Players and Plonkers of the week

I've found it hard to nominate a Player of the Week today. Nominees for the Plonker award have been coming through thick and fast, but it's been very difficult to find anyone whose conduct has really stood out as laudable.

So without wanting to piggyback on the success of Ellie's recent blog, I'm awarding Player of the Week to Keisha Castle-Hughes, for standing up to the Prime Minister of New Zealand after he bagged her at an overseas conference.

I'm going to leave the climate change issue out of this, if I may. The point is, Keisha Castle-Hughes is a talented actress with an international profile. She's also a young mother - not a solo mother, by the way, so those who try to dismiss her as some kind of statistic can stop right there. She has joined a number of other celebrities to lobby for change, for the benefit of the environment. (Surely even if you believe that climate change is a myth or a conspiracy, you can acknowledge that we could all do better by our environment anyway?)

Because of this, John Key decided to poke fun at her during a recent speech in Australia, telling her to "stick to acting". He didn't have anything to say about the rest of the campaigners, so it's understandable that she felt targeted. I imagine it would be pretty disconcerting to find out the Prime Minister, of all people, had been making fun of you behind your back.  And so she called him on it, pointing out that he had contradicted his government's previous stance that the public's submissions on climate change were welcomed.

I think it's praiseworthy that Ms Castle-Hughes decided to use her public image to lobby for a cause she believed in, instead of spending her time trying to get into the social pages of the Sunday rags. And I think her response to Key was mature, fair and well-considered.  So well done Keisha - you're my Player of the Week.


Plonker of the Week: I've already blogged about the Kyle Sandilands situation here, so instead this week's award goes to the crematorium officials in Milton Keynes, who fined a bereaved mother for spending too long with her dead five-week-old son before he was sent off to be cremated.

These morons actually charged the poor woman a 'penalty' - a per-minute penalty - for overstaying the time allotted for her son's funeral by ten minutes. After the story was picked up by the media they returned the £86 she was charged, citing "extenuating circumstances" (translation: we realised we're a bunch of tactless bureaucrats).

Obviously people who work in the undertaking industry are running a business just like everyone else, and their services need to be paid for. And maybe there was another crowd of funeral-goers waiting outside to farewell a loved one of their own.

But I find it hard to believe that there could be this level of insensitivity in an industry where they deal daily with the grief-stricken. And we're talking about ten minutes here. So to you, Milton Keynes Council, I bestow this week's Plonker of the Week award.


And a special 'Pandering to the Public' award this week goes to Kraft, the makers of Vegemite. Sales must have been dropping off (maybe due to the recession, but I prefer to think it's because the almighty Marmite is better in every respect - who's with me?), so after a survey of thousands of consumers they're launching a new flavour. That's right; the salty, yeasty spread is getting a makeover, which apparently involved mixing it with cream cheese to make it spread more easily. Does the idea of a spread with cream cheese pre-mixed sound gross to anyone else?

Anyway, they want the public's help to name this new concoction. More than 30,000 entries have already been received, including Tigermite and Dynamite. The winning name will be announced in September. So if you are a Vegemite devotee - and Lord knows people tend to get a tad spiritual about their spread of choice - you've still got time to submit your entry.

Have your say on this week's Player and Plonker - or on the great Marmite versus Vegemite debate - in the comments below!