Prom pandemic

I HAVE been reading with a mixture of incredulity and despair about the “Prom” pandemic that has drifted in like a disease from the USA. This hugely expensive and totally unnecessary extravaganza may be a godsend to boutiques, salons, limo-hire, and all the other parasitic predators that hover around it but must surely be a financial nightmare to beleaguered and blackmailed parents. For pity’s sake, whatever happened to the tried and tested end of school disco? How has it metamorphosed into this money-munching monster that is suddenly a must-have for our demanding and easily deluded teens?  This is hardly an age of affluence in this region and there are  strapped-for-cash families who will be severely hard-pressed by the outrageous costs incurred by these spangled occasions. There can be no wider grins at this time of year than those of the faces of the money-lender and loan-shark.