Shirley Tart’s view of the week’s headlines…

Apart from the couple of girls who thumped each other early on and the excruciating Wagner (pronounced Vargner, Louis) there was no worse X-Factor moment than last weekend. That sleazy routine with Christina Aguilera and a crowd of barely clad dancers was the disgrace it was instantly labelled. It wasn’t art, it wasn’t clever, it did come close to pornography. And in a show which blatantly courts families and young people, it was before the watershed and was shameful. An unpleasant and cynical blot on the entertainment landscape. Get a grip, Mr Cowell.

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We know the latest student protest won’t be the last. What increasingly defiant protestors should also know is that support is haemorrhaging for methods if not cause. Others not immune from the effect of cuts, are appalled that a far from hard-done by crowd can so take the law into their own hands and even align themselves with great protestors who changed the world. Lord help us, I heard of one marcher who thought last week’s mob was a on a par with the anti-slavery movement. As for baying for the blood of Clegg, whatever he promised, he couldn’t have delivered anyway. The Lib Dems lost the election (as usual) and dismally so.

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Before anybody rises up in defence of the peaceful marchers and young people, let me do it for you. Most youngsters are great, fun to be with, inspiring and hard workers and I know many who are upset at the behaviour of some of their peers. While those wreaking havoc at these so called ‘student’ protests, believe violence will force a climb down. It will not and should not.

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You don’t go on a peaceful, grown-up march with a brick in your bag. Ordinary folk wanting to protest don’t happen to have iron bars to hand. Young people making legitimate points don’t feel they must smash in unrelated windows and attack cars with people in them – royal or more dangerously, the totally unprotected. While lecturers and parents who encouraged the dangerous behaviour should be put in detention forthwith. And while we’re at it, what on earth were 14 and 15-year old kids doing mixed up with it at all?

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What a lovely thought it always is. Christmas shoeboxes put together to be sent across the world to children who have the least, is heartwarming – sometimes the only gift these little ones will get. This year, more than 12,500 gift-filled boxes have been lovingly put together in Shropshire alone, nearly 1000 more than last year. And the Operation Christmas Child charity has sent them to Belarus, Crimea, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Serbia and Ukraine. As well as the toothbrushes, small toys and maybe a precious pair of socks, they go with our love to those who have very little else. Well done, Shropshire!

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A crass person with nothing else to do except bother phone-in programmes, says he can’t understand the attention paid to rescued Chilean miners or why they are called heroes. They did nothing heroic, all they did was survive, he said. Well, they survived for 69 days underground, the first 17 with no contact, they supported and encouraged each other, kept to a regime which helped save their lives and finally came up in that tiny lift through a narrow seam of rock. And that’s not brave? Back in your box, matey.

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The Coronation Street drama marking its 50th anniversary was such a clever (and expensive) piece of television which is set to change storylines on the Street by the bucketful. But a birthday celebration? Some flipping birthday!