Grand Old Oprah

March 8, 2021, 3:49 pm , by Newsdesk

Richard Lutz turns on the tv to view car crash-o-vision

First to matters at hand and our special wobbly relationaship between the US and the UK seems to be wobbling a bit more. To wit, Harry and Meghan had their time of day with Oprah Winfrey.

Now…this is news. In the UK, there isn’t a media star that comes close to what Oprah is in the States. I mean, at one time, the Democrats were actually asking if she wanted to run against Trump back in ’16. She’s that big. She declined.

So when the erstwhile royal pair snuggled down to be interviewed, it was mega stuff. Bigtime entertainment. And that’s what it is. Entertainment. Car crash stuff that was more incisive, more articulate, more venomous than when Harry’s late mother Diana spilled the beans about The Other Woman and her own bulimia more than two decades ago.

But to me, it wasn’t a good move. Harry and Meghan made Their Statement when they upped stakes and moved to California. In essence, as a couple, they turned their backs on Blighty and that was that. Adding muck and allegation does nothing for anyone. Let them make their living in the west coast entertainment industry and leave it like that. Especially when you have a grandmother who’s 96 and her very ill 99 husband is being treated in hospital.

There will be blood (bad blood) over this Oprah scoop. It will go on for another generation whether it’s about how Harry was snubbed by his father Charles; how Meghan believes the royal family is racist or how she contemplated suicide because of the rigid disregard she faced while part of the rancid House of Windsor.

WHAT is it about Audi owners...? he asks

On to other matters. Cannon Hill Park is my local green spot. It’s filled with families, lovers, lone runners, young parents going for aimless walks with babies, roller bladers, little kids on little bikes, cold blooded tennis players and old folks ambling along. The car parks are filled too. We go past a traffic warden giving out tickets. ‘How’s business?” I ask. He slowly shakes his head. ‘What is it about Audi owners? he asks back. He explains that Audi is the brand number 1 for parking illegally or without paying for a slot. ‘What is it about Audi drivers?” he repeats and then answers as he whips an e-ticket off his pad: ‘They think they’re special.’

But not extra-special like our British nurses. The governmnent has been diefying them forsaving Covid lives and keeping the jammed hospitals running while putting themselves in the firing line. Then comes the annual budget and a day after running their fingers through the entrails, those pesky journalists found out in the small print that the nurses (the ones deified by the government) will get a 1% pay rise for the year.

Some cheeky press monkey does a quick rundown to find that for the average nurse, that comes out to £3.50 a week- that’s about $4.83 in Yankee dollars. Another reporter pares that down even further. On a five day week, that’s a 70p rise per day- a tad under a buck a day in the States. As for an hourly pay hike, that comes out to a measly crummy — ok, you get the idea.

The Tory government fouled this one up big. You just don’t mess with the nursing sector- especially with the pandemic causing so much havoc and pain in their ranks. But there goes Boris and his mediocre cabinet- jamming their own feet in their gobs and saying it all makes sense.