It just isn't right!

So Gordon Ramsay, Swearlebrity Chef, has upset the Australians. Not just the Catholic Chruch, mind you, but regular Aussies who actually don't want their kids listening to the f-word three times in every sentence per half hour show.

According to an article on metro.co.uk Ramsay "prompted outrage when one episode of his TV show featured him using a four-letter expletive more than 80 times in 40 minutes". Eighty times in forty minutes? I know completely uneducated people who don't have to resort to swearing that often to get a sentence said. So, what's the deal with Ramsay?

Here's a man who appears to be a brilliant chef. At least the Michelin Stars he's been awarded would have one believe so. He's got children who no doubt want to see Dad on TV, and his shows are aired on the cooking channel. What would posses him to think that the f-word would be welcome that often and in those settings? Again, we must assume the man has reasonable intelligence, so it can't be complete stupidity.

Many years ago my mother's brothers came back from their stint in WWII. At the Sunday lunch table, Robert - who had served as a medic and was never quite the same again - said the word "bloody". My grandfather apparently sent him to his room for swearing in front of ladies and children. A grown man who had fought a war was sent to his room for "unacceptable behaviour"!

I wonder what Grandpa would say today if he turned on a TV set to watch a cooking programme and heard Ramsay's potty mouth in action. I wonder what Ramsay's children are allowed to say at home or at school. I wonder how long it will be before Ramsay realises that the f-word said that often tends to desensitise people to it, and he starts using the c-word. I wonder why we put up with it.

Not being a prude, I have been known to use expletives along an entire city block. I repeat foul jokes when I think they're funny and I have no problem with the "f" word every now and then. But when the word pops up more often in your sentences than the letter "e", there's a deeper issue that should be looked at. By a professional.

Essentially, it's the unravelling of society that gets me. Things that were unacceptable ten years ago are commonplace today - swearing on television, blasphemy (except when it involves a prophet), stabbing a kid who looks at you funny in school . . .

How far to we have to go before we are no longer a civilised society? How long before we come full circle and ripping into raw, bloody meat with hands and teeth is acceptable again? Not far and not long, I think. Sadly, we believe we'll notice when something "big" happens that rocks our civilisation.

Here's the deal: Apathy does not wear a bright red jacket and announce its arrival. It merely erodes our values, morals and standards until one day we wake up and realise nothing big has to happen. All the small things have happened already so that swearing, stabbing, drugging, fornicating and everything else is no longer shocking.

We watch wars on TV and forget that those are real people being bombed; somebody's Dad and son and brother. CCTV cameras on every corner of British cities capture shots of drunken children killing other children. We eat dinner while we watch.

So what does this have to do with a stream of foul language on a cooking programme? Just about everything. A man who should be revered for his talent and skill can't seem to speak properly, and youngsters hear it. Whether we like it or not, youngsters emulate adults. If Gordon Ramsay can do it and still make that much money, it must be a good thing. If Amy Whinehouse (spelling intended) can fall all over the place, allegedly beat people, sing about the joys of "rehab" and then get rewarded with five Emmys, the message to youngsters is fabulous: Snort, baby, and be rich and famous.

I sound old, I know. I think I am because I remember having heroes like Gary Player, Sidney Poitier, Emmylou Harris and a host of others who won their fame - and a place in my heart - through talent and hard work. Not one of them ever had to rip a chicken's head off or speak like a lavatory to be remembered.

Just as I stage my tiny little one-person boycott of singers and other "stars" who make kids think drugs are fun, I am now staging a tiny little one-person boycott of all things Ramsay. I know that 31% of Londoners would vote Ramsay for Mayor, but I'll take that from whence it comes, too. I visited London some years ago and she's an ageing actress who has forgotten to remove years and years of make up. She offers only three things that delighted me: Harrods, Hamleys and a relatively inexpensive ticket to Ireland.

Funny thing about rewarding disgusting behaviour is this: We create more of it. Whinehouse slugs drugs and wins. Ramsay spews filth and earns millions. Bet if I write "Muhammad Yunus" here, most people will have to Google him to find out who he is. And that, my friends, is the unravelling of society. And it's just not right.