Down Down Under? Stuff and nonsense

RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL December 10, 2012

Anyone following the screaming headlines about the “fragile” and teary Australian radio hosts who made the prank call to the private London hospital treating Kate Middleton is entitled to be appalled by the apparently global retreat from common sense. This story, which is running strongly and high on news bulletins around the world, is  an excellent example of how a prank escalates into a ‘scandal’, then snowballs into a howling controversy and finally stays on the airwaves in the absence of any real news.

What was the real link between the death of the nurse Jacintha Saldanha and the prank call?

Here are two questions it might be more worthwhile to ask –

1. why was someone so emotionally and mentally fragile as the dead nurse allowed near the British royal family (if, in fact, she was so unstable as to come unstuck simply because she answered a phone call) 2. why is the british royal family plumping for a private hospital rather than good old ‘Best of British’ NHS?