And now over to our economics editior John Barrowman

They are doing it for a laugh and as we know he whole ABBA thing is basically a joke.

I love Children in Need - its one of the few times I get a chance to review the up to date logo's of all major high street banks and retailers; find out if there's anything on the current BBC schedules I might have missed; listen to new music from the most heavily plugged, mainstream music acts; decide if I want to buy a ticket for a soon-to-open West End musical and...that's about it I think. All in the name of charity of course which is such a relief. I mean, it's not as though we have anything like, oh I don't know, a publicly funded social services to fall back on do we?

BUT WE NEED MORE KIDS WITH TUBES UP THEIR NOSE!!!

Who gets paid and who doesn't for this annual love in. It's one thing if a famous Irish presenter (to choose a random example) is haranguing me to give money if he himself is giving up his evening free. Quite another if he is pocketing a large cheque to do so. And I think it's good that companies like ASDA can get minutes of advertising on the BBC after their employees have put their effort and money into raising funds.

Still it's all for charidee.

Being covered by McFly? Actually, they made a fair job of it (in that they played it in tune and in time). But it's just not right somehow.