BIT of a choker this.

Six well-heeled guests ran up a bill of £44,007 at TV chef Gordon Ramsay's London restaurant.

The city gents' food bill of £360 was nothing compared to the wine charges.

They downed a cheap bottle of champers at £57, two beers £7, ten bottles of water at £3.50 each, and five bottles of wine dating from 1900 to 1982, ranging from £1,400 a bottle through to £9,200, £9,400, £11,600 and £12,300 for a '47 Petrus.

Who do these people think they are?

Dear Gordon must have been rubbing his hands fulfilling the desires of these self-indulgent greed merchants.

I find it disgusting that they can spend £7,300 a head on a sumptuous feast when half the world is starving - and it's the pitiful thanks for a year's toil for some of our own.

I wouldn't even spend that on a meal if I won the lottery.

Another example of excess: The Sultan of Malaysia is snapping up the dearest private house ever sold in Britain.

The Crown Prince is paying £70m for the unfinished home which has 30 bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, five swimming pools and a polo lawn.

Uptown Court, in Surrey, is said to be like something from a fairy tale - yes, something only 99.9 per cent of us can only dream about.

Who needs all that especially when it will probably hardly ever be used? It's obscene.