RANTING RESUMED..

Hugely enjoyable family business has kept me away from these pages for a few days but now that there is a lull in proceedings, I have a chance to rant once more.   Just a glance through the weekend`s `news` produces enough for me to rant about and although it won`t do any good, at least I will feel better for it.   After all, a rant a day helps me rest, work and play.   So here goes.

First, our old friends the EU, whose details reveal that £2.9million of taxpayers` money will be squandered this year on health care for the 736 members and their families - an increase of 36% over last year.  Brussels lets them claim for items such as free breast surgery, anti-ageing products and slimming treatment from a private health scheme, as well as Viagra for husbands and sons of female Members, visits to Health Spas and a host of `alternative therapies.` The claim is that, as the MEPs work away from home, they can`t take advantage of the medical facilities in their home countries.  You and I couldn`t make it up....but they have.

Next the newly enobled Lord Prescott of Somewhere-or-Other has hit the headlines for two reasons.  He has claimed over £10,000 in `expenses` for attending the House of Lords on just 13 occasions.   No wonder he has taken up the invitation to earn a few bob from the BBC by reading the Shipping Forecast on Radio 4,  supposedly all in the name of Comic Relief.   I think we should find out when this will happen, as there could well be room for maritime misinterpretation of his forecasts.  "State of the slight, see.  Windy in Dogger or German Bight - somewhere that way, backing north-east where Tony comes from....."   You get my drift.   Here`s a suggestion - why doesn`t he do the shipping forecast for free and hand over his `expenses` to Comic Relief?

And I can`t leave this without being bemused at the promised antics of former MP Ann Widdecombe who, fresh from her nationwide embarrassment on Strictly Come Prancing, has now been signed up for a stint in the Sleeping Beauty Pantomime at the Orchard Theatre, Dartford.   Maybe there was, after all, an eighth dwarf who has only now emerged or, more likely, Dopey Rides Again.

Ah, that`s better.  Every little rant helps.