Express & Star

Mark Andrews on Saturday: Charna's hunger for success

Read today's column from Mark Andrews.

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Charna Rowley - ambassador?

Feeling a bit down in the dumps, suffering those November blues? Well maybe this story about a young entrepreneur will restore your faith in human nature.

Until recently 22-year-old Charna Rowley was working as an office administrator, but felt something was missing. Unfulfilled by the drudgery of office life, she chucked it all in, and now earns a living stuffing her face with junk food on YouTube. Apparently, 40,000 people tune in twice a week to watch her bingeing on everything from Greggs to Pizza Hut, and her ultimate aim is to munch through 10,000 calories in one sitting. Well, we’ve all got our dreams, haven’t we?

To be fair, judging from her appearance, Charna – and it’s never a Sarah or a Jane, is it? – has really thrown herself into this work, and she is sometimes joined on screen by her facially tattooed and pierced boyfriend Tranzking. Well, I guess it beats Dancing on Ice.

She’s now taking audience requests – “This KFC bargain bucket is dedicated to Steve and Marj in Blackpool, and all the workers at Acme Textiles” – and Charna reckons she has the makings of a full-time career. Who says the young have no work ethic?

Perhaps she should put herself forward as an ambassador for the NHS’s anti-obesity strategy. It would certainly put me off my grub.

It can’t be easy working for the sex-toy supplier Rocks Off Ltd. It must be embarrassing having the company name appear on your bank statements, and having to say ‘It’s Bill from Rocks Off Ltd’ every time you make a phone call. So spare a thought for the company’s truck driver who recently had to explain to police how £1 million worth of sex toys had been stolen from the back of his wagon while he took a kip in a lay-by.

Hopefully those responsible will soon find themselves in handcuffs. And not the pink, furry variety.

Jacob Rees-Mogg – foot in mouth

The stupidity of some well-educated people knows no bounds, as demonstrated by Jacob Rees-Mogg and his comments regarding the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Not only were his argument that it was ‘common sense’ to ignore firefighters’ advice to stay put in their flats crass and downright offensive, his thinking is totally illogical. How is it common sense to ignore fire-safety advice from the fire brigade, and instead take it from the Leader of the House of Commons?

But please spare me the self-righteous anger from those on the hard Left who have taken every single opportunity to make political capital out of the tragedy. The way Grenfell has been ‘weaponised’ over the past two years has been a truly revolting spectacle, every bit as distasteful as Rees-Mogg’s foot-in-the-mouth calamity.

Yes, there are many questions to be answered about Grenfell, not least by the fire service, the building contractors, and Kensington and Chelsea council. But the place for these recriminations is at the independent judge-led inquiry, not by vote-chasing politicians in a general election campaign.