Limited time, but must fly?

I'm disappointed by the fact that Odeon cinemas Chatham Dockside did not show Clive Owen's new flick The International for longer this week (wot, no discount Tuesdays or Orange Wednesdays for a major thriller?). It would have been pleasant to see some bankers get shafted or though they are only fictional. No chance of Owen taking down (alive) Sir Fred Hoodwink shouting "this is for ruining RBS and spurring the global crisis, while padding your own pockets." As regards my appreciation of Hustle, I think a real team should conspire to trick him out of millions of pounds with an even juicer lure - that would be satisfaction. I can hear the music of the Daniel Craig-Casino Royale-inspired credits now. But in real life I can settle for him being blackballed by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews - one of if not the most prestigious golfing venue in the world.

Prince Charles and his wife may have a busy scehdule producing quack potions and so forth, but did they really have to fly to Chile to observe (and taste) organic wine production. The whole point of organic wine is to be more environmentally friendly, so how is that achieved by flying for half a hemisphere? It reminds me of an advert for wine bags that copiously boasted of its environmental credentials over the bottled stuff and then offered a prize draw which was a paid trip to fly to South Africa for a lucky couple, thus nullifying the carbon savings it had achieved through its manufacturing process. The executive who thought that up needs to whacked around the head with a full wine bag. And we all know how The Independent goes in for such extravagant hand-wringing over climate change, yet last year when reading several articles online (usually about green issues as per my interest), a banner advert running along the side of the web page talked up the sparkling ooportunities of flying to New York for the weekend, which was slightly incongruous to the slant of the article.