Don't get me wrong. I'm not heartless. It was extremely sad that a young mother only 27 years old died of cancer. But to read the papers you'd think she was cross of Mother Teresa, Princess Diana & erm, that's about it, both rolled into one.
So who exactly was she? A dozy cow who got lucky on a reality television programme. And got extremely rich as a result. I don't hold that against her, she happened to be in the right place at the right time. But to hold her up as some latter day saint is an absolute nonsense.
It's said she was extremely brave to go so public on her illness, and that she has saved so many lives by telling young women to go for smear tests. Which isn't really that brave at all if you think it through. Here is a young woman who was let down by her doctors, who failed to spot her cancer in time to give a fighting chance of beating it. By speaking out she is reacting naturally to the 'incompetence' of the quacks who I have no doubt she feels failed her.
And of course she was 'extremely brave' to have the cameras follow her every step closer to death, by having camera crews follow her 24/7. And what a caring woman she was. Doing it 'for the boys'. Well if that gave her a focus who am I to criticise? But I would have more sympathy if she wasn't grabbing the hundreds of thousands, maybe even a million or two, to 'look after them' in their future private school education which is as far a cry from her 'Bermondsey roots' than you ever thought possible. Caring to the end or money grabbing? I know which one I'd go for!
The hypocracy of the press is astounding, having pilloried her in life she's their heroine in death. As is the gullibility of so many people. Not just the lemmings who religiously buy the currant bun every day, & were lapping up the twelve page 'Jade Remembered' pull out in the News of the Screws this morning. Take Stephen Fry, widely acknowledged as one of the funniest & most intelligent persons on our televesions screens. Now either he's being too clever for his own good (translation:Whoosh! That's gone right over my own head) or he's had another breakdown and lost the plot. He came out with bit of verbal dihorria-"A Princess Di from the wrong side of the tracks. All impulsive spirit and smiles." Really?
The only thing she had in common with Diana was that they were both relatively thick. But at least Diana cared about others. Whether it be HIV patients,sick children in Great Ormond Street, or even ploitically campaigning against the use of land mines. Jade? She was happy to mak racist jibes about her fellow contestants on Celebrity Big Brother. The only thing she cared about was her own earning potential. Ignorance is not an excuse for racism. No matter how stupid you may be making 'jokes' by bullying Shilpa Shitty, or whatever her name was on CBB, WAS racism. Even little kids who watch CBeebies rather that 'Celebrity BeeBee' could have told her that.
As I've stated, I'm sorry she's died, but not her personally. Which reads, at first glance, like a nasty attack on her. But it's not. What I mean is it's tragic when ANY person dies that young from cancer. She's not brave. They are all brave. Famous or not famous. I'd actually go to say those ordinary folk who are dying from terminal illnesses are a lot braver as they have to stare death in the eye without the security of knowing they can use their fame to provide for their family.
When Diana died mass hysteria took over the country. Shamefully so. I'm proud to say I took no part of it. In fact I got called into the office at work as I worked in a library at the time, though I'm not there now. All my colleagues knew I had no time for the monarchy. Most of the staff got sucked in by her death caused not just by a drunk driver, but by the fact she thought she didn't have to wear a seat belt. No doubt not ideal if she wanted to give Dodi a blow job as they sped through Paris...
Some colleagues found a couple of books on her & got some flowers, setting up a little remembrance display by the entrance. And seemed surprised and moved when I found some more. And then for some reason took offence when I topically exapanded it. I grabbed some books on car maintenance, first aid, wills & other stuff! Some people are so ungrateful when you try to help!
My mum was a fervent royalist. We always ruined Christmas dinners past when we took the piss during the Queens speech, as she called for silence, & inevitably made the 'Fred Scuttle' Benny Hill type salute during the playing of the national anthem at the end of it! What I didn't realise, until a good few years after my mum had died, was that only a few hours after the crash in the Paris tunnel she was caught on the news cameras at six AM in the morning, one of the first people to lay flowers down at Kensington Palace! Which eventually became a huge carpet of flowers. I'm sure her death is fondly recalled by flower shops up and down the country! In these recession hit times at least the florists of Bermondsey would never have had it so good. Or did they?
I work in Bermondsey, near to the Blue Market. Well they call it a 'market' but it's actually half a dozen stalls if you're lucky. But that's by the by. Apparently Jade's granddad used to run a stall here. And some locals started sitcking bunches of flowers to a tree, once she'd snuffed it. How long before the black and white of the zebra crossing would resemble a multi coloured carpet of flowers as they stretched across the pavement & beyond?
Well despite her being "Bermondsey's Princess" (as appointed by Fleet Street hacks & assorted local nutters) they never quite engulfed the area:
That was it less than twenty four hours before Bermondsey would come to a supposed standstill for her funeral.
Though to be fair there was a note attached:
So being the inquisitive kind I was curious to see exactly how many had taken their tribute to be 'near Jade' (Good grief! Pass the sick bucket per-lease!) to Albins, by Southwark Park. Would part of the park itself act as an 'overspill' for the 'Diana for Dummies'. Hmm...a good working title for an unofficial Jade biography that, but I digress. After work, seeing as it was a nice sunny day coming to an end, I strolled through the park to 'pay my respects' & silently laugh at the crowds gathering & laying flowers. Imagine to my surprise that there were no queues, nor huge lawns of floral tributes. Yes, there were some, but hardly Diana-esque for such a real peoples' Peoples' Princess:
The next morning I was in Bermondsey for work. The funeral cortege was due to stop at the blue at a quarter to nine, & I started work at nine. I'd read that 'her own people' from Bermondsey were going to turn out in their thousands upon thousands. Yeah right! Certainly there were crowds, but only to be nosey. Hundreds there were, but mostly grannies, & their daughters, and their daughters...simply to say they were there, and to show off their snaps on their mobiles. A bit like me actually. Except I just happened to be on my way to work as the hearse had left the Blue & was turning down Southwark Park Road. Abd strangely enough, traffic was still flowing, buses going past, and the pavements weren't ten deep with rivers of tears flowing along the gutters, except when the paparazzi were snapping away as people desperately tried to get their muge etched with mock-grief in the papers.
I thought it rather apt that for a pseudo-celebrity she had a mock copper on a bike to control the traffic. Funny how a dozen protesters in copycat uniforms can be nicked on the anti G20 demo for impersonating the old bill while in an armoured car, but this bloke can do what he likes on his motorbike!
And I hope they never dropped any of those flowers. That'll be an £80 on the spot fine for littering! ;-)
But whom am I to 'mock' ordinary people for paying their respects? When they do a good job of that themselves?
'I came here today because Jade was a great mum.That she was a star is irrelevant, it doesn't come into it. She was a great mother to her kids who she adored.'
Pardon? you mean she was like the vast majority of mothers in Bermondsey, & other inner city areas? In which case how come you don't have a season ticket for every mother who has the same qualities but dies, up at the crematorium at Brenchley Gardens? Nothing to do with her being a star? Bollocks!
To sum up exactly how stupid people are who never met her in their life, how about this?
"I have followed her since she was on Big Brother and she became part of my life. She was a very special human being'. Said the crazy stalker who subscribed to all the obscure cable channels which Jade starred in/padded out.
Now that she's dead a buried, in the ground under the roots of a private wooded burial ground in Essex, far away from her roots in Bermondsey, the talk will be how she might be remembered locally. Already there's suggestions of the council estate where she grew up on, the Dickens Estate, named after some old fshioned writer chap, to be re-named after her! And even a statue erected in her memory! By all means I'd love to see a statue. Paid for by public subscription..then we'd see how much 'her people' loved her, if they had to dip into their own pockets! And where to put it up? The Blue Market Place maybe? Outside her old block of flats? Maybe not. Though i'd be more than happy to have a plaque put on her old block. Maybe have a part of it named after her. How does the 'Jade Goody Rubbish Chute' sound?
I can't believe a permanent memorial hasn't been suggested for her, on the vacant fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square? But why so far. Why not here?
The empty 'first plinth' outside Rotherhithe Library, where it couldn't be safer, as Bermonsey people always look after their own. Just like the previous 'Bermondsey Boy' Tommy Steele statue, which someone 'arf inched & melted down for scrap many years ago! Perfect!
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