THE life of a flight attendant may sound appealing, jetting off around the world, being paid to bathe on a sun-drenched beach, but would you fancy trying to control an unruly mob at 35,000 feet?

Air rage is suddenly big news, thanks to an alarming increase in the number of attacks on crew and passengers, but trouble on flights is nothing new.

Speak to any steward or stewardess and they will relate a whole string of flights from hell that they've had to manage.

Part of the problem they face is one of image. They are there for safety reasons, the tray of nosh they slap on your lap is just an added bonus, but to some holidaymakers they're seen as trolley dollies whose only purpose is to dish out endless rounds of booze.

My friend Jane loves her cabin crew job but has certain routes she dreads working because of the problems she knows she is more than likely to face. Her fiance David, also in the business, has even been injured by a passenger kicking and lashing out during a flight.

Some bodies are now calling for a complete ban on alcohol on planes, but that would spoil an innocent pleasure for the vast majority of us who enjoy a tipple but behave. It could also lead to more problems for people terrified of flying, as often a drink or two can steady their nerves.

Astudy trying to crack down on the problem of disruptive passengers, being carried out at Gatwick and likely to become a blueprint for the industry around the world, suggests tougher powers and harsher penalties for passengers who endanger aircraft could be the answer. Let's hope their pleas are adopted soon.

I'VE always been fairly smug whenever a food scare has hit the headlines as I haven't eaten meat for more than 20 years.

Now the tables have been turned and I've got cause for concern.

I've been aware about the debate over genetically modified food for sometime, but, until now, the only thing I've eaten that has a GM label on the packet is sherbet Flying Saucers. Hardly a vital part of my diet and a treat easy to give up if I want to avoid Frankenstein foods.

But it appears, like everyone else, that I'm likely to have been consuming vast quantities of the stuff without realising.

These ingredients could be completely safe, the problem is, at the moment, nobody knows.

Lewes MP Norman Baker is right to call for a five-year moratorium on the importation and production of GM foods in this country. In the meantime, I hope more manufacturers begin honestly labelling their food.

ACCORDING to appeal court judges in Italy, where only ten of the 420 senior judges in the country are female, a woman cannot be raped when wearing jeans because they are impossible to remove without her help.

Perhaps these wise sages, who quashed a jail sentence for this very reason, should put on a pair of denims themselves to see if they can fight off the advances of a couple of burly men.

In the meantime, I've made my own ruling and decided these wise men of law would be impossible to murder - you'd never get a bullet through their thick skulls.

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