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FREE CDs After a late breakfast I strolled down to the public library, conveniently only a couple of minutes away, to read the morning newspapers. I can afford to buy my own newspaper but I stopped doing this about a year ago on principle.      About eighteen months previously I received a free music CD, Tom Jones and Friends, along with my morning newspaper. It came as quite a surprise to me because I wasn’t aware that Tom Jones had any friends, the Welshman being the owner of a voice designed to make enemies rather than cultivate friendships, but there you go. I looked at the cover. The first song was Tom Jones singing It’s Not Unusual. The second song was Engelbert Humperdinck singing Please Release Me. Next up was Tom Jones singing The Green Green Grass Of Home. Next was Wilson Pickett with In The Midnight Hour. Next was Tom Jones singing……well you get the idea. There were twelve tracks on the CD, six by Tom Jones and six by six other artists. Now I might be naïve but I would expect an album called Tom Jones And Friends to consist of songs sung by Tom Jones accompanied by his friends, but apparently not. Tom Jones And Friends indeed! Who do they think they’re kidding? As my mother used to say, they must think I dropped off a flitting. I wouldn’t mind betting that Tom Jones has never met half of the people on the CD and in all probability has never even heard of the singer of the final track, Hoagy Carmichael singing Stardust. Actually I would have quite liked to listen to Wilson Picket singing In The Midnight Hour but not at the expense of having to listen to Tom Jones so I threw it in the bin.      Two weeks later I received another free CD along with my newspaper. Engelbert Humperdinck and Friends. The first track was Engelbert Humperdinck singing Please Release Me, the second track was Tom Jones singing It’s Not Unusual, the Third Track was Engelbert Humperdinck singing The Last Waltz, the next track…..yes, you’ve guessed it, there were six songs by Engelbert Humperdinck and six by six other artists. I threw it in the bin. My privilege. Anyway, like the Tom Jones and Friends CD, it hadn’t cost me anything so it was no skin off my nose. Two weeks later my newspaper went up by 3 p. Due to rising production costs.      A few weeks went by and I received another free CD, Twenty Golden Disco Hits or something. In the bin. Over the next couple of months I received another five CDs. All unwanted. All unplayed. All binned. Two weeks later my newspaper went up another 2 p due to rising production costs. The penny dropped. Could these rising production costs have anything to do with the costs of producing CDs of Tom Jones and Friends and all the other unasked for and unwanted CDs that had been forced on me over the last few months? Does the Pope shit in the woods? Far from it not being any skin off my nose it was a wonder I had any skin left on my nose by now. I cancelled my newspaper.      I had thrown every one of the CDs I received in the bin, as I suspect most people do. If you like Tom Jones you already have CDs of him singing his songs (You also have my sympathy), likewise Engelbert Humperdinck, likewise all the other artists on the ‘free’ CDs all the newspapers give away nowadays, so they are of no benefit to anyone whatsoever. Except of course the artists on the CDs, in the form of royalties, and the newspapers, in extra revenue every time they put up the price of their newspaper.      I could always write a letter complaining about this rip off to the newspapers of course. I’m sure they’d print it.