Nobbut Laiking, by Ross Brewster
Rolling Stone wrinkly Sir Mick Jagger may be speaking more sense about what lies behind the recent riots that have plagued towns and cities than all the experts, academics and politicians.
Recalling the riots in London in 2011, Mick offers the theory that rather than class war and fatherless youth, every 10 years or so people like a good bundle.
“It is a regular feature of English urban life,” said the Stone. “Every 10 years you get some riots.”
The hundreds of arrests and late night court sittings takes me back to the early 1980s and Willie Whitelaw’s “short, sharp shock” experiment with a military-style regime in prisons imposed by the Conservative Government. I’m not sure it was terribly effective.
But even more, I reported on the invasion of scooter riding mods to Keswick in 1981 when only a thin blue line of police saved the town from a trashing.
They held a special court then and threatened to confiscate the yobs’ scooters unless they paid substantial fines.
It worked. The mods never returned. I wonder if Mick Jagger has a view on justice, Cumbrian style?
The forgotten British Olympic hero
There was much looking back over footage of Britain’s heroic gold medal winners of the past during the television coverage of the Paris Olympics.
But one gold medallist with links to the Lake District didn’t win one of the glamour events, nor was he given to self-promotion.
I was about 13 at the time and I recall that race walker Don Thompson came to Keswick for a holiday after winning the 50km at the Rome Olympics in 1960.
He ended up in Keswick Cottage Hospital with a mystery virus. I can’t remember the details, but I do know he was in hospital for several days and they never got to the bottom of his illness.
Although he lived near London, he had been to the Lakes previously to complete his training for the Olympics. He was an unknown outside the niche world of race walking. People saw this little chap with the funny walk, but had no idea he was going to win a gold medal.
In those days athletes were amateurs. A few probably got money under the counter, but most had to fit their training and racing in with their everyday work.
Just like one of the British team in Paris who is not part of the officially funded team and had to be back at work last Friday.
Don Thompson was a qualified teacher, but worked as a council gardener and his training week in the Lake District was thought to be a luxury. No Lottery funding or sponsorship back then.
The “little mouse” as the Italians nicknamed him had, before the games, trained in his bathroom at home with a kettle and heater to mimic the temperatures he would face in Rome. He once collapsed and it turned out it was the fumes from the paraffin heater not the heat itself. His mum even knitted him a special hat to keep the sun off his neck.
He was our only track and field gold medallist that year. What a contrast to 2024, although there are lots more medals to be won nowadays. In the 60s it was mainly events in the stadium or swimming.
Our only other gold medallist in 1960 was a female swimmer, Anita Lonsbrough.
Don Thompson continued competing for another 40 years and at 58 was the oldest person to represent Britain internationally. He collapsed at home and died in 2006 aged 73.
Few remember his Olympic feat or his visits to the Lake District. Thompson is very much a forgotten hero.
Another of Aunty’s bloomers
Aunty has certainly got her knickers in a twist over Huw Edwards. The disgraceful thing is not that they continued paying him while he was suspended, but that he was earning nearly £500,000 a year, and had just got a £40,000 raise.
It sounds to me like their top earners are a jealous bunch and not too many tears have been shed over Edwards’s departure.
I do sympathise however with the point the BBC are making, that he had not admitted or been convicted of any offences at the time. It was only when he appeared in court recently that he admitted guilt to possession of child sex abuse images.
The BBC surely had to keep paying him because it was their decision to suspend him and a man is innocent until proven guilty. Whether he was morally right to accept it is another matter.
The innocent have already paid a heavy price
Where does that leave those people who were wrongly jailed and are now being asked to pay back the bed and breakfast part of their compensation for the time they spent inside?
They were serving lengthy sentences for crimes they did not commit. It seems wholly inappropriate to sting them a second time by charging for their accommodation in prison.
Their time in prison will have cost them the ability to work, relationships and probably their homes. Punishment enough for the legally innocent without cutting their compensation payouts.
