JADE GOODY

by RAY FLEMING
SINCE Gordon Brown, David Cameron and the Archbishop of Canterbury have paid their tributes to Jade Goody, and the Murdoch papers have added their opinions - a full-page obituary and editorial coverage in The Times, a ten-page memorial supplement in The Sun - it hardly seems necessary for me to add my ten cents worth. However, I will do so because I find myself out of sympathy with most of the sentiments expressed yesterday. I accept that the encouragement she gave to other young women to have early cervical cancer checks should have a beneficial effect. I also respect her right to make as much money as possible before her death to put on one side for her two sons. But beyond those two considerations I can see little that is positive in Jade Goody's brief career - and I believe that the excessive way in which her impending death has been covered by much of the UK media and lapped up by the British public raises serious questions about the state of British society today. Essentially Jade Goody was a spirited, ignorant, loud-mouthed young person who made her reputation by her ill-manners and racist attitude to a young Indian woman. Raised to this shaky pedestal she was presented as a role-model for the young, encouraging them to think that anyone could achieve such fame with the minimum of talent and effort -an illusion, just as her presence in our lives will probably prove to be.