Bored Brand

If I'm honest, the main reason I went with BT for my broadband service was because I was fundamentally against the privatisation of the company back in the 80s, and also against market liberalisation and competition. Same thing goes for the post office, gas, electricity, railways. I think a situation in which an infrastructure exists and was set up and owned by one provider, but which is then artificially broken up or rented out to third parties to give the illusion of competition, well, it's ridiculous, and wasteful.

So I still proceed as if BT was my only option, and I am blinkered as to alternatives.

You might well think I'm an idiot for paying over the odds, but I couldn't possibly comment on that. Yesterday I upgraded my 2Mb broadband to "up to 8Mb", with no extra cost. In fact, I've downgraded to a slightly cheaper option. They tell me I should experience speeds of around 6Mb. That should be fun.

I wanted to say something more about MySpace, going back to the major artists on major labels who have their own pages. I was talking to Roy about this yesterday. You can add these people as your "friends". People like Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, if you are so inclined. That John Corbett bloke from Northern Exposure and Sex and the City has, like Van Morrison, Gone Country. He's got a lot of friends. You basically make the request to be their friend, and the monkey they have doing the admin approves you.

So now I've got my secret girlfriend Matraca Berg as my "friend", as well as Gretchen Peters, Julie Roberts, and the lovely Chely Wright (pictured). What you do, when you have a lot of such friends, is edit your Top 8, to reorder them, and put the celebs up front. Because of course having pretend celebrity friends is so much more important than having real ones. Matraca is my number 1, of course. I'm afraid any of the Little People who get kicked out of my Top 8 will just have to deal with it. Chely and me, we're like that. And me and BT, well, we're good.