The fall and rise of Florence Leontine Mary Welch (real name Florence Moomin)

Many years ago, twenty-two and three quarters to be ever so precise, all was calm and well in Moominsville.

But that blissful day, when the skylarks sang, while the grasshopper hopped a merry jig and the water babbled along gently in the river, all was about to change.

To the beautiful sounds of nature all around came another sound, that of a baby expelling its first piercing cry.

“Whaaaaaaahhhh!!!”

Yes, Mummy Moomin had given birth to a little baby girl.

“Owwhh!!!” she exclaimed in a high-pitched wail; “she’s perfect. But whatever shall I call her?”

A huge fan of all time drug-induced hit children’s classic, The Magic Roundabout, Mummy Moomin had planned to call her first-born son Dougal Dylan Moomin. The very fact that Dougal had turned out female threw a spanner in the works.

“Ermintrude is such a lovely name but I can’t call my daughter after a cow!” thought Mummy Moomin aloud.

And so she rubbed her chin, pondering, for a good six seconds before the light bulb finally pinged.

“Owhhh, how silly of me!” she continued, as she remembered the lead female protagonist of the show. That big lollipop-head, that little button nose, the luscious brown dreaded locks and impeccable dress sense – what more could one wish for their child?

“Child-birth has made me ever so forgetful,” mummy Moomin mused, “I shall call her Florence. My beaaooowwutiful little Florence,” she trilled with the affection only a first-time mother could muster.

Sadly Mummy Moomin wasn’t well versed on the unwritten rules of the land. Unbeknown to her, to be a fan of any other children’s animation was strictly forbidden in Moominsville and punishable by death.

So when she skipped merrily to the registrar to officially name her first-born child, it will come as no surprise to you, reader, to hear that Mummy Moomin was tackled to the ground, handcuffed, blindfolded and hurtled into the back of a riot van with an almighty THUD.

The van threw her to and thro all the way to Moominsville town centre, where she was shot multiple times by a firing squad in front of an audience of thousands, including her newborn infant.

Now everybody knows that newborn children have delicate ears and even the drop of a feather could well leave them audibly impaired. So to be as close to the firing squad as Florence was had a detrimental effect on the vulnerable tot, who heard the first gunshot clear as bell.

“Boooooooooooommm bannnnggghhh!!” the shot rang out. But the following rounds were as clear as mud “duff…dufff…dufff” came the muffled shots. And so to the sound of her mother’s untimely end, Florence’s eardrums were perforated beyond repair.

As she grew it quickly became clear that poor deaf Florence would never blossom into the beauty that her late mother had intended.

Her nose was enormous, even by moomin standards, and not as rounded as one may have hoped. And her fiery ginger locks, in Moominsville, suggested foul play and witchcraft.

Thus it was not long before Florence was ousted from the land and left to perish in the dark, dark woods with nothing but the rags on her back.

So Florence walked and walked, living off nuts, seeds, bugs and the occasional dead squirrel. Poor feral Florence was incapable of hunting. Being deaf she made too much noise, stomping through the twigs and leaves, as her meal scurried off into the distance.

To keep herself entertained, Florence hummed and muffled hum and by the time she reached civilisation, approximately three and a half weeks later, this had become so loud and profound that the townsfolk ran to see what this strange, wailing creature could be.

They all gathered round as Florence emerged from the woods wailing as she came.

“Are you in pain?” they asked. But of course Florence couldn’t understand them so they called for the doctor anyway.

Cleared with a full bill of health, the doctor failed to notice Florence’s inability to hear, instead misdiagnosing her misfortune as that of a child raised by the wolves.

Soon the paparazzi arrived and followed her for a fortnight or more and Florence was soon under the impression that the townsfolk worshipped her strange humming noise. She was given a council house, enough benefits to feed a family of six and a plasma screen television, which took up an entire wall.

What luxury!

So Florence whiled away the hours watching MTV all day long. But one day, as she watched Girls Aloud, it suddenly dawned on her…

If all these people could take their strange facial expressions to the stage, get paid for it and gain global notoriety, then why couldn’t she?

After all people had been in awe of her when she first arrived in the town.

And so Florence’s dreams were realised. She was snapped up by a record label, took to the stage and quickly rocketed to stardom.

The music critics praised her eclectic diversity as “one of a kind” and the musical bible, NME said to its followers “thou shalt listen and be happy.” And so they did as they were instructed.

And that, my friends, is the story of the fall and Rise of Florence and the Machine.

Religion is the root of all evil

Major uproar was sparked this week when someone with an important job suggested the Pope should open an abortion clinic, bless a homosexual marriage and launch his own range of condoms during his upcoming visit to the UK.

Of course to even insinuate that same sex relationships, or birth control to limit the spread of sexual disease, is acceptable in the 21st century is just so risque.

Through the ages the Catholic faith has long been the root of all evil. The no condom rules saw thousands of god-fearing parents dumping their young daughters, who had fallen pregnant out of wedlock, in Irish “Magdalene” asylums. The girls gave birth and remained incarcerated for life, working around the clock, never to see their children again. And the spare moments when they weren't working, they had the joy of a good round of sexual abuse from a heavenly father of the church, all expenses paid. What could be better?

And lets not forget the constant allegations against catholic priests doing "bad things" to young boys in their care. And all in the name of a non-existent deity.

Father Christmas may fly through the sky on magic reindeer delivering presents down the chimney pots of millions of children in 24 short hours. But this is far more believable than a man who can feed 5,000 hungry mouths with five loaves and two fish (bearing in mind Father C missed out an entire third world continent). Unless the fish were killer whales, or Jesus was feeding midgits, the story is just so unfeasible.

Walking on water? Turning it into wine? Jesus sounds like the David Copperfield of his day.

But back to Pope Benedict. Where is the morality in living in a magical world, more commonly known as the Vatican, surrounded by wealth and riches, while the paupers on the outskirts of the city can hardly afford to put food on the table?

Rape, greed, abuse, is this what God would have wanted? I think not. And the church should be the first to agree it’s a fucking blessing he doesn’t exist, or they’d be the first to be launched into the firey pits of hell.

Earthquakes versus snow days

Switching on the news this morning to discover that the death toll following the Haitian earthquake is 200,000 and rising, should make us thankful for how easy we have life.

But the weather report that followed, in which the presenter’s opening lines were “if we can deal with what has been thrown at us over the last two weeks, we can deal with anything,” made it embarrassing to be British.

Is a smattering of snow and a shortage of salt really the ingredients of a national crisis? The icy roads gave some people a valid excuse to take a day off work, with a lucky few even being paid for the privilege. And those Haitian’s think they’ve got it tough.

But it was a photograph on page three of Friday’s Metro that made me thankful to have ditched the notebook and left the world of journalism behind.

Showing piles of corpses outside a mortuary, the picture carried the caption “families and rescuers brought the bodies there in the pathetic hope of some sort of dignity and a burial.”

Exactly what sort of “dignity” is it to have the lasting image of your life, a corpse, splashed across a newspaper thousands of miles from home? This is the typical sensationalist tripe, which encapsulates the morbid curiosity of a nation hungry for bad news.

This kind of disaster forces us put our lives into perspective. We sit worrying about getting a better job, meeting the perfect man (or woman) and generating enough cash flow to afford a nice little semi, two cars and organic milk.

Most of us have never gone hungry, have a roof over our heads, free healthcare and are safe in the knowledge that the Government will pay out should we lose our jobs. On the whole we’re a consumerist nation, which needs more and more cash only to satiate our materialism.

Yes it’s arguable that it’s all relative, but isn’t it about time that we sat back and were thankful for how easy we have it, stopped complaining about the weather and got on with living?