Greedy Penny Market Grab

How happy are those guys who got games for a penny? So thrilled with their bargains they went on Twitter to say Amazon was "broken." Pricing errors  left small companies picking up the costs, which runs to thousands.

How do these people sleep at night? What made them think this was the right thing to do? Just because the system has a glitch allowing you to rip off someone else, doesn't mean you should.

Everybody who bought their 1p items on Friday evening knew that it was a mistake. If a cash point goes wrong and people take free money, they are thieves. I see this in exactly the same way.

They should send the stuff back and then, if they still want it, buy it at the right price. One woman bought an incense burner she had no use for, just because it cost her 1p. 

Many more bought games that should have cost them at least £18. They know what these things are worth and they know it is only possible to produce them if there is a profit there. Just play by the rules, that's all, if you don't want your games supplier to go out of business.

Torture or Death on a Train?

Torture - for or against? Waterboarding or 28 dead on a tube train. Which is it to be?  People held for 11 years without trial, interrogated by the Americans and the Israelis - both no slouches at the job - and nothing gained except worldwide revulsion.

An SAS expert says the only useful information will be garnered in the first 48 hours. After that all plans will be changed, locations re-arranged, so your man in the cells is no longer in the loop.

Yet he may still have massive influence and be a huge danger to innocents.What to do? How about admitting that some people need to be made to talk if lives are to be saved? Some techniques can be seen to work.

But there is a time limit. Hardened souls may not break. You can't let them go. You can't bring them to court if that means revealing information that only a spy still in the camp could have given you. You can't risk them either.

But you can stop the horror. You can keep this person away from the world. He, and increasingly she, will no longer be useful to the bad guys. It's a terrible choice, but to carry on torturing regardless of benefit shames us all.

Jihadis Find New Use For Teenage Girls

No fan of the burkha me, but even less so now that they are using teenage girls wearing their own shrouds to blow up ordinary people. Old men, little kids, other women, anyone who could make a difference, all are victims when a female fundamentalist gets God into her head.

Nobody is spared. Now 52 women are waiting in the wings, bombs strapped to their bodies, for the order to go out and cause carnage in Nigeria.

They are the hand-maidens of Boko Haram, that terrorising bunch of scumbags who kidnap girls for going to school. They marry them off to their mates, because no one would have them otherwise.

Why waste a wild-eyed jihadi when you can get a girl to do your dirty work? Women are worth less than nothing after all. Just send them out into the crowded streets and there will be fewer mouths to feed. It's beyond tragic.

Time To Shut Up About The Scots?

Not getting the Scots. They seem to want to have their haggis and eat it. There was a vote, they took the right decision by a large, ten per cent majority. All hunky dory. Promised more powers to decide Scots business,  they can now raise income tax and pay their own bills.

Sounds good to me. If it also means that Scottish MPs have no say on matters that are strictly English, that's as it should be too, particularly since down here we have no say over stuff North of the border.

But all this doing the right thing is upsetting the Scottish MPs. They like to shout and bang on about Scottish rights, but when they get some they're not happy, maybe because they think they might soon be out of a job. It's all a bit bonkers to me. Shall we just shut up about the whole lot of them for a bit?

Calpol Cruelty Family Not Alone

Nipping out to the chemist to get Calpol almost cost a Dad his kids. His two-year-old was in the car outside the chemist when the police pounced. She was probably the one with the ear-ache, but no matter, she was put on the child protection register and the family went through a year of hell.

Sounds unlikely doesn't it? I left a baby in the car outside a nursery while I dropped off my three year old and came back seconds later to be confronted by two constables.

I told them I could see the car from the nursery. The baby was asleep. They still said they would call in the social workers if I dared to defend myself further. Cue grovelling on a grand scale.

I've seen kids left in cars outside shops. I would certainly call the police if they were left for too long, or if the day was hot and the windows shut. It happens, as I discovered in July.

But those cases are rare. Meanwhile a toddler is abused and dies in this country every week. We just don't hear about them. Time to get our priorities right and our police  and social workers getting tough on the real abusers.

Put A Bond In Their Stocking

Christmas has got weird, really weird and that's official. Want the proof? Parents should get their kids investments, not pressies, say the money gurus

Something in gilts not glits that will mature in time for a university education or a deposit on a house. Well that will go down well. Top marks for whoever thought of that, Jessie Hewitson in the Times.

They've calculated that between buying a gift and giving it the value drops by  20% - add on the inevitable breakage by Boxing Day and it's money down the drain. Put it in shares instead, that's the way to keep it safe. Or Premium Bonds. Maybe an ISA will float little Izzy's boat.

Hand over the envelope on Christmas morning with a bright smile and trill," Look what I got you !" No tat, no plastic, no remote controls or stuff without batteries, just a safety net for the future.

Well thanks mum, I can hear them say. Great. No. Christmas is for fun. get them the ISAs, bonds, everything else if you can afford it, but not at Christmas, because that's all about joy, family fun and giving rubbish just for the sake of it. Forget that and you might as well give up on Cristmas altogether. 

Worst Doctor Ever

Ever met a doctor who knows it all? No, me neither but yesterday I met the one convinced she does.

I expect to see her up before the General Medical Council any day soon. It won't be my son she's hurt, but someone else at the sharp end. My lad refused her care yesterday, even though he was two days out of a major op and she was the only doctor on duty. That bad.

He'd been told to expect  a tough time and needed more morphine. She decided to tap hard on his wound to see if he really had pain. Percussive techniques have their place, but on new stitches holding a drain? Does that sound sensible to you? Anyway, he definitely had pain.

So did the guy in the next bed, the one with new staples she wanted to remove to see if he had pus. He said no. The guy  opposite wasn't so fortunate. She messed with his wound, determined to get rid of apparent infection until he made it very clear he wantetd no part of it.

We have nothing but the highest regard for everyone else in that hospital which is a centre of excellence. This woman, who calls herself "Bubby" is a menance and it really is only a matter of time. The whistle has been blown.