I have always sympathised with the families of servicemen killed between wars. In contrast to the heroes' funeral war dead receive, servicemen and women who die in accidents or in isolated skirmishes go to their graves almost unheralded. They die in the service of their country but no one seems to care too much. Sixteen thousand British servicemen and women have been killed since the end of the Second World War, in Ireland, Bosnia and around the globe. Now, at last, they are to receive a fitting memorial. It will commemorate all the armed services personnel killed in training, peacekeeping and terrorist attacks in the last 60 years. I can't think of a much worthier cause, but the quango which hands out lottery money thinks differently. They've refused to contribute to the cost of the memorial on the grounds that it "doesn't fit in to any current lottery programme." I play the lottery each week. Two tickets, two chances of a fortune, but also a chance to give a little to good causes. Without that added element I'd consider it money down the drain. I like the idea that my flutter is helping a bit. Unfortunately, my idea of a good cause and the ideas of those who dish out the money seem to be different. They won't help the memorial but they've given £603m to that monument to folly, the Millennium Dome. They've managed to find £420,000 for Peruvian guinea pig farmers. They've doled out £220,000 to a luxury pig farm with under-floor heating and snout-operated curtains. A Jamaican born poet has been given £50,000 to tour her homeland in search of inspiration, and a clown has received £40,000 to investigate what clowns offer society. I'm not violently opposed to any of these projects. I just want to know why they're more important than a tribute to those who died in the service of their country. And don't go blaming Camelot, the lottery company. My guess is that executives there are lying biting the carpet at this latest lunacy. *********** Players need boundaries Football's problem in disciplining its bad boys is very similar to the problem parents face in disciplining children. Well-loved children KNOW that, no matter what they do, nothing too bad will happen because they are indispensable to their parents' happiness. Similarly top footballers know they are indispensable to their club's success therefore what can happen to them? A fine? Peanuts! The sack? Unlikely, but if it happens someone else will snap them up. If the ultimate sanction of dismissal is removed what else have they to fear? Newcastle is not the only club with a problem. Most top players are prima donnas. But just as the loving parent must eventually make up his or her mind that the kids cannot always win, so football management must decide the boundaries. If they don't, the game will degenerate into anarchy. *********** Women paying for extra children Wealthy Chinese women are taking black market drugs to encourage multiple pregnancies. They do this in an attempt to subvert the Government rule that allows them only one pregnancy. If that pregnancy brings forth two or more children, what can the government do? It's a desperate but understandable ploy which doesn't come cheap - 700 yuan (£46), the equivalent of a factory worker's monthly pay. One doctor estimates that twin births have doubled in two years. In Britain rumour has it that busy career women are employing the same ruse to get all their pregnancies over in one go. Two or three children and only one absence from the career ladder. If this is true - and I have my doubts - they're missing such a lot. Some things are too good to rush, and parenthood is one of them. *********** The vital debate The world's population currently stands at six billion, estimated to grow to as much as 11 billion by 2050. As fertility rates are higher in the developing world most of the rise will occur in India and China. In the UK most experts predict a standstill and the median age will have risen from 38 in 2000 to 44 in 2050. It is also forecast that the level of 15 to 24-year-olds will be as low as 11pc then. Not good because it leaves a small younger population to support a larger elderly population. We will have to accept working longer, retraining and remaining economically active almost to the end of our lives because we won't have a large upcoming generation to depend on. It also makes a case for immigration, attracting the young of other continents to supplement our own shortages. If this is going to go smoothly and we live in harmony we are going to have to change some of our attitudes. We need controlled immigration, but some people think "controlled" is a dirty word. The sooner we start debating this the better. *********** A caring society? A beautifully preserved but toothless skull belonging to a human who lived two million years ago has convinced scientists that cavemen looked after their elderly. The teeth had been missing for a long while before death and in that primitive environment an elderly person could not have survived if younger members of the community had not foraged for them and fed them food they could manage to chew and digest. So now we know that cavemen and women had hearts. Last week we learned of the elderly man who died and lay undiscovered for six years because neither family or neighbours bothered to find out what had happened to him. And we think we have progressed! *********** Justice for Rover workers The stench rising from the downfall of Rover is almost stupefying. The sums being bandied about beggar description. King's ransoms have disappeared, the workers' pension fund has come off badly but the sound of noses in the trough is deafening. If justice isn't done here - if all those responsible for this debacle aren't called to account - it will be a disgrace. Many people have given their working lives to Rover. If they come out with little or nothing while fat cats are set up for life it will be a national disgrace. *********** Farewell to Rainier the moderniser Last week's ceremonials obscured the sorry tale being played out in Monaco. A prince who turned his country from a tacky little principality into a place which counted died and almost no one noticed. Rainier threw Monaco open to modern development. He encouraged light industry - Monaco is so tiny you can almost walk it in a day - increased the turnover at the Casino and built up the Monaco Grand Prix to a world event. He cultivated the rich but he introduced enlightened social measures for the poor. Along the way he married arguably the most desirable woman in the world, Grace Kelly, and sired three children, two of whom have displayed a wayward streak a yard wide. Fortunately the heir, Prince Albert, is the dullest and apparently steadiest of the lot. Most of us will remember Rainier for his marriage and for the trials and tribulations of his fatherhood, but we should not forget that all his life he put the welfare of his country before himself. Would that all princes did the same. *********** Ballot not about bribes An election is a serious business. Our future depends on its results. So why does the present jostling for place and lies-fest make me want to roar with laughter? Are we really so gullible that we'll be scared or bribed into voting? Won't most of us weigh up what life is like now - good or bad - and vote accordingly? That's if we ever lay hands on our own ballot paper! | 
