A fool and his money . .

Could you do with a few extra bob? Well, last week the Star had a story that seemed to us to be a sure-fire, no-small-print-honest, get-rich-quick scheme that should solve all your fiscal troubles. Just get on a cheap flight to Liverpool, get the bus to the English Rose pub in Halewood and ask the bloke at the pool table for his autograph.

And ask him again and again and again. Eh? Landlady Jayne Scroggie told the Star that none other than Paul Gascoigne has been spending all his time playing pool in her pub since picking up a thigh injury in November (drinking pints of orange squash, she insists) and whenever anyone asks him for an autograph he whips out a £10 note, scribbles his name on it and hands it over.

In five afternoons last week he paid out . . . u £900. The bulk of which went to a coach load of kids and their parents who arrived from London. "He is the most generous bloke I've seen in ages," marvelled Jayne. Orange squash, eh?