, culminating in the action by Mandela to the High Court. There were public meetings at which Mandela associates attacked Ayob and there were calls for Ayob and his family to be ostracised by society.The defence of Ismail and Zamila Ayob (his wife, and a fellow respondent)included documents signed by Mandela and witnessed by his secretaries, that, they claimed, refuted many of the allegations made by Nelson Mandela and his advisors.

The dispute again made headlines in February 2007 when, during a hearing in the Johannesburg High Court, Ayob promised to pay R700 000 to Mandela, which Ayob had transferred into trusts for Mandela's children, and apologised,although he later claimed that he was the victim of a "vendetta", by Mandela.

That's nearly £63000! I'd be interested to know where that money went to.........

On grief and vengence....

The UK in the last few days has been awash with stories of what Jon Venables new identity is.For those of you who don't live in the UK or have been living on the dark side of the moon for the last 10 years,Jon Venables is one of the 2 boys that horrifically murdered a 2 year old.I wont go into details as even now,I find myself reduced to streams of tears if I have to re read or describe what happened to the poor lad.

There seems to be a culture of instant vengeance and ill mannered community action that sees armies of people that consider themselves judge,jury and executioner for any case that they see fit.Don't get me wrong,the 2 people that were convicted of the crime deserved their punishment and a whole lot more,but the verdict of a court does not mean that it's open season on anyone who may vaguely resemble an accused person.

I received a text message on my mobile phone today informing me of what Jon Venables new identity is and where he lives.The only problem is that it is totally incorrect.The power of the internet and mass mailing via text is now for sure a double edged sword.

Take the case of a Paediatrician that was hounded out of her house by a braying mob,thinking that she was a pedophile.A little education may be a dangerous thing,but an atrocious knowledge of spelling and job titles is a hell of a lot worse.

I often wonder where the very public out pouring of grief and emotion comes from.Why do people feel the need to place wreaths and soft toys at the place where a child has died when they have no connection with the deceased? Is it that we are showing what we think should be expected of us? Is it the case that if we don't display grief we don't understand and are considered unfeeling?


In the UK we used to be known for our our strength of keeping it all together and reserving emotion for family members.You only have to look at the very public displays of mass mourning on the occasion of the death of a celeb to see how much this has changed.

When Diana,AKA The Queen Of Hearts (TM) (gawd bless her) died from not wearing her seatbelt,the country was awash with other celebs singing songs in her memory,and the general public mourning the passing of someone who for all intense purposes was a demigod and not just a woman who looked good in the latest designer rags.
Within hours of her death,she was being thrust into martyrdom that previously was reserved for those who had actually made a contribution to the world that doesn't include being a clothes horse for Versace....

Maybe the time has come for us all to reevaluate what really matters and how we react to those many bits of rumour that we all receive throughout the day.

Stay safe.........

Blind to the facts or just greedy?

Sting, self-proclaimed “world citizen”, human-rights activist and eco warrior has, it transpires, received £2million to perform at a concert organised by the daughter of Uzbekistan leader Islam Karimov.

This is a man who supposedly kills his enemies in boiling water and slaughters anyone daring to protest against poverty and corruption under his regime.

The singer says he’s aware of the dictator’s “appalling record’’ but claims he went to Uzbekistan because “cultural boycotts” are pointless.

Really? I seem to remember them working in apartheid South Africa.

Sting’s response seems less of a conviction than a convenient excuse to pocket a ludicrous amount of money.I never really liked the sanctimonious singer and this just gives me even more reason not to.

Don't forget, this is the highly-principled musician who proudly tells anyone prepared to listen how his children have a “serious sense of the geopolitics of the globe’’.Perhaps they could give their dad a lesson sometime?

Who on earth really describes their kids like that?

Although never short of a few words of wisdom for the rest of us on carbon footprints, saving the rainforests or Third World debt, he could be described as an adherent of the old adage: "Do as I say - not as I do."

In a 30-year career, which has earned him a personal fortune of more than £100 million, Sting has established himself as not just a pioneering rock singer with his original band the Police - now on a worldwide reunion tour - but as one of the first stars to parade a social conscience.

As early as 1985, he took the seemingly rash decision to step aside from the Police, then at the height of their commercial success, and release what was called by one reviewer a "jazz-inflected personal manifesto" entitled The Dream Of The Blue Turtles.

The first single from the album, which was to launch him on his highly lucrative solo career, was called If You Love Somebody Set Them Free.

At least some of the song's lyrics seemed to touch on Sting's much-vaunted support of recycling and conservation, at a time when many considered these to be fringe issues rather than the global preoccupations they are today.

"We can't live here and be happy with less/With so many riches, so many souls/Everything we see that we want to possess", Sting sang, in one emotive passage.

It was a theme to which he returned at this summer's Live Earth climate change concert, where the reunited Police were among the leading attractions on the bill at Giants Stadium outside New York.

At one point in the performance, Sting pledged to the audience that he would "work to reduce" his carbon footprint in the future.

A commendable objective - but what Sting didn't mention was how much larger his carbon footprint is than just about anyone else's.

He maintains no fewer than four properties in the UK with his 'core' home the 800-acre Lake House estate in Wiltshire, which boasts 14 bedrooms and eight baths.

Earlier this year, a glimpse into Sting's daily routine at the mansion was provided by Jane Martin, 42, a cook who took the rock star and his wife Trudie Styler to an employment tribunal which awarded her £24,944 following her "shameful" dismissal from her job.

According to Ms Martin, Styler in particular had a "grandiose ego" and wanted to be treated "in a royal manner beyond her station as an actress".

Revealing some of the "fabulous" lifestyle of her former employers, Ms Martin said that "opulent extravagance reigned" at Lake House, and that there was "no regard to expense, cost or wastage" where food and drink were concerned.

The cook added that she had often been required to make an expensive rail and taxi journey between London and Salisbury just to prepare a soup and salad meal for the family, even though they also kept two housekeepers, two nannies and a butler on the premises.

But Sting's well-heeled lifestyle in the Wiltshire countryside is only one part of his worldwide empire.

This same paragon of self-denying minimalism who reminds us all not to squander our resources also owns a three-storey mansion in Highgate, North London, a townhouse in Westminster and what's described as a workman's cottage in the Lake District.

He also maintains a beach house in Malibu, California, and a 600-acre estate in Tuscany.

And when Sting performs in New York he goes home at night to a £1 million duplex on Manhattan's exclusive Upper East Side.

His immediate neighbours in Manhattan included his friend and sometime collaborator the late Luciano Pavarotti.

Other rock stars live just as lavishly as Sting does - the difference is that relatively few of them have proved as willing as him to back up their words with generous, and often anonymous, donations to causes around the world.

But he hasn't always been enthused.

Sting was introduced to the Brazilian rainforests by a Belgian author and adventurer named Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, who had made an Oscar-nominated film about the plight of the local Xingu Indians. Sting's initial reaction to Dutilleux's pitch was blunt: "Dolphins, penguins, who gives a ****, JP?" he asked on their first visit to the area.

Despite this unpromising start, Sting and the Rainforest Foundation were eventually able to set up a 12,000 square-mile national park dedicated for the use of the Xingu and other indigenous tribes.

Given the generally lukewarm support of the Brazilian government, this was an impressive achievement.

Sting's involvement included not just giving away money but also a more personal gesture.

While lobbying political leaders around the world, the singer was to play host at his elegant Highgate home to two Brazilian Indian chiefs named Raoni and Red Crow, the former of whom sported a CD-sized wooden plate stitched into his lower lip but little in the way of clothes.

Early in his career, he expressed the opinion that "I just don't agree with (procreation) any more.

"I think it's bull****, and I think if we carry on thinking like that, we're doomed.

"We have too many people - we're not the most important thing on the planet, and until we realise that, we're in deep s***."

How ironic then that Sting has six children, from two wives, ranging in age from 30 to 11.

There's nothing wrong with that - he's long since earned the right to live just as he likes - but, taken as a whole, it would seem to suggest that Sting's campaign against Western excess might not always be a priority in his own day-to-day life.

In 1981, he declared: "I don't want to end up as the guy in Vegas with the balding head and the tux singing Roxanne."

Some 15 years after making this announcement, he walked out on stage at the city's MGM Grand Garden casino, and, sporting a radically cropped haircut, performed his first hit. (To his credit, he avoided the tuxedo.)

In 1995, he was happy to accept a reported £500,000 to advertise the Seagaia golf complex in Japan, where developers had flattened miles of historic pine forests to build a luxury leisure resort.

The contradiction of a man known for his environmental campaigning helping to promote a project that locals complained harmed the local ecology wasn't lost on his critics.

More recently, the singer gave his blessing to an advertisement for a gas-guzzling Jaguar that used his hit Desert Rose as its backing track. Sting was reportedly paid a six-figure licensing fee.

Some may see this as not entirely in tune with his well-known views on energy conservation.

Even his attitude to his band the Police is marked by inconsistency.

Despite the regular recycling of the group's records since their last new release in 1983, until recently the prospect of a full-scale reunion has seemed remote at best.

Asked about the rumours of a tour in 1997, the 20th anniversary of the band's formation, Sting said: "Bull****. I'd rather die."

It may be purely coincidental that his radical change of heart on the subject follows the relative failure of his last album Songs From The Labyrinth, whose accompanying DVD features an extended sequence showing Sting, dutifully followed by his musicians, padding around the well-manicured maze at Lake House.

Whatever, in 2006 Sting decided that reforming the Police was not such a bad idea after all.

The tour, which has played to packed houses in North America this summer, is said to have guaranteed the three musicians an initial payday of £4 million apiece.

One cynic has described it as "the unedifying sight of a pension plan being topped up", although that's unlikely to concern crowds who waited nearly 25 years to see their heroes on an extended European tour.

And although Sting's wife Trudie seems remarkably unconcerned that the singer may see the tour as an opportunity to visit other venues such as the Relax club in Hamburg, it is hardly the behaviour of a man whose social conscience is his calling card.

The tour itself - with its fleet of accompanying trucks, dazzling lighting systems, jet travel and so on - shows no signs of restraint.

It all adds up to a personal carbon output for Sting that has been estimated at up to 30 times that of the average Briton.