The maudlin, almost obscene, Jade Goody industry

Yesterday a young woman aged 27 died of cancer. This is sad in itself. As sad as the similar deaths of thousands of young men and women in this country who die prematurely without having had any kind of a life. Young people have died from disease, road accidents, even, sometimes, in battle. Most die grieved only by their nearest and dearest, their deaths unknown to the rest of us. The deaths make an obituary, at best, in the local newspaper, paid for by the family, to inform any one who cares.

This particular young woman was not particularly blessed with any great qualities which made her stand out as someone to admire or emulate. She came from a difficult family background, her father a career criminal, her boyfriend a man with criminal convictions. Her life, in fact, was similar to that of many throughout the United Kingdom and her contribution to the quality of British life hardly consequential.

She had the good fortune to be selected for the 'Big Brother' reality show for which she was primarily noted for a racist attack on an Indian actress, cavorting naked and being completely ignorant of the geography of England. But such are the perverse standards which we now apply to those considered worthy of admiration, that this young woman was elevated to celebrity status and subsequently became a multi millionaire through product endorsements and good marketing.



Then her short lived but successful rise to the top of the Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame tree hit a tragic finale. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Tragic for Jade Goody, for of course it is she, but a heaven sent opportunity for the maudlin, mock sentimental, money-grubbing gossip and celebrity industry which has grown up around her. Every moment of her declining days and weeks has been lovingly captured by the newspapers and gossip magazines and the cash registers rattled merrily as each aspect of her chemotherapy, her death bed marriage and now, her death will have been lapped up by an avaricious public which seems to have lost all sense of perspective.

And now - I know I shouldn't be irritated but I am - it was announced that the Prime Minister is leading the tributes. Why, for goodness sake? This is the woman who embarrassed him on a visit to India by her ill timed racist abuse of an Indian actress? As I said at the beginning, any death of a young person is to be regretted and this one is no exception but what on earth has she done to be the focus of Prime Ministerial tribute? She has not been an ambassador for Britain in any field at all - arts, entertainment etc - which would be worthy of the Prime Minister's notice. It's not really the PM's fault. Politicians have always made sure they acknowledge popular culture in order to show they are not too removed from the peasantry, though few can be fortunate enough to get Tony Blair's 'Princess Di' moment. 100 years ago it might have been a music hall artist, 50 years ago a rock star. It is the goal posts which have moved. Miss Goody was simply a 'celebrity' - famous for being famous - spawned by this amazing growth in reality television which is creating a whole new sphere of heroes and heroines.

There is no doubt that Channel 4 came up with a brilliant concept which has captured the nation - to take the so-called average Briton off the street, show him and her in natural habitat - drinking, swearing,screwing, throwing up - and make us all relate to them. It has worked wonders, no doubt, though I detest the whole format. But it seems to have produced a very strange concept of who is worthy of elevation in the public eye and also a prosperous industry of parasites in the form of agents and media attention which feeds on the publicity.

In this case the hyenas are literally feeding on the corpse - and it's a development I find very, very hard to stomach.