Dragons Dens James Caan tries to buy baby girl from family in flood struck village in Pakistan.

[TotorosOcarina]

story here

This really shocked me.

Do you think you get to the point in being so rich you really think you can buy anything?

That family must have been devestated enough at loosing everything without someone trying to buy their daughter.

And £1,500? when he has £130million?

It was just horrible.

Exactly, it is about his brother.

Yes Aitch I do think that complaining about it happening and then complaining about the price is very odd.

LIke the joke about a woman offered a million quid for sex, who agrees, then is offered 50p for sex, and says "what do you think I am" -- response, we've already established that, we're just negotiating over price.

If he's offered, he's offered. If he offered a million pounds you should still find it as reprehensible. Offering more does not ameliorate it.

Madonna and other celebrities have done exactly this. Exactly this. Without the pain of infertility. Have a go at them.

He could have rescued the entire family for £150. But that wouldn't have helped his brother.

I think he and his brother will now be made "offers".

am reluctant to return to the article but where are you getting this £150 from, claig? i thought it was £1500 he said.

it is precisely the 'now we are just haggling' point, apples, i couldn't agree more. that was a peculiar point to make i thought.

you said 10,000 rupees rescues an entire family. In the article it says

"Moments after taking the baby in his arms in a flood-hit village, he offers to buy the child for 100,000 rupees ? about £1,438 ? to give to his brother."

so £1500 = 100,000 rupees
so £150 = 10,000 rupees

so he could have saved the entire family (without the need to remove the newborn baby) for £150.

ten thousand rupees is about 150, actually about 135

wasn't James haggling?

one lac is a vast amount of money in that region

righto. i thought he had offered ten thousand rupees, i was making the point that no doubt that is what he thought he was doing for the rest of the family while also securing a 'better' future for the child with his brother.

no, i don't think he was at all, claig. i think that's a cuntish thing to say actually, and demonstrates how far you are from even the reality that the daily mail has provided for you. i'm off.

I think his offer was a "cuntish thing to say"

I am frankly sick of the super-rich (yes, that includes you, tax-dodging twat Bono) asking ordinary (aka much poorer) people for the kind of cash that they themselves wouldn't bother to fish out from down the back of the sofa. What is 500K to a man worth more than 100million (allegedly)? Why is he getting the glory and the TV deal when it's not even his money?

It's such a male thing, isn't it? JK Rowling just gives her money away and works quietly with charities.

I'm starting to feel a bit sorry for the bloke now. Not often I am moved to pity by attractive multi-millionaires

yeah, some glory, putting himself up to be sneered at for not giving enough, and being followed by an itn crew is a pita and a major hostage to fortune, as this demonstrates.

Yeah, it went wrong, which was entirely his fault! Nobody made him start trying to buy babies for his family as if he was shopping for a bloody puppy. Of course a TV deal is glory. He loves publicity. Nobody does Dragon's Den for altruistic reasons, do they? As for giving 'his expertise', the arrogance of thinking you have more expertise in disaster relief than the major charities that do this day in and day out. He wants to help alright, providing other people pay for it.

Isn't he trying to raise awareness?

'being followed by an itn crew which is a pia' - are you stupid? Do you think the crew was there because they are stalking him? He's making a TV show!

Awareness of himself, primary, I would suggest.

Coldcomfort: yes it's for this reason that I am starting to shudder at Comic Relief, Children in Need.. etc. Celebs could just sit round back stage and work it out between them and save us all the newsreaders in spangles crap that we have to sit through.

agree with ColdComfortFarm. There are loads of charities, possibly doing a lot more, but they don't attract the publicity that he can attract.

I'm not a fan of Ricky Gervais. But have you seen his comedy sketches about Comic Relief when he was on there? I think he got close to the truth about some of it

sorry, ccf, you're just wrong. he was filming an itn report about his charity.