That was Mr Pendle's immediate reaction when he heard the result of the bore otherwise known as the McCartney court case last week - and that was before he saw the former Mrs McCartney's rant outside the court and read of her throwing water over her ex-husband's lawyer, the toys presumably having already been tossed out of the pram when she was only awarded a fifth of what she asked for.

It really would do these people, who talk of millions of pounds in the same way most of us talk of the loose change in the bottom of our pockets, good to spend some time in the real world.

Having so much money they do not know what to do with it all is a different cry to running an ordinary household and trying to balance the household books.

So Mr Pendle will have little sympathy for Beatrice if she cannot afford a first-class ticket out of her £35,000 a year allowance.

But then again, if she is short of a few pounds, she can always ask her mother to lend her a fiver, can't she?


THE idea of asking a local farmer to grit Red Lane in inclement wintry weather sounds like a classic exercise in passing the buck by Lancashire County Council.

And the worrying thing in sub-contracting such work is that, should the weather turn particularly nasty, the farmer would simply not bother to do the job and leave any drivers stupid enough to use the road in such a condition to run the risk of having an accident.

Why should the farmer put his own livelihood at risk just to pick up a fee for keeping a "rat run" country road open?

Our local councillors are right to press the county for Red Lane to be treated when there is ice and snow.

It is not a rarely-used country road between Colne, Barrowford and parts of West Craven.

Indeed, as far as Barrowford and the east end of Colne are concerned it is the quickest way between the two towns.

Lancashire County Council has plenty of time before next winter to look at the gritting of roads such as Red Lane again, and if necessary authorise emergency bridge strengthening works to be carried out to get around the weight restriction which it says prevents it gritting the road now.

The only snag with that is that the council would probably be unable to agree with Railtrack whose responsibility it was to do the work – cue for yet more delays, pontification around the council chambers and the inevitable passing of the buck from one authority to another.