PETER MCKAY: Why does the Beeb fawn over Glastonbury?

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You are now watching the greatest living rock star on the planet,’ rapper Kanye West told his audience at Glastonbury, where he was the ‘headline act’ - ie, the star.

No, he wasn’t joking. Having previously compared himself favourably with Jesus Christ, he is given to grandiose claims, as his fans admit.

Known mainly by rock obsessives - or fans of reality star Kim Kardashian, to whom he is married - West might not have been the greatest living rock star in Somerset, let alone on the planet.

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You are now watching the greatest living rock star on the planet,’ rapper Kanye West told his audience at Glastonbury, where he was the ‘headline act’ - ie, the star

The professional pop critics, most of whom write guardedly about West, were cautious in their judgments on his expletive-ridden performance.

‘If you didn’t like West before this, he may well have confirmed all your worst suspicions,’ admitted the Telegraph’s Neil McCormick, adding: ‘If, like me, you are a fan, he was as mad, infuriating, daring, electrifying, ridiculous, original and unwilling to compromise as we perhaps should have expected.’

From a self-confessed fan, that sounds like a thumbs-down.

We all take pride in puncturing pomposity. So, why do we continue to make an exception for rock singers who act like gods?

A West fan, Elliot Mitchell, writes on the online pop site Gigwise: ‘West’s set was nothing short of phenomenal, and firmly established his place as one of the most intriguing artists the world has to offer.’

Intriguing? Surely it’s the devotion to West - and the wet acceptance of his fantastic claims by fans - which is intriguing.

The professional pop critics, most of whom write guardedly about West, were cautious in their judgments on his expletive-ridden performance

Robin Knowles, of Bournemouth University, responded thus to the Gigwise comment: ‘Well, I must have watched a different set because I thought it was abysmal! When he wasn’t rapping he was singing with what sounded to me like an auto-tuner...

‘Also, what an absolutely arrogant thing to shout: “You are now watching the most talented rock star on the planet.” Not in my opinion, mate. More like talentless gimp.’

Another comment, from David Jordan, of London, referred to a Hans Christian Andersen fable: ‘The emperor’s clothes springs to mind!’

The fable is about a foolish emperor duped into buying clothing so fine, say the swindlers, that it is invisible to anyone who is stupid or incompetent.

Not wishing to appear either, his people offer thunderous applause when he exhibits his new garments. Then a small boy points out: ‘But he isn’t wearing anything at all!’

Is West an example of Emperor’s New Clothes Syndrome? He markets himself as the greatest star on the planet, daring his ‘people’ to think otherwise. One day a small boy will find him out.

We can’t expect the BBC to help. Their massive coverage of Glastonbury was, as ever, entirely celebratory, even though it’s a commercial event making an estimated £70 million.

Last year the BBC sent 300 staff. There is no reason to suppose fewer were there this year, though I can find no figures in the BBC’s online puffing of its Somerset presence.

A sign of the quasi-holy nature of the event was the arrival of the Dalai Lama (pictured at the festival), a living god who is not averse to modern publicity

They broadcast 30 hours of TV coverage across BBC 1, 2, 3 and 5, as well as 50 hours across Radios 1, 1Xtra, 2 and 6 Music. They also streamed 150 separate performances online.

The tone of those broadcasts I caught was overwhelmingly positive. While it’s customary for the BBC to patronise those who attend Royal Ascot, the Corporation’s approach to showbiz folk and their fans borders on the reverential.

A sign of the quasi-holy nature of the event was the arrival of the Dalai Lama, a living god who is not averse to modern publicity.

Might he have a bit of Bob Hope about him? It was said of Hope (by Marlon Brando) that ‘he would attend the opening of a gas station in Anaheim (a dowdy LA suburb) if there were at least two photographers present’.

Given the uncomfortable conditions, reeking portable toilets, muddy quagmires and assorted difficulties, I’d like to have heard some justification for the £220 ticket prices and the average £565-a-head spend.

Isn’t there material here for a Panorama special? Maybe, but the BBC relies on Glastonbury coverage to evangelise those who attend the festival on the importance of maintaining the licence fee status quo.

And might a critical documentary on Glastonbury fall into the ‘Jimmy Savile trap’ — the BBC investigation into the DJ’s sexual predation that couldn’t be transmitted because of his importance to the Corporation?

Why did some mothers accompany their daughters to Glastonbury? Because they enjoyed each other’s company and the ambience of the Somerset pop festival, says the better angel of my nature. The other one says it’s because neither has grown up.

The U.S. singer Courtney Love, pictured, was caught up in the Paris protests against the Uber car scheme, in which ordinary car owners become taxi drivers. 

‘They’ve ambushed our car and are holding our driver hostage. They’re beating cars with metal bats. This is France? I’m safer in Baghdad.’ 

The French potential for aggression is often under-estimated, but getting between a Frenchman and his livelihood — be he an onion-seller, farmer or Paris cabbie — has always been dangerous.

The U.S. singer Courtney Love, pictured, was caught up in the Paris protests against the Uber car scheme, in which ordinary car owners become taxi drivers

Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other religions must unite against the ‘death cult’ of IS, says an Islamic scholar.

Others suggest the West should tackle the threat by teaming up with Vladimir Putin or even with Syria’s hated President Assad.

Surely simpler solutions are called for. We must find out who, day to day, controls IS. Then we must target them as we should have done against Al Qaeda, instead of pointlessly invading Afghanistan and Iraq.

But even if we do cut off the head of the snake, that won’t be the end of it. IS has ‘radicalised’ — ie, turned into zombie killers — willing, mostly Muslim, dupes.

We have to isolate and cage the psychopathic zombies who try to return to Britain, though they will probably have legal aid-backed lawyers fighting their corner. It could take decades.

Personally, I would be happy for the developed world, jointly and by force when necessary, to deploy all its modern weaponry to annexe and colonise every ‘failed’ or ‘failing’ state that harbours those who wish to kill our citizens and destroy our way of life.

Who'll be deemed suitable to occupy the four-bedroom apartment in 16th-century St James’s Palace, on offer at about £20,000 a month?

Security and background checks might not discourage members of the middle classes or aristocracy, but most of them would prefer to own the properties rather than spend £240,000 a year, plus extras, for the privilege of sharing a building with the Princesses Anne, Alexandra, Beatrice and Eugenie.

Especially since the apartments to let have external doors onto Marlborough Road or Cleveland Row and don’t have any access into the palace itself, nor to the courtyards.

Wouldn’t it be simpler to sell St James’s Palace to the Qataris? They already own swathes of London and might even allow the already resident royals to retain grace-and-favour rights.

When gorgeous, twice-divorced Ava Gardner, 28, whom he lusted after, ran off with Spanish bullfighter Mario Cabre in 1950, Frank Sinatra, 34, chartered a plane to the Costa Brava, where she was filming, carrying gifts including an emerald necklace.

When Ava Gardner (pictured), 28, whom he lusted after, ran off with Spanish bullfighter Mario Cabre in 1950, Frank Sinatra, 34, chartered a plane to the Costa Brava, carrying gifts including an emerald necklace

He married Ava in 1951, but in 1953 she took up with another bullfighter, Luis Miguel Dominguin, bringing lovestruck Sinatra back to Spain — this time Madrid — in vain.

Hollywood women don’t run off with bullfighters any more, do they? They hole up with psychiatrists, dietitians or worse.

When Branjelina came to tea 

Having enticed the Government - in the shape of then Foreign Secretary William Hague, who supported her campaign against rape in war zones - actress Angelina Jolie now has consultations with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Accompanied by her partner, Brad Pitt, she reportedly joined William and Kate for tea at Kensington Palace to discuss their mutual interest in combating the illegal wildlife trade. 

William described the poaching of elephant tusk while on a visit to China — where much of it is imported — as ‘a vicious form of criminality’.

Actress Angelina Jolie (pictured) now has consultations with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Well-intentioned as I am sure they are, the concerns of the Pitt-Jolies and the Windsors can’t help seeming a little beside the point at the moment.

Rape in conflict zones becomes a marginal concern in a world increasingly held hostage by jihadist murderers.

Nor does ivory poaching, serious as it is, compare in terms of sheer cruelty with the annual dog-eating event in Yulin, China, where 10,000 canines are burnt and flayed alive for human consumption.

Of course, the visit of the Jolie-Pitts might have been purely social, the charity talk being merely a cover, which is perhaps why it wasn’t mentioned in the Court Circular.

Young women interested in finding sugar daddies are advised instead to ‘get a job waitressing and bide your time’ by a columnist colleague.

What do I think of this ‘new’ craze? That it’s nothing new. ‘Better to be an old man’s darling than a young man’s slave,’ is an old dictum.

In 1923, the body of young model Dorothy Keenan King was found in her New York apartment. Tycoon John Kearsley Mitchell III, 50, was named by newspapers as her ‘sugar daddy’, an early use of the term. Ms King had been chloroformed to death. Her murderer was never found.