5 Feet of Fury

Julie Burchill: Leave Simon Cowell alone!

She writes:

Cowell’s talent shows are now almost the only way a working-class kid with a good voice and no contacts can get a leg-up in the music business.

This being the case, there is something singularly slimy about reading certain of my journalistic colleagues (especially those who probably wouldn’t have their plush platforms if Mummy hadn’t been a hackette or Daddy hadn’t been a publisher) berating these kids for chasing the cheap route to fame or fortune, when they should be aspiring to “proper” jobs such as being nurses, doctors and teachers.