CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION

The press have recently made great play of how a rich woman, former beauty queen Kirsty Bertarelli and her husband Swiss-Italian pharmaceutical tycoon Ernesto Bertarelli have purchased a yacht for £100 million. "Britain's richest woman may have set a new benchmark in floating status symbols with a new boat that costs £250,000 just to fill up with fuel." (Metro, 5 March) The yacht is 315 foot long - an improvement on their old 154 foot one, but it is dwarfed by Roman Abramovich's 538 foot yacht. Such reports of conspicuous consumption are circulating at a time while millions of people are starving. RD