I gather that 80’s pop star and soprano Sarah Brightman has reputedly decided to spend £34 million of her fortune on a trip into space. I’m not especially a fan of Sarah Brightman but each to their own and good luck to her.

Now, I probably wouldn’t choose to do that. Since you ask, if I had that amount of money just knocking about, I’d put loads aside for my children’s education; buy a holiday home in Provence, a pink tweed Chanel suit and several shoes. I’d probably increase my charity contributions too.

There does, however, seem to be a body of opinion that says that anyone who has earned lots of money, through their own effort and talents, should always give it all away to people less fortunate than themselves. There are children starving in the world, you see, and people should not be spending their cash on frivolous projects like trips to space, is how their reasoning goes.

It seems to me that, as long as you pay your tax, and higher rate tax payers in this county pay almost half of their income in tax, then you should be free to spend your money as you like. Whether it be space travel, Chanel jackets, essential vaccinations for children in developing countries, Mulberry handbags or opera tickets. I do wonder why some self-appointed arbiters of “fairness” think they can dictate to other people how they should live or how they should spend their money.

As long as people pay their tax, and I understand that lots of people and companies don’t – they should -, and they’re not harming anyone else, what is people’s beef with this? And how do they know that people aren’t already contributing quietly to charity?

It irks me how people are so keen on telling other people what they should do, that’s all. I loathe being told how I should live my life by people who have no idea about how I live. I do not like being SHOULDED. I wouldn’t do it to anyone else: what makes other people feel so entitled?

Now, that’s a bit controversial but I needed to get it off my chest. To calm me down, here’s a picture I took at dawn this morning, when I was getting ready to go to the gym. I’m still doing these on Autofocus but I’d like to learn how to do a long exposure photo:

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