‘I would love to find a knife in a supermarket plant’

I opened my Observer this week and read, ‘Shock at knife found in supermarket plant’ (Battle Observer, March 30).

As the plant was wrapped in cellophane, it can hardly have been the fault of Tesco that a knife was found lying on the top of the pot in among the leaves of the plant, yet the lady in question not only contacted Tesco head office and the local store, but obviously also contacted the local newspaper.

Her husband said, ‘She was in complete shock. She could not believe what she was seeing’. Really? Has this lady never seen a gardener’s knife before?

I could not help thinking what a sheltered life she must lead. I mean to say, a basil plant is hardly something one would buy for a two-year-old.

I would have been jolly pleased to have found that knife with my plant, and all for under a quid.

This led me to think of the national news story this week concerning a cabinet minister who is being blamed for a woman’s accident after she set fire to herself while pouring petrol in her kitchen near a lighted cooker.

The politician is being told to resign over his advice to store petrol in cans which advice, incidentally, he had retracted before the accident occurred.

If the Prime Minister told you to stand barefoot in a bowl of water and stick your finger in an electricity socket, would you do it? I thought not.

It is high time we stopped trying to be compensated for every little thing that goes wrong and, as harsh as this seems in light of the woman’s injuries caused by the petrol igniting, it is high time we took responsibility for our own actions.

MARGARET WINCHESTER

Battle Road,

St Leonards