swimmer interrupts boat race

dickydonkin

chucknorris wrote: »

Well said!

I have no particular interest in the boat race, but obviously appreciate that a lot of people do and also the effort and hours training that the athletes who took part in it invested in the race.

Effort, hard work and training happens every day in schools, sports clubs etc. Events get disrupted for various reasons - weather, illnesses etc.

Nobody has died here - a non event has been disrupted - it happpens all the time.

Again - missing the point. I said from the onset of my first post, I did not condone the action of the swimmer disrupting an event - something you failed to metion in your selective quote.

My moan was the cost of coverage for an event that generates little interest outside of the Capital and amongst the student and Champagne Charlie fraternity.

Reminds me of the old joke about Oxford and Cambridge rowers getting to the boat race final every year! It would not be so bad if the boat race was the climax of a knock out tournament as we have in football and rugby - but it isn't - it is just a non event in my mind - although I appreciate some do enjoy it.

chucknorris

dickydonkin wrote: »

Again - missing the point. I said from the onset of my first post, I did not condone the action of the swimmer disrupting an event - something you failed to metion in your selective quote.

.

I think you are mixing me up with someone else I have only posted on this thread the once!

System

dickydonkin wrote: »

Effort, hard work and training happens every day in schools, sports clubs etc. Events get disrupted for various reasons - weather, illnesses etc.

Nobody has died here - a non event has been disrupted - it happpens all the time.

Again - missing the point. I said from the onset of my first post, I did not condone the action of the swimmer disrupting an event - something you failed to metion in your selective quote.

My moan was the cost of coverage for an event that generates little interest outside of the Capital and amongst the student and Champagne Charlie fraternity.

Reminds me of the old joke about Oxford and Cambridge rowers getting to the boat race final every year! It would not be so bad if the boat race was the climax of a knock out tournament as we have in football and rugby - but it isn't - it is just a non event in my mind - although I appreciate some do enjoy it.

The tv license argument is idiotic. There are many television program's that have fewer viewing figures than the boat race. I believe it attracts a reasonable television audience so cannot be considered a waste of license payers money.

It sounds like you believe paying a license fee means only program's you want to watch should be shown. I'm not sure it works like that!

System

4.2 million watched the boat race last year. Plus it was shown live in 100 countries. It would be interesting to compare that with the viewing audience of the championship football match that was on tv on bbc1 a couple of days ago

I would suspect less people would have watched the football match

Rex_Mundi

On this guys blog, he says that part of the inspiration for this protest was Emily Davison..........

Part of my inspiration for today’s action comes from a protest action that took place 99 years ago – when Emily Davison ran into Epson Derby race. On the 4 June 1913 Emily ran into the horse that the king had entered. She died from the injuries sustained from action. She was demanding rights for women.

Can anyone honestly tell me that the suffragettes were wrong to mount their campaign (which also included criminal damage and bombings)?

This mans protest was entirely peaceful, but rather than thinking about what led this man to protest, people seem to be more worried about their own enjoyment when the race was stopped ( a continuation of the 'me me me, I'm alright Jack' mindset started in the eighties IMHO).

An increasingly rightwing media and government legislation seem to be moving us to the point that any form of protest is just downright wrong and should be stamped out (including the right to strike).

I am proud that there are still some people out there who feel so strongly about an issue they will risk prosecution and vilification in the media to make a point that this country is becoming increasingly unfair and unjust.

DavidLaGuardia

dickydonkin wrote: »

I don't condone the swimmers actions, however, I do agree that the race is a pointless 'event' between two teams of privileged toffs where the majority of the country could not give a toss of the outcome.

What is more annoying is the BBC coverage which in my mind is a total waste of license payers money - bearing in mind the sports that appeal to the majority are being scrapped because of financial restraints.

1. I really do not think that featuring a rowing event only once a year (apart form the olympics) is giving the sport excessive air time. The event is watched as an enjoyable diversion by many not even into rowing and it's just another event in the calendar to take or leave.
2. "privaledged toffs" is Inverted snobbery based on silly stereotypes.

System

The idiot also advocates that you should set off the fire alarm at work. This could be serious and affect the response time to a real fire emergency. The mans just a prat.

JCS1

davidlizard wrote: »

Cannot agree more.

Only the BBC seem to think the boat race is a serious sporting event. They are only interested these days in covering sports that their "toff" management like - Wimbledon, Rugby Union, Grand National, Golf and the Boat Race.

I did not know what to laugh at most today - the faces and whining of the chinless champagne charlies on the river bank getting wound up because some oik had spoilt their day out, or the pompous BBC having their tongues so far up the backsides of their Oxbridge old boy friends having their bonfire well and truly pee'd on.

Grand National and also Ascot are moving to Channel 4 next year, no more racing on the BBC

Jennifer_Jane

dickydonkin wrote: »

You have missed my point.

I alluded to the point that the majority of people don't give a toss about the outcome of this farce, although the opportunity is there for the many who can attend the event. I can assure you that in my region of the country - other than University Students - it is a non-event.

My gripe was the BBC paying extortionate fees - what I contribute to - to broadcast an event that very few people are interested in - but at the same time, are axeing many sporting events that many viewers are!

You 'Think' the BBC 'probably raked in' the cost of transmitting this folly to other countries - bold assumptions indeed!



Some people may wish to watch programmes with obscene or extremely violent content - are you sugggesting those who would wish those to be banned are also 'narrow minded'?

For minority events like the Boat Race - let Sky or ESPN have it and let those who wish to watch - pay for it and let's see if it really is self financing!

"Satellite broadcasters such as Sky and Setanta are rarely keen to bid for one-off events that cost a great deal to cover, unless they can charge a pay-per-view fee as they do with major boxing matches. The Boat Race is unlikely to fit that profile."

So it's the license payer who will be financing this for the foreseeable future.

First of all, you describe the boat race as a 'farce'. But you forget that it's a tradition enjoyed by people of all types, backgrounds, etc. You don't have to watch, there was cycling on the red button if you preferred. Otherwise there are plenty of other things to watch on TV so that your licence fee is not being wasted.

For me, I am completely uninterested in football, horse-racing, boxing, darts, and various other sports (and including other programmes such as antique programmes/ gardening etc). I do not, however, resent resent my licence fee paying for these things, as other people enjoy them. So why do you? It's not your personal licence fee money paying for this, it's yours and mine, and millions of other people's money. It's a form of tax, and you are not the only person paying this money. Stop being selfish, it's not YOUR money, it's a contribution you and I pay into a specific system.

As someone has posted, 4,2 million people in Britain watched last year. As we keep saying, the Boat Race gets sold to other countries, and it was very much a part of people's lives in South Africa (apart from other countries) as it was here. So the BBC recoups the cost of transmission. We loved watching the race over 2 hours every year. Not much, is it?

Why do you pick up on my words "I think", and "probably" which are clearly assumptions. You, however, give as fact that the majority of people in your area, except for university students, are uninterested in the Boat Race. But you give no statistical figures for your 'fact'. It seems to me that a lot of people watched the event since there have been so many comments on it. Perhaps "the majority" of people in your area are, indeed, more interested in the race, than you think. What is your source for the "majority" fact? Or is it simply that you 'think' that the majority of people are uninterested.

I also find it interesting that you can compare the holding of a Boat Race on a Saturday afternoon, a fairly gentle, environmentally-friendly sport, with "programmes with obscene or extremely violent content". But to answer the question, which I suspect you already know the answer to, is no.

.............................

Going away from replying to your post. I always wonder why people come to this Country and then try to change our traditions and customs. Send Trenton Oldfield back to Australia, if he doesn't like it here, he should go back and disrupt their rowing events.

gazza975526570

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

First of all, you describe the boat race as a 'farce'. But you forget that it's a tradition enjoyed by people of all types, backgrounds, etc. You don't have to watch, there was cycling on the red button if you preferred. Otherwise there are plenty of other things to watch on TV so that your licence fee is not being wasted.

For me, I am completely uninterested in football, horse-racing, boxing, darts, and various other sports (and including other programmes such as antique programmes/ gardening etc). I do not, however, resent resent my licence fee paying for these things, as other people enjoy them. So why do you? It's not your personal licence fee money paying for this, it's yours and mine, and millions of other people's money. It's a form of tax, and you are not the only person paying this money. Stop being selfish, it's not YOUR money, it's a contribution you and I pay into a specific system.

As someone has posted, 4,2 million people in Britain watched last year. As we keep saying, the Boat Race gets sold to other countries, and it was very much a part of people's lives in South Africa (apart from other countries) as it was here. So the BBC recoups the cost of transmission. We loved watching the race over 2 hours every year. Not much, is it?

Why do you pick up on my words "I think", and "probably" which are clearly assumptions. You, however, give as fact that the majority of people in your area, except for university students, are uninterested in the Boat Race. But you give no statistical figures for your 'fact'. It seems to me that a lot of people watched the event since there have been so many comments on it. Perhaps "the majority" of people in your area are, indeed, more interested in the race, than you think. What is your source for the "majority" fact? Or is it simply that you 'think' that the majority of people are uninterested.

I also find it interesting that you can compare the holding of a Boat Race on a Saturday afternoon, a fairly gentle, environmentally-friendly sport, with "programmes with obscene or extremely violent content". But to answer the question, which I suspect you already know the answer to, is no.

.............................

Going away from replying to your post. I always wonder why people come to this Country and then try to change our traditions and customs. Send Trenton Oldfield back to Australia, if he doesn't like it here, he should go back and disrupt their rowing events.

Well if 4.6 million people actually did watch out of a population of around 62 million i would statistically suggest the majority are indeed not interested