DEREK JAMESON

FOR more than thirty years George Best has been taking advantage of our natural sympathy with the sob story that he's a sad creature who can't help the dreadful way he behaves because he is an alcoholic.

He's in the headlines yet again for mouthing foul obscenities as guest speaker at a Manchester dinner, and we also learn he beat up his wife Anne so badly it took her a month to get over it, though she refused to press charges.

No doubt he will still be in great demand thanks to his past reputation as the world's greatest footballer.

Addiction to booze is supposed to explain why he destroyed his career, loved and lost some of the world's most glamorous women, went to prison, sacrificed his friends, walked out on commitments, ran up debts and let down everyone who tried to help him.

After that little lot we thought George had settled down and wondered whether his TV appearance as a soccer commentator meant he had beaten the bottle. Sadly his wife Anne now reveals he's still going on benders.

"Right from the beginning he's explained to me that he's an alcoholic and there's nothing he can do about it," she says.

Hopeless

Sorry, Anne, like so many others you are simply enabling George to carry on pushing the self-destruct button in the hope of smashing everything in sight, including himself.

You have to stand up to the booze. Nobody needs to be a hopeless drunk, as the testimony of hundreds of thousands of sober alcoholics proves. Don't let George fool you.

My wife Ellen is a recovering alcoholic who saw the light 13 years ago. She has not touched a drop since, even in times of trouble when there was every excuse to pick up a drink.

Alcoholism is a disease of denial, which makes it all the more difficult to defeat. A drunk can suffer years of self-abuse and destroy family, home and career before recognising that he or she is in the grip of a terrible addiction and desperately needs help.

George Best doesn't have that problem. He knows he's an alcoholic - he's said so enough times - and therefore must be responsible for his actions.

Instead of being fooled by George's little boy lost act, Anne should remind him he's 53 and say it's about time he acted his age. Being an alcoholic is not an excuse to drink, but a reason to give it up.

Tell him to stop making excuses about the pressures of fame and staying on top. It's 30 years out of date and nothing but a spurious justification for the booze.

It takes guts and self-discipline to stay sober, but many who have travelled the same road are ready to help - soccer idols Jimmy Greaves and Tony Adams, for instance.

HOW MUCH FOR A LIFE?

IT'S six months to the day since television presenter Jill Dando was shot dead on her doorstep in West London - and already people are counting the cost of the murder hunt.

Apparently the bill so far comes to £2 million, and the team of 45 detectives on the investigation has yet to find her killer.

Most murder investigations would have been scaled down by now, which presents a real dilemma for the police. Others who have seen loved ones murdered might legitimately ask why the search for the killers was limited to a tenth of the Dando inquiry.

A similar cost issue followed the Paddington rail crash when it turned out the sophisticated Automatic Train Protection system had not been installed nationally because the bill would have been £1 billion.

It leaves two frightening questions unanswered - what value do we put on a human life and dare anyone make that assessment?

ROBINSON'S NOT SO HAPPY SNAPS

YOU can bet a pound to a penny that picture editors everywhere are eagerly trying to find a copy of the mysterious photographs of a Government minister in so-called "compromising circumstances" with a teenager.

Former Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson, fuming at being frozen out of office, is said to have made it known he has the pictures as a protection against any move to stop him publishing his memoirs.

Over the years there have been many frantic searches for pictorial evidence to trip up the high and mighty.

Lord Lambton resigned as a Tory junior minister in 1973 when a tabloid photographer snapped him lying on a bed with two young ladies.

We all chased a picture of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, sharing a bath with a man said to be a member of the Cabinet. It turned out to be a time-delayed shot he had taken himself. He lost his head in the frame - and forever after was known as The Headless Lover.

A TRUE GREAT OF THE THEATRE

I ASK for your prayers today for our good friend Roger Neil, for ten years manager of the Theatre Royal, who is seriously ill with brain disease in an Eastbourne nursing home. He has done so much to make Brighton loved by theatre goers everywhere.

Roger was struck down two months ago while the theatre was closed for refurbishment and has had to retire.

No longer will this tall, commanding figure be seen in the foyer at almost every performance.

Speaking with great difficulty he told me on a visit last week: "I'm fighting back. You have to persevere."

A former actor himself, Roger's natural affinity with performers and love of the stage brought many top stars to the town, often in major previews as well as West End shows.

"Everyone loves playing the Theatre Royal in Brighton," says Sue Pollard.

"Roger always looked after us so well. He made it like a home from home."

Su is one of scores of wellwishers in the theatre who have sent greetings to Roger in recent weeks.

You may also care to send good wishes to Roger at the Devonshire Nursing Home, 95 Carlisle Road, Eastbourne, BN20 7TS.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.