An icon is someone to look up to and admire, maybe even to emulate their behaviour, well it was when I was a teenager. The sort of person that springs to mind is Cliff Richard, once called Britain’s answer to Elvis Presley.

When Cliff first became popular in the fifties, he was a very handsome teenager who sang with attitude,  and a slight curl of his lip. One couldn’t help but be drawn to him, and when he was interviewed, it became obvious that this was a pose for the camera, and Cliff was in fact a very decent and caring person. He is a devout Christian, and neither, smokes, drinks, nor experiments with drugs.

The Press tried to dig deep into his life to see if they could find out anything about him that was not good, and totally failed. Then they became bored with him, as it was much more exciting to write about drug ridden rock stars, and singers who were happy to perform on stage whilst totally drunk.

Fifty or so years on, nothing has changed. Modern ” Icons” appear to be women who fall out of night clubs so drunk that they don’t even know who they are. Revered singers appear to be the ones who live their lives through drugs, with so many needle marks in their arm, they look like a pin cushion. The fact that they often don’t turn up to perform because of their irresponsible and damaging behaviour, doesn’t even  stop them from being nominated for many prestigious musical awards.

There is now a new trait amongst females to go out without underwear on, and to make sure that when they get out of a taxi, they are photographed in this way.  They will be sure to get their picture in the newspaper the next day. These ” Role Models” are sending out a message to teenagers that this is the new cool way to behave. What a sad way to get themselves known, and  nowadays no-one seems to bat an eyelid about it. It is freedom gone mad.

People like Cliff Richard are few and far between, but his attitude to life, and example is one that I hope will one day be the normal one. At least he can hold up his head and be proud. Decency is old fashioned these days, but I hope that one day it will return, and be the norm.