THE events of late April 2009 will long remain in the memory of everyone connected with Sandringham School.

Losing two, young, promising students in such tragic circumstances left the district stunned.

I doubt anyone – other than those who have suffered such a loss – will be able to comprehend what the grieving families of Elliot Simms and Georgia Sharman have been through and still have to endure on a day-to-day basis.

Both inquests were heard last week and the added attention must have been an unwanted addition to an unbelievably stressful week.

I hope, however, that an event held at Sandringham earlier this month gave them reason to smile.

The school’s pupils staged the “Eee and Gee Festival” in memory of the two talented pupils and I believe our article on pages four and five shows just how popular both schoolchildren were.

I think all involved in the festival deserve a huge pat on the back – from headteacher Alan Gray to the pupils who co-ordinated the event.

I am sure the festival was warmly appreciated by both families.

It must mean so much to them to see so many school pupils pulling together to remember Elliot and Georgia in such spectacular fashion.

The Review newsdesk received several calls – including one from Mr Gray – thanking us for our unsensationalised coverage of both inquests.

Obviously we were keen not to upset the family further and I believe highlighting the Eee and Gee Festival pays them a far more fitting tribute.

As a newspaper we do have a duty to report the inquests thoroughly, but hopefully all affected will now immediately remember this unique event when they think of Elliot and Georgia.

GORDON Brown has already let the bankers off the hook and now he is letting them take the you-know-what.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research says city bank bonuses could hit £6 billion this year – an increase of £4bn from 2008.

Excuse me for being surprised, but I was under the impression that our Prime Minister had taken action against the banking bonus culture.

With Sir Thomas Legg’s letters whipping up the storm surrounding MPs’ expenses again, many politicians are probably relieved to see our bankers back in the headlines. Sadly, we are not.

And just when we thought our blood could not boil any further, Lord Griffiths, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International, was on hand to pop up with a quote proving that Nick Griffin is not the only man who does not understand the British public.

The Tory peer said that the hard-working British public should “learn to tolerate the inequality of bonuses”.

But we did, Mr Griffiths. We tolerated it right up until our taxes bailed your lot out.

Thank goodness for a refreshing look at the bonus culture by shadow chancellor George Osborne.

He has called for emergency action to ban banks from paying such bonuses whilst instead forcing them to lend the money to struggling businesses and families instead.

He said Brown and Darling’s plans to ease the credit crunch and reform the banks had been a catastrophic failure – I added the word “catastrophic” by the way – whilst urging the Financial Services Authority to threaten to withdraw taxpayer guarantees to High Street banks if they continued with the cash bonus culture.

Mr Osborne said: “We supported the bank bailouts to get banks lending again, not to support bankers’ bank accounts.

“Yet the taxpayer-subsidised profits are being used not to get lending going but to pay out massive bonuses again.”

I could not have put it better myself.