Great news! I read in the Buckingham Palace House Journal, otherwise known as The Daily Telegraph, that Pippa Middleton has exhausted her 29th birthday celebrations in America and returned to the UK to face the rigours of London's West End party scene. How heartening, to use the Telegraph columnist's expression, that the sister of the Duchess of Cambridge should favour us all not only with her dazzling presence but also with a book recently published in her vivid literary style on the formidable challenges facing high society party planners.
These challenges differ somewhat from those facing a growing number of families in Breadline Britian and what would be truly heartening would be if Pippa and her socialite chums were to join Delia Smith, the celebrity chef, in helping to tackle them. Just weeks after Save the Children shocked the nation by revealing that thousands of parents can no longer afford to feed their children, Delia opened a food bank in north Norfolk. It was the latest addition to a national network of such charity outlets opening in response to the pressing need caused by disgraceful changes in the benefits system.
It has been reported, not in the Telegraph I hasten to add, that in Manchester alone 42 per cent of children live below the poverty line -- double the national rate -- and that more than 40,000 youngsters in the city regularly go hungry. David Cameron has been shamed into admitting that this scandal makes a mockery of his 'Big Society' but the food banks keep opening and there is no sign of any of them closing.
However, as Pippa and her hangers-on will no doubt observe, the same applies to night clubs in the West End. As the song says: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer...in the meantime, in between-time, ain't we got fun!"
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