A certain smugness

Why do so many otherwise kindly people hate Children in Need (BBC1, last weekend)? We truly believe in helping needy children. We are genuinely pleased to discover that this year it raised £20.3 million, which is almost as much as last year, in spite of the recession, and which amounts to nearly 34 pence for every man, woman and child in the country. Actually, I chucked £2 into a collecting bucket on the Tube on Friday last, which makes me six times as generous as the average British person!

We also like Terry Wogan. I think he is a national treasure, being one of the few disc jockeys who gives the impression of having read a book — or even several. I like the way he was sucking a sweetie when he introduced a young American woman called Taylor Swift, who apparently is the biggest-selling singer in the world. American celebrities go through life surrounded by adoring sycophants, so it probably did her good to be introduced by a man sucking a sweetie.