Jade Goody: The tasteless media bandwagon!

I was underneath my bed, fingers jammed in ears, hissing the mantra: "I will not be sucked in by the tasteless Jade media bandwagon, I will not be sucked in by the tasteless Jade media bandwagon, I will not be sucked in by the tasteless..."

I'd been doing this for three weeks solid, and only stopped when someone jabbed a well-aimed broom underneath the bed, and released me from my reverie by informing me that the young woman in question was now dead.

Though the story didn't end there.

There was still the mob mourning to contend with.

Strangers making a pilgrimage to the House Of Jade, to sanctify her doorstep with petrol-station petals.

Then there were the comments from the great and the good and the genuflecting. Stephen Fry - smug, though as usual, not as smart as he thinks he is - compared Jade to Princess Di.

True... in a way.

The death of both women brought out the worst in the British public and media.
Don't get me wrong. The premature death of any 27-year-old mother is a tragedy - for her family and friends.

But not for the sickening bunch of strangers laying the reefs, or reading-all-about it in the tasteless tittle-tat mags. They're just grief groupies.

Empty heads with empty lives, getting a high from inhaling the rich fumes emitted by other people's pain.

In a different era, in a different nation, I'm sure those ghouls would have learned to knit, then sat underneath the shadow of Madame Guillotine.

The Reign Of Tragedy or the Reign Of Terror - I genuinely can't see that much of a
difference.