The Prince of Wales hit out at McDonald's yesterday, suggesting that banning the US chain was the "key" to children eating more healthily.

His controversial comment provoked an immediate reaction from the fast-food company, which called the words "disappointing" and accused Prince Charles of being out of touch with its menu changes.

It has also been pointed out that the Prince's "Duchy Originals" Cornish Pasty is far more unhealthy than a "Big Mac".

Here is the comparison:

P.S. Prince Harry certainly does not share his father's distaste for McDonald's and often eats their burgers.

He even took advantage of a "buy one get one free" offer - then wolfed two chicken burgers outside a McDonald's in Plymstock, Devon.

Yes - at 9p a can.

But do they taste the same as more expensive brands? You will have to decide for yourself.

In the meantime there have been heated discussions about the ethics of supermarket trading.

They have jumped on the demand for organic products and are providing them - at a price!

But is it all bad?

Prices of organic food are loaded, but it does enable the supermarkets to provide "value" products for those on a low income, such as students and the elderly.

Before we rail against the dubious ethics of this strategy, though, we should recognise that truly ethical shopping is not about Brazilian coffee or free-range chickens, but the way supermarkets have halved the price of food.

Today's average household spends one eighth of its budget on food, where 20 years ago it was a quarter.

This might not revolutionise life for the middle classes, but it does make a huge difference for the sink-estate mum with a brood of six, or the impecunious student, or the elderly.

They view the supermarket as a lifesaver because it carries a tin of baked beans at 9p and a loaf of white bread at 45p. Eating 100 per cent natural produce or doing its bit for our farmers is not a priority for a low-income household - food on the table is.

The middle classes subsidise the supermarkets' profits, and low-income households benefit from their expansion. It's a win-win situation - at least if you run a supermarket chain or live in a low-income household.

The rest of us will have to make do.

(From an American article about how to protect your children on the Internet)

My favourite newspaper (you all know what it is by now) has been running a series of articles on the correct use of English grammar.

This has resulted in numerous comments in the correspondence columns and I shall be blogging some of them over the next few days.

I am beginning with the proper use of "I" and "Me".

Our Queen never gets it wrong, but I am afraid many people do and the chief offenders seem to be TV and radio presenters.

The OED offers this explanation:

The mayor has invited my husband and me.
The mayor has invited my husband and I. [Wrong]

I have noticed that the incorrect use of "I" is particularly prevelant in the United States; so much so that it is probably now accepted usage.

I was amused by this comment about correct grammar on an American blog:

"This was recently the topic of some spirited debate between a co-worker and I in my office."

We pedants can't win!

Parents have called for the return of the cane to restore order in the classroom.

The following article is by Andrew Gimson, the parliamentary sketch writer for The Daily Telegraph:

IS IT A SHAME WE LOST THE CANE?

"Bring back the cane." So said parents when Mori conducted some research for the Department of Education into its school reforms.

This was not the response the Government was looking for. It appears to have hoped that it would instead receive parents’ backing for trust schools.

But parents have better things to do than follow every twist and turn of the Government’s finicky and half-baked educational reforms.

As a traditionalist, one cannot help being heartened by the refusal of the British public to adopt the pallid liberal agenda of the dreaded educational establishment.

Caning has been out of the news for years. Any Tory who had the temerity to call for its return at the party conference would inflict a nervous breakdown on the present leadership. Like old ladies in hats, the hangers and floggers have vanished from the political stage.

And yet it is quite odd that we have decided we can do without such a long-established form of punishment.

The cane has great advantages as a way of dealing with unruly children. It is quick and cheap, and many a child, offered a choice between being beaten and some longer and more tedious punishment, has opted for six of the best.

I was beaten at school. I won’t say it did me no harm, for it seems to me that men who say that often look a bit damaged. But I do remember that while it was astonishingly painful, it was over very quickly and one could try to adopt a semi-heroic pose afterwards.

To my astonishment, when I asked my 11-year-old daughter Eliza whether she was in favour of the cane, she said that she was. For according to her, “Kids aren’t really going to care if the teacher just says something. But they’re going to care if they get hurt.”

But when I put the same question to my son Clive, who is seven, he said: “No, because it’s cruel.” Katy, who is five, is also against the cane, because she doesn’t want children to get hurt.

My wife says to bring back the cane would be outrageous and even to think of doing so is a reflection of British society’s brutal attitude to children.

My own feeling is that we shall only reap the full benefits of the cane if it is combined with a regime of cold baths.

I don't mean a house, or an apartment, but a "cul-de-sac" - or "bottom of a sack", which is the literal French translation.

Beware! "cul' by itself is a rude word.

You should also note that the plural is "culs-de-sac" and not "cul-de-sacs".

Culs-de-sac have many advantages, most importantly there is no through traffic. We value the peace and quiet.

However, Prince Charles does not approve!

"We need to put the pedestrians at the centre again," he said in a recent speech, bemoaning the fact that residents of culs-de-sac use their cars more than people living in 'normal' roads.

He even persuaded some of Britain's biggest housebuilders, including Barratt, George Wimpey and Bovis Homes to stop building closes.

So no more Brooksides.

It is alright for the Prince, Highgrove is a sort of one-house cul-de-sac, with plenty of privacy and no noisy passing traffic.

UK banks continuue to make record profits. On Tuesday Barclays announced an increase of 35% to £4.6bn

Over the next few days others are expected to reveal similar increases.

But are they passing any of this on to customers?

No - they are putting charges UP!

Tomorrow Lloyds TSB will report its biggest profit ever - estimated at around £3.7billion.

However, they have also announced that they will be introducing an annual charge of £35 for customers who "under-use" their credit cards and clear the balance in full each month. They are not making enough profit for the company.

Lloyds said yesterday: "We want to encourage them to use their cards."

However, she confirmed that even if these customers DO start using their cards a great deal they will still be charged the fee!

What a cheek!

Other banks are expected to follow.

Perhaps we should all go back to using cash?

When your new Identity card is issued it will, without your knowledge or prior consent, be immediately checked against the fingerprints found at the scene of some 900,000 unsolved crimes.

This was confirmed by Mr Blair in answer to a question on Monday.

Mr Blair's statement appears to contradict an assurance given by Tony McNulty, a Home Office Minister, when the legislation was going through the Commons in 2005. Mr McNulty said there were safeguards against state agencies "for want of a better phrase, going fishing in the database".

The Government is already building up a national DNA register by authorising the police to take saliva swabs from anyone who is arrested – even if they are not charged – as well as those convicted of serious criminal offences.

The Queen Mary 2 sailed into Sydney today - but was so big she could not squeeze under the famous Harbour Bridge.

Thousands of Australians crowded the sides of Sydney Harbour to watch the 23-storey high and 148,000-ton liner narrowly squeeze into a naval dockyard as she arrived in the Australian city.

The centre of Sydney was brought to a halt by the sheer volume of people coming to watch. Her arrival coincided with the appearance of her sister ship, the Queen Elizabeth II, the first time the two ships have been in the harbour together.

To mark the occasion, they sounded their horns together - a noise heard for miles across the city.

The QM2 will leave the city for Hong Kong later today following a spectacular fireworks display and canons firing from historic Fort Denison in the harbour.

You can see a video of the arrival of the QM2 at:

http://www.kamera.com/content/anm/Australia_Ship.asx

As unlikely as it sounds, the people of Yaohnanen and surrounding villages on Tanna island worship the 85-year-old Duke of Edinburgh as a god.

A signed portrait of Prince Philip is an incongruous sight in a South Pacific jungle, but for the people of this remote village, in the island state of Vanuatu, the picture is an integral part of their lives.

They worship him as a god and believe him to be the son of an ancient spirit who inhabits a nearby mountain, on the island of Tanna.

On June 10 they will be celebrating their god's birtday and would like him to go along to join in the celebrations.

One elderly tribesman commented:

"You must tell King Philip that I'm getting old and I want him to come and visit me before I die," said the white-haired chief, who thinks he is about 80. "If he can't come perhaps he could send us something: a Land Rover, bags of rice or a little money."

Two-thirds of Frosties are eaten by men aged 18+ - not by children.

Do you remember those distorting mirrors at funfairs and amusement arcades?

They made you look something like this

Now Robert Kilroy-Silk (the TV personality and European MP) has accused Marks and Spencer of installing special mirrors in their fitting rooms to make women (and men) trying on clothes look slimmer.

He wrote to Stuart Rose, the chief executive of Marks and Spencer, calling for the mirrors to be withdrawn under EU consumer protection rules.

He even raised the issue in a written question in the European Parliament, after his wife Jan and daughter Natasha told him that mirrors in their local M&S stores in Windsor and Maidenhead were deliberately tilted or angled to make them look slimmer.

In his question, Mr Kilroy-Silk asked if, among the millions of EU regulations "covering virtually every aspect of life in the EU", there was not one that made it illegal for M&S to have mirrors that distorted women's body shapes.

Do we need MPs like him?

Mr Rose wrote to KS saying: "As an intelligent man I would expect you to respect our previous rebuttal of this allegation and find something more rewarding to do."

Well said!

Yesterday I was given a late Christmas present - "The Book Of Lists".

However, it was not always so - as this entry in the list reveals.

PLEASE DO NOT READ IT IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED.

JEAN BAPTISTA DOS SANTOS (1843-?)

Born in Cuba, Jean (or Juan) was a good-looking, well-proportioned boy who happened to have two fully-functioning penises and an extra pair of legs behind and between his own, united along their length.

His mental and physical capacities were considered above normal and so, according to one report, was his 'animal passion' and sexual functioning.

He was exhibited in Havana in 1865 and later in Paris, where he is alleged to have had an affair with the three-legged courtesan, Blanche Dumas, who had two vaginas.

A week ago we in the south of the UK had a 'dusting' of snow which completely paralysed road, rail and air transport.

Many schools were closed.

In the US, New York State has been suffering blizzard conditions over the past few days.

However, life goes on - almost as normal.

The picture below was captioned:

"Driving conditions are less than ideal in some of the worst-hit areas."

Are we a load of Wimps, or not?

Eighteen Chinese baby pandas have been officially named amid much pomp and ceremony, at the China Wolong Giant Panda Research Centre in Sichuan, south-west China

Here is one enjoying himself in the "nursery".

Tony - Incredible Melting Man

Archaeologists in Italy have unearthed two skeletons thought to be 5,000 to 6,000 years old, locked in an embrace.

The pair from the Neolithic period were discovered outside Mantua, about 40km (25 miles) south of Verona.

The pair, almost certainly a man and a woman, are thought to have died young as their teeth were mostly intact, said chief archaeologist Elena Menotti.

The burial site was discovered on Monday during construction work for a factory building.

"It's an extraordinary case," said Ms Menotti. "There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging - and they really are hugging," she told Reuters news agency.

We have about 1" and everthing seems to have stopped.

Schools closed, trains cancelled, airports closed.

This is Enngland!

Never mind - rain is forecast within the next few hours.

"Romeo and Juliet met online in a chat room.
But their relationship ended tragically when Romeo's hard drive died."

Here are some more:

The older you get, the better you realize you were.

More over the next few days!

"Responsible" drinking is the answer.

But try telling that to the young!