Pity poor Sarah Ferguson (remember her?), the ex-wife of Prince Andrew whose 1986 marriage blissfully passed me by. She was never a very popular member of the Royal Family, perhaps because she seemed too much like a good time girl, a kind of fun-loving Sloane Ranger, the type who would return from her autumn holiday in the Caribbean and then immediately get to work... planning her winter skiing trip. Diana, on the other hand, radiated a demure shyness, an almost saintly goodness and vulnerability.

Now Fergie has been trying to atone with her charitable ventures and good deeds. She's made a documentary called Shameless, about life on a run-down, broken (first cliche) council estate in Manchester inhabited by hoodies (second cliche).

Poor Fergie. She's damned if she continued with the life of Riley but equally damned for slumming it for a week and daring to populate the streets of Manchester with her plummy voice. Trouble is, no matter what she does, she will be condemned as a hypocrite who can't wait to return to her (is it 13-bedroom?) house in the countryside.

Fergie relates that she "interviewed" (if that's the correct term) some hoodies who just swore at her. "The hoodies I spoke to thought I was a toffee-nosed git and were effing and blinding. But that's fine. I wanted them to realise that not everybody is automatically going to think they are bad," relates Fergie.  

The trouble is, of course, it's not alright what the hoodies did. The truth is...sharp intake of breath...that by the time most of us reach 40 we no longer want to understand the psychological complexities of hoodies. We no longer want to convert their wayward lives into productive ones. Most of us want to run as far away from them as possible.  

I bet Fergie secretly couldn't wait for the week's filming to end. Let's face it, most of us tire of young people as we get older. Is this part of life's natural progression? Do we all make the journey from bleeding heart liberal to hating all hoodies and fantasising - rather like Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver - about "cleaning the streets"?

Sadly, it seems to me, the only people who can afford to understand these lost "hoodies" who populate our "broken" communities are privileged individuals who know they won't have to spend much time with them. The likes of David Cameron and Sarah Ferguson can adopt a "hug a hoodie mentality" because they know they'll never have to live among them permanently. The rest of us can't wait to get away from them and have long since lost our compassion. Wandering around Edmonton in London last year I remember thinking I can't wait to get back to Mladost in Sofia where it's safe.

But back to poor Fergie. She was later caught out by Radio 5 interviewer Richard Bacon when he asked her opinion of the recent furore over the state of the British National Health Service, i.e Bacon was trying to lure her into making an opinion about what is - after all - one of the most controversial but important issues of the day. Fergie couldn't give an answer, saying that she "would have to read all the facts first", as if she needed, after 50 years of life as a British citizen, to familiarise herself with the merits or otherwise of the NHS. So perhaps it's best if she does stay in America, after all.