to think the World has gone completely mad........

For reasons very close to me and my family I support The Smile Train which provides Cleft Lip and Palate surgery to children in Third World Countries. One of those boxes would provide surgery for 4 children but I suppose everyone has a right to spend their money as they wish.

Unfortunately the majority of people do not hold the majority of cash though shelby and those with the most sadly give the least.

Don't we all like a little luxury once in a while? Does it make us feel guilty? - probably not.....
However, this sort of extravagance is appalling. It often appears that these ghastly people have no concern for their fellow human beings.
How can they watch the reports of the tragic events in the world, and not have a conscience? Just the cost of one box of these chocolates would go a long way to provide clean water or medical care in poor parts of the world. Can't help hoping the choc's will make feel sick!
It's fortunate that the majority of the human race still cares about their neighbours.

It probably is an affordable rent for those for whom the apartments are intended Durhamjen . Those who have plenty coming in every month but can't do without anything in order to save for a deposit.

Well presumably once ether get their new runway they will just fly them in from wherever they need to GillT57

There was an article in last Friday's Guardian saying that Boris Johnson was being slated for suggesting that £2800 per month was an affordable rent.
He is expected to grant consent for the construction of 98 apartments on the site of the Royal Mail's Mount Pleasant sorting office site.
£2800 is a four bedroomed flat. They are supposed to start at £1170 for a one bedroomed flat.
The whole site is going to have 681 units, so heaven knows what the unaffordable rents are.

Harrods is the showcase for how ghastly London has become since the vulgar Russian money moved in. I wonder what the London Boroughs are going to do when they can't recruit any teachers, or nurses or policemen anymore?

Ha! Wasn't sure which way the discussion was going to go although I didn't think it would lead to the pros and cons of shopping in Harrods .
I still have the article beside the laptop, and still can't quite believe my eyes. I suppose it's all relative to how much you have in the first place and how educated and aware you are on the general state of the world and those around you. Probably many of those with an infinite amount wealth don't even consider the rest. I know a few people who spend a fortune on handbags, houses, jewellery, general stuff, sometimes just for the sake of it.
As Absent says, the 'nouveau riche' tend to flaunt their wealth and spend ridiculous amounts with gay abandon, while those who have had it for years tend to safeguard it and spend more wisely - even if to the rest of us it is a huge amount. I suppose wealth and its use has always been disproportionate and always will be.

Did you actually expect these comments, Marmight?

I went to Harrods a few years ago and like Soutra I was appalled at how down market and vulgar it had become. Back in the 70's it was much more classy and yet sold all sorts of every day stuff at normal prices as well. I remember buying a white rat in the pet department.

My in-laws loved Harrods! They were in no way rich (council house tenants, an electrician and sales assistant) but believed in buying the most expensive you can afford and it will save you money! They bought my DD1 a wooden treble recorder , when she was seven and learning to play in school, from the Harrods music department. She still sounded awful!

My DH had a student 'holiday job' in Harrods when it was still considered a 'classy' shop in the early 70s. He was on the electrical department. A TV was stolen by two guys in brown overalls..just walked out of the shop with it. I used to go and meet him from work at Saturday lunchtime after a wander round the pet department.

Last year a friend of ours was one of the 6 Santa's! It is worth a visit at Christmas!

No, the 'shrine to Diana' is long gone. Last time I went there was an opera singer half way up the stairs.

People are never going to have the same viewpoint about value, but it isn't as simple as a straight opposition between haves and have nots. In fact, I rather suspect, but without any real evidence, that it's those who have recently acquired substantial sums of money who are the most likely to splash out on so-called designer labels and stupidly priced chocolate.

I do remember some years ago being told by a new acquaintance that she couldn't make up her mind between the carpet she really wanted for the family room that would cost 30,000 pounds or the "cheap" one at 11,000 pounds because the dogs would pee on it. There was no meeting of minds there.

absent the price of the handbags that some of my former colleagues would come back with after a casual shopping trip during their lunch hour, would feed everyone in many an African village for a month or longer. My colleagues could never really understand why I couldn't get excited about their latest purchase.

I bought hand towels in Harrods almost forty years ago - Jan1976 - and they are still going strong! - one side is velvety soft and the other quite a nice roughness.

The last (and, I think, only) time I was in Harrods, was nearly 50 years ago. I was 24 and buying a silver wedding gift for my parents!

I bought a blue box with a teddy bear dressed as a policeman on, but I can't for the life of me remember what was in it. It was a Xmas present for someone. In the food department I think.

I went a few years ago jus to see what it was like and I never got past the tourist basement, I saw a bar of chocolate for £10 and was horrified, however' I managed a cute teddy with 'harrods' on his jersey for DD which is now in bed with DGD so it was worth the money but this is not a store I would go in again.

I`ve never been inside Harrods, walked past once, in April 1972, but that`s the nearest I ever got.

The total amount spent on cat food in the USA would cover the cost of providing clean water for everyone in the world. The world has always been "mad" in this respect but I would be inclined to use a different adjective.

Al Fayed sold his business interest in Harrods in 2010. I'd imagine the new owners got rid of that pretty sharpish - although I could be wrong of course!

I haven't been to Harrods for a while. Have they still got the horrid plasticky looking 'shrine' to Diana and Dodi on one of the staircases?

Actually, anno, my husband and I only ever went to Lidl's for the chocolate and the chocolate biscuits.
I have a friend who goes to London quite often. Her son takes her to Harrods, and she often brings me back a pen or a notebook. I do not know why.

Conspicuous consumerism at this level is simply nauseating. And Harrods is a tacky, flashy nauseating store too. I used to take Mum there for lunch when she was visiting in the early 70's and it was very posh but elegant and glam. I went back a few years ago and found it quite appalling - if everything hadn't been so extortionately expensive I would have said cheap and tacky - but as it was - just tacky. God knows why it is heaving with tourists.

I bet they're no better than Lidl's though of course they may be adorned with edible gold leaf!