NOW I don’t know about you, but when it comes to funding my holiday, I tend to put a little aside in the months before to help cushion the blow.
What I don’t typically do is stuff my suitcase full of £1.2million of cannabis and then attempt to smuggle it into Sri Lanka.
But that is what former Tui air stewardess , 21, is accused of doing when she was stopped at Colombo airport last week.
The previous day, another young Brit, , 18, was nabbed at Tbilisi airport in , having allegedly flown in from Bangkok with .
So two girls in two days, caught, locked up and now starring in their own personal reboot of Midnight Express.
Meanwhile, , beside themselves with worry, try every trick in the book to get them out.
What a mess.
Now there is a suggestion that the two — who both flew out of the same Thai airport — are linked.
Investigators wonder if nasty smugglers “preyed”;; on these women as part of some sort of international drug ring targeting backpackers.
Because of course there is no way on Earth that these two plucky lasses — no doubt keen to fund a never-ending holiday with the easiest cash available — could have just decided to smuggle drugs on their own.
A bit of “easy money”;; to avoid having to do the unthinkable and — OMG! — get an actual job. No, these Gen Z globetrotters must be “victims”;;. It wasn’t their fault. They’re just “vulnerable women”;;.
Hmmm.
certainly did not appear to be a victim of anything — other than perhaps social media. Indeed, her boastful posts on and prior to her arrest revealed a young woman high on life.
And possibly more — in one snap she has what appears to be a spliff hanging out of her mouth.
In another, she flaunts wads of cash, captioning it with bags of money emojis (Where did she get all that from?)
She also revealed she is not necessarily someone who follows the letter of the too well, writing: “How about we get up to criminal activities side by side like Bonnie ’n’ Clyde making heavy figures and f***ing on balconies all over the world.”;;
Meanwhile, May Lee, who recently worked on a “booze cruise”;; in and is also no stranger to showing off on social media, insists she had “no idea”;; the drugs were “planted”;; in her bags.
If convicted, this unlucky pair’s sentences will be long and miserable. I don’t blame anyone for trying to get them out. Any parent would want the same.
A rat-and-maggot-infested foreign is no place for a young Western woman, especially one like Culley, who claims to be pregnant.
But spare me the victim nonsense.
Both these adults, if guilty, should have known what they were doing was highly risky. Backpackers — even those as young as 18 — know exactly how the world works. I was one myself once.
Hardly a month goes by without some well-publicised horror story of a British national getting caught with drugs.
And incidents are on the rise.
Recent stats from Prisoners Abroad, which helps Brits who have been nicked overseas, reveal a huge increase in drug arrests — up 57 per cent, with 243 new cases between April 2024 and March this year, compared to 155 in the previous year.
Brits and Melissa Reid — aka the Peru Two — who were banged up in Peru in 2013 for smuggling cocaine, garnered such notoriety that two kids dressed up as them for the village fete.
It is easy to blame social media for all the world’s ills, but for Charlotte May Lee and Bella Culley, it might have played a part.
The urge to live a luxury, carefree life and show it off to followers can be a powerful motive to do the most stupid, high-risk things imaginable.
Social media is a powerful drug with which one must exercise extreme caution.
And yes, as another two terrified women are now finding out, it is not the only one that could ruin your life.
ITV IS cutting the number of presenters on to save cash.
Presumably it will also now be rebranded . . . Less Women.
Quit moaning at Eurovision – the show is so bad, it’s fun
MORE carping about how Eurovision has become some sort of politically driven brickbat to give the likes of Britain a battering.
Maybe it is. But so what?
The actual results mean diddly squat to most of us – we haven’t tasted victory for 28 years.
Our entrant this year was named for a reason.
That reason being a plea: “Please remember us on Monday.”;;
Good luck with that, girls.
No, the is less about the contest and more about floating off to some cacophonic country where the LGBT rainbow is the national flag and anyone caught taking things seriously has their bottom smacked by .
As the late great Eurovision host put it: “It’s supposed to be bad.
“And the worse it is, the more fun it is.”;;
GARY’S EXIT A SHAME
THERE was a crushing inevitability to
Gung-ho Gary just cannot seem to function without a regular dopamine hit from social media (yep that old drug pusher again).
And with his he did what many hopeless addicts do – he plunged in the needle before checking the safety of the product.
It was idiotic, offensive and embarrassing, and quite rightly he has apologised and is no doubt kicking himself for this unforced error.
So here we are, facing a World Cup without Lineker as the man to unite the nation.
And I’m a little misty-eyed about that.
Because whatever you think of his leftie posturing, you have to admit he was a bloody good World Cup host.
This former England number 10 knew exactly what our lads were going through on those foreign pitches.
A Mexico ’86 golden boot winner and an Italia ’90 semi-finalist (and brown shorts victim), the boy from Leicester had the emotional experience as well as the actual experience.
No offence to the perfectly capable , and Chappers but they haven’t been there.
So I’ll raise a glass to Lineker this weekend as, knowing my luck, he discusses Man United’s battering by Aston Villa on his final .
And maybe I’ll send him a nice tweet too.
Keep those levels topped up.
