Macs and Mandarins.

I read today that McDonald’s is opening its first vegetarian fast food joint (I was going to write ‘restaurant,’ but come on!) It’s in India, land of saris, sitars and sacred cows (and Bollywood, too, I admit.) They say the Indian market is underdeveloped and they want to cash in on a potentially lucrative opportunity. Well, of course they do, and I wish they wouldn’t. I wish they would rein in their slimy tentacles and leave one of the world’s oldest and most sophisticated cultures alone. (At least, it was sophisticated until westerners arrived smelling of old sweat and toilets and screwed everything up.)

I wonder whether there’s a chance the Indians will emulate the French and indulge in McDonald’s-trashing sprees. Vive La France, I say. And I wonder whether the McDonald’s executives have the nous to understand that the devout Hindu attitude to vegetarianism goes a lot deeper than simply not eating meat.

*  *  *

The big news in Britain today was Cameron’s cabinet reshuffle. The lunchtime bulletin was awash with video footage of self-important looking men in expensive suits, strutting self-importantly around with self-important expressions, giving interviews in a terribly self-important manner, clearly convinced that they are now Terribly Important. God, how I loathe senior politicians.