Whilst stuck in a waiting room today, I was traumatised by the spectre of daytime television suckering people our of their hard earned money. Have you noticed that those telesales adds no longer advertise the total price? Surely that’s illegal, but obviously not. Perhaps it should be. Today there was free offer of a generous range of cosmetics free for first 295 callers. No costs were mentioned, even the postage was free. I suspect the number 295 was somehow selected on the basis of some dodgy psychology that suggests this is more likely to make people call.

…but hang on, it says, “Credit card callers only”… Why would you need a credit card if the offer is totally free? This is almost as depressing as watching people flush their money down the drain on poker machines.