Broken Britain

Bosun Higgs said:
News means something new . It doesnt mean a routine trundle across the Atlantic or even a single handed sail round the world. It means someone doing something for the first time as Chichester did.

The Jester thing might well interest some sailors but probably not even the majority of them. Newspapers survive on a good judgement of what will catch the imagination of the paper buying public. And lets face it, more men are interested in Jordan's knockers than are in small sailing boats
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Sorry BH to disagree…..but!
Yes if you are still a relatively young red-blooded male then your focus/interest will be on Jordan’s Knockers. But once you have had a few, and seen many then your interest in life has to be more that just T&A, which is what most (not all) of them are (me thinks I could be in DEEP Doo Doo now!) ;)
Surely what we need is something more of a challenge. Yes..... some T&A on a reasonably regular basis is nice, but a dangerous and constantly changing and challenging environment, over many weeks, on many levels surely will give you more of a sense of accomplishment, is newsworthy and will be more memorable…… will it not? :D

There is a quote from the series “Men Behaving Badly” I will have to find on this very subject.
 
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Bosun Higgs said:
News means something new . It doesnt mean a routine trundle across the Atlantic or even a single handed sail round the world. It means someone doing something for the first time as Chichester did.
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On the other hand, BBC News has got Chelsea Bl**dy Flower Show on its front page for the 18,000,000th time. That's not exactly a surprise event, is it?
 
A newsworthy event must start and finish in as short a time as possible. A sting (Fergie)by a newspaper to generate news can be over in less than an hour. The newspaper can then milk it for weeks. The start and finish of the actual event must be within average attention span.

In principle it has got nothing to do with a first time event. A football match happens nearly every day but the result of every game is mostly definitive after only 90 minutes. And almost every day a football match makes the front page. It is the reason cricket is second fiddle to football with their FIVE DAY test matches. Cricket folk have tried to make the game more popular with limited overs and fancy dress, but until they can get each game time down to one TV slot it will always be second fiddle.

The idea that news must be new is ridiculous. Example (among many). In WW1 a soldier was injured close to enemy lines. He could see the rescue party on its way and he knew they would be machine gunned if they continued. He shouted to send them back but the rescue party carried on. So he stood up to take a fatal burst. The rescue party turned back. The soldier received a postumous Victoria Cross. I don't know the details, just hearsay from my own time in the mob.

If an identical act of heroism happened today in Afganistan, would the Newspapers say "Sorry mate, that's been done before. No medal and no News".

No, of course not. The important thing is that the event was over in a space that bridged one newspaper edition or one TV news slot.

A sailing race (rally) that takes thirty days from start to finish does not stand a chance.
 
To say something that has been done before is not news worthy is tripe.
Read the 6 back pages of any news paper and what you'll find are events that take place every weekend all over the Country and abroad. It's not the fact that a bunch of men are playing footaball or rugby or cricket (yawn) that make it news but it's what they did, how they did it and who won. Finding a target audience for your news is a different augument altogether. I'd love to see more sailing, windsurfing, dinghy articles in the national press after all we are bloody good at it.
Keep it up Nathan.
 
BlueTwo said:
The idea that news must be new is ridiculous. Example (among many). In WW1 a soldier was injured close to enemy lines. He could see the rescue party on its way and he knew they would be machine gunned if they continued. He shouted to send them back but the rescue party carried on. So he stood up to take a fatal burst. The rescue party turned back. The soldier received a postumous Victoria Cross. I don't know the details, just hearsay from my own time in the mob.

If an identical act of heroism happened today in Afganistan, would the Newspapers say "Sorry mate, that's been done before. No medal and no News".
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If it happened twice a day, yep. "Normal" military deaths in Afghanistan are barely local news now.
 
Most 'News' isn't really, is it?

Its about entertaining the punters and getting them to come back tomorrow and buy another slice of that papers interpretation of yet more 'news', washed down with piccies of course. Any attempt to make the readers think harder is going to be balanced against sales ( but sadly not sails).

I think there really is still an appetite by the public for sailing heroics, because each new generation is there to be inspired. Ellen MacArthur didn't really 'win', but her spirit and inspiration and encouragement to others is palpable.

A really good pic of a powerful multihull aflying will catch the publics attention and sell of course, shame video can only be embedded in the online papers and youtube.

I wonder how bothered most Jester entrants are about The Press really? Seems a very odd reason to go to sea.

Declaring an interest of sorts, I had a Corribee like Nathans but with junkrig derived from Blondie Haslers Jester days. Which delivered me safely and faultlessly many many miles and was a real boon to short handed sailing and an absolute delight to sail in creeks or across oceans, except upwind in a headsea.. Pretty innovative stuff at the time, before expensive furlers and in mast reefing etc.

I am sure parts of Britain really are pretty broken. Anyone who waits for a politician to sort out their lives for them needs their head examined ! Small boat sailors definitely don't subscribe to that pathos ! As Chay Blythe ( another sailor once feted by the broadsheets) said, if you think you can, you probably can. And if you think you can't, well you'll probably fail, won't you?

Great bit of writing there Nathan. What next ?
 
Broken Britain? I dont think so Nathan. Your article clearly demonstrates that by recognising the efforts of the Jester Challenge participants. I would propose that all over Britain "Great British people on a Great British Adventure" are working on their endeavours. In fact it is boringly normal and covers such a broad spectrum from teenage Home Carers to Ben Nevis Wheel Chair Climbers.

What I notice is the Cult of Complaining, not the type of complaint one makes to a waiter when there is a fly in ones soup, but a continual diatribe against normality. This shows a certain insecurity in the UK where fame, beauty and monetary wealth is desired to be normal. Or does it? Is reporting on the size of Jordan's boobs or the failure of a famous person just a distraction for banal life. Probably, but in doesn't mean that Britain is broken.
 
Interesting Post, which I have much sympathy for, I haven't regularly bought a daily newspaper for over 20 years.

But I would prefer to see the exploits of the Jester challenge participants has evidence of our strengths than the lack of reporting as evidence of "Broken Britain". Whether most of the entrants would actually want the sort of publicity most newspapers are keen on is highly doubtful.

I don't think you can compare the Jester Challenge with the 60s Transatlantic and Round the World Yachtsmen for newsworthiness but it would be nice if there was a bit more thoughtful reporting of those who take on and meet their personal challenges. I would certainly agree that your Blog entry deserves a wider audience.
 
It's a bit long, to be honest, Nath. You need to dumb it down a bit, use shorter words and bigger fonts - fills the same space then. Pictures, too. Especially naked sailing wenches. That's what you want.

TBH, I think it's some of us that are out of touch. I remember when Knut Haugland died last year, or, further back, when Cousteau died. I was devastated. These were true boyhood heroes, people the like of which we won't see again, but nobody seemed to care.

Then I realised that it was me that was odd, for loving reading about these people, most people do seem more interested in Ceri Katona (or whatever her name is).

One minor point. Beckham in Afghanistan. From what I understand, his visit was really well received, and it made a lot of folks over there very happy, with the World cup coming up. I have no probs with that, those guys deserve a bit of that.
 
Alcyone said:
One minor point. Beckham in Afghanistan. From what I understand, his visit was really well received, and it made a lot of folks over there very happy, with the World cup coming up. I have no probs with that, those guys deserve a bit of that.
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Absolutely. I didn't intend to suggest it was a bad thing. It's just, well, I can't help but feel the world would be a better place if they got the same pleasure out of meeting Sir Chris Bonnington, or somebody like that. I guess I'm just different too.

In all honesty, absolutely truthfully, if I had the choice between going for a pint with David Beckham, or a schnapps with one of the guys that stormed the heavy water plant at Telemark... David would be drinking alone. the only reason I'd even stop to think about that choice, would be if the pint was a crisp jar of Coniston Bluebird. :)

Some achievements are pretty impressive, and some are truly awesome.
 
nathanlee said:
Absolutely. I didn't intend to suggest it was a bad thing. It's just, well, I can't help but feel the world would be a better place if they got the same pleasure out of meeting Sir Chris Bonnington, or somebody like that. I guess I'm just different too.

In all honesty, absolutely truthfully, if I had the choice between going for a pint with David Beckham, or a schnapps with one of the guys that stormed the heavy water plant at Telemark... David would be drinking alone. the only reason I'd even stop to think about that choice, would be if the pint was a crisp jar of Coniston Bluebird. :)

Some achievements are pretty impressive, and some are truly awesome.
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Exactly.

Now, if it was Gareth Edwards.......;)

On the DVD of Lord of the Rings, I forget which one, all the stars are filming and Edmund Hillary turns up. They are all chuffed, but Andy Serkis (who is himself a climber) is blown away at meeting the great man. It is brilliant to watch. Serkis played Gollum, and King Kong, Ian Dury, as I'm sure you know.

In 2000, I dived in Sudan. It was stunning, unspoiled reefs, and sharks everywhere. The highlight though, was visiting Cousteau's conshelf. You can still actually dive and enter some of the buildings in his underwater city of the 1960s. It's giving me goosebumps just writing about it.

Maybe it's just that so many of the great firsts have been done long ago, but I'd hate to be a kid growing up in school now, with no 'real' heroes to look up to.
 
I was vastly encouraged by a visit to West Mercia last weekend. It was great to see teenagers growing up the way I did; rowing, sailing, canoeing, generally messing around in boats. No grief, no swearing, no aggression, no posing or posturing.

What a contrast to the teenagers I see hanging around moaning there's nothing to do. (By which they really mean no-ones there to spoon feed them.)

The former will never make the papers.

The latter often does, then some councilor gets taken in, then some MP sees political capital in it and jumps on the bandwagon then we all end up paying for 'Youth Projects' for the losers to moan about and fail take part in.

It's not about money, it's the press encouraging sinking to the lowest common denominator.
 
But the majority of the ones who are playing nicely and messing about in boats will be from relatively afluent families, where mum and dad actually give a toss about them, and will encourage them to go, provide transportation, read the newsletters, occasionally muck in to make it happen, etc.

If mum and dad are pissed, high, trapped in a meanial job working 8 till 8, and/or single with four other kids, all that goes out of the window. As a volunteer coach I see this every week.

You're right that it's not about the money, it's about social colateral, which money can't easily buy.
 
nathanlee said:
It was 23 years before I was born, but it shows what a different place Britain must have been back then
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Sorry mate, completely off beam. The Observer was a quality Sunday paper and a comparison to today's 'tits & celebs' papers is nonsense.

In those days the equivalent of today's red-tops, the News of the World, was busy pretending outrage at lecherous vicars and adulterous schoolmarms. True, the celebrity cult hadn't really got going then but the expression 'gutter press' is a very old one.

Coverage of the OSTAR was certainly a big thing, at least in the one paper but that was because it was new. There is a clue in the word 'newspaper'.

When I entered in 1976 it still got a fair bit of coverage but largely because it had become a spectacle with freaks like Club Med at 236ft. After that it ceased to interest the public and not long afterwards the Observer dropped it as interest shifted to the French professionals and British amateurism could no longer keep pace.

There is a lot wrong with Britain today but there was a lot wrong in 1960 too. Beware of lecturing those of us who were there about 'what it must have been like' in our day.
 
There were indeed Teddy boys with knives, bike chains & razors in the '50's - and in the 60's I was invited to go to a planned gang fight in the local park after dark. My pal said, "it's great fun, you can kick their heads in" or similar as a supposed inducement. Somehow it never occured to him that our own heads might get kicked. I started mixing with a different crowd.

I don't think too much has changed, mass communication has made it easier & quicker to gather together or spread ideas, but people are still much the same, ranging from genious thro average to idiot. There are still very rich & poor, although actual, genuine poverty is MUCH rarer. Bad money management & drink & drug dependancy have also been around a long time with perhaps a greater choice & availablility of drugs today.
 
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Searush said:
There were indeed Teddy boys with knives, bike chains & razors in the '50's - and in the 60's I was invited to go to a planned gang fight in the local park after dark. My pal said, "it's great fun, you can kick their heads in" or similar as a supposed inducement. Somehow it never occured to him that our own heads might get kicked. I started mixing with a different crowd.

I don't think too much has changed, mass communication has made it easier & quicker to gather together or spread ideas, but people are still much the same, ranging from genious thro average to idiot. There are still very rich & poor, although actual, genuine poverty is MUCH rarer. Bad money management & drink & drug dependancy have also been around a long time with perhaps a greater choice & availablility of drugs today.
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Coming from the same era I can agree with much of what you say Searush. But there have been changes for the worse without doubt.
1/ Notwithstanding your pals comments, they didnt kick heads in in those days and murders by violence were far fewer. Todays kids seem to have been raised by a diet of stupid king fu films to believe you can kick someone in the head and they will just get up as normal - not die
2/ The extent of street violence has dramatically increased . Yes it happened in our day but it wasnt a problem that made inner cities no go areas
3/ There has been a dramatic decline in the respect for authority so the arrival of a single policeman on the scene no longer works as it did. A fair proportion of modern kids are way beyond any control.

So yes it all happened in the past but it wasnt as nasty or as frequent.
 
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