I LIKE Gordon Ramsay.
I like his food, his energy and his obsessive ambition.
The swearing thing is a bit old now - so people swear in busy kitchens, just like they do in every other workplace - so what?
Trouble is that people deeply into their own thing tend to mis
judge the rest of the world and can't understand why it doesn't want to do what THEY want it to do.
He was on the radio the other day saying there should be a law whereby only local ingredients, in season, should be available in our shops, or to barter for on the village green presumably.
Obviously there is a lot to be said for local produce. It should be fresh - though it's not always by the time we get it - it's carbon footprint is tiny and it's a good idea to eat what grows on your patch.
But a law banning imports of food?
How dare we want an orange or a banana or asparagus in February?
Aside from the flawed assumption that everyone should be eating what Gordon Ramsay can afford to eat, there are practical problems.
Modern farming methods mean that Lincolnshire alone can feed most of the British population but history tells us that it's not a good idea to rely only on what you can grow yourselves.
Sixty million people need to eat every day in this country, businesses prosper and small farmers across the world make enough to feed their own families by selling their produce to us.
It would be a cheap shot to say that the people who pay upwards of £90 for three courses at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road in London don't have to worry where their food came from, but there, I've said it anyway. Growing, buying and selling food is a complex business and he is only looking at it from an idealistic point of view and one solely dedicated to excellence.
The rest of us have to be more flexible.
End phone polls
PERHAPS ITV should run a phone poll to let people vote on whether there should be any more ITV phone polls.
If the result said we shouldn't have any more, that would be an end to them.
If the result went the other way and said that we should keep having them it would probably be fixed anyway.
Either way we get rid of them.
Sun worshippers
HERE we go again.
The sun comes out and three things happen.
First we go and sit out in it till we get burned pink.
Second we greedily ask whether it will last and if it's a heatwave or not. Thirdly we are told that it's probably to do with global warming.
How about we put on some sunscreen or take limited sun on our pallid and pasty skins.
We enjoy it while it''s here and know that heatwaves are extremely rare in this country and are not characterised by 73 degree temperatures (how the rest of the world must laugh at us).
Finally, it's not global warming it's just a couple of nice days in May. Get a grip.
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The full article contains 567 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.