World Cup Spoiled by Private Enterprise & BBC

Cliff Richard was the first to note that everybody has a summer holiday and yesterday was ours! We had a day at Brighton to look at the university where Lilly Longtongue will go in September to become a paramedic. Once the talks and demonstrations had finished, we got the bus to town and then on to the beach.

We thought there might be a big screen on the beach to show the big world cup game and sure enough, there was. But it was private. All fenced off and with mesh screens tied to the fence to prevent plebians and oiks from seeing through and watching their national team on the free-to-air BBC. Couldn't have that, could we. Where's the profit incentive?

I'm not sure who fondly believes themselves to be "the owner" of the public beach and felt justified in allowing this private company to fence off a large stretch of it for their noxious enterprise, but it caused all sort of problems.

Firstly you have to picture it if they'd done the right thing and just made the big screen free for everyone to watch. You have to picture the families sat around the whole beach enjoying it. Everyone included. The haves and the have nots too. After all, it's the national football team - it doesn't only belong to the middle classes. The food and drink outlets doing a roaring trade and making a great profit (a profit that could have perhaps been used to fund the screen?). Plenty of bins around for the rubbish. Plenty of portaloos for the people to use. It could have been great.

Now see what actually happened - a expensive, private enterprise fiasco which caused discomfort and nuisance for almost everyone there, irrespective of whether they were a privileged "insider" or (like us) "outsiders".

The cost of the screen must have been dwarfed by the acres of fencing all around, designed to keep the riff-raff out. The fence was draped with the aforementioned anti-visibility mesh nets and patrolled (inevitably) by hired private security goons in hi-vis. As people arrived, a huge queue formed all down the beach of those waiting to get in. The people sweated in the broiling sun, waiting in the enormous queue, whilst a private enterprise lady screeched over the (very loud) loud speakers every 30 seconds "ALL SOLD OUT! ALL SOLD OUT! IF YOU HAVEN'T GOT A WRISTBAND IT'S ALL SOLD OUT!".

As the time of kick off approached, a fairly large crowd of us ne-er do wells had gathered by the fence outside and comrades began to rip down the anti-visibility mesh. The goons tried to stop them, but since it was only held up with garden cable tie things, they had a hopeless job. We now had fairly good visibility now, blocked only by the garden sheds (honestly) that they had lined up inside and were sadly renting to the super-rich for about £1500 a pop, in order for them to have a luxury big match pampering experience.

It's sad to report that amongst our number outside the fence, were some teenager ****s. They liked the drinking and they liked shouting about England, but they weren't really that interested in the football. There were about a dozen of 'em in front of me, all in their strict uniform of tennis shoes, shorts, no shirt, gold chain, hair shaved short on the back and sides and pints of lager. After about 5 mins of the game, half of them were facing the other way with their back to the screen, disappearing for a pish ("in the sea!" they chortled) or getting into impassioned discussions about their girlfriends in ways that made me think: "what a bunch of ****s".

Anyway, first goal went in. Huge cheers from inside and outside. Everyone's happy. At half time, the BBC shows supporter celebrations around the country and the people are throwing beer and glasses up in the air. Which area of the country is best? Lineker and Shearer don't know. Ha ha ha. Throwing beer eh?

Second half starts and now it's a bit rowdier. The boys try to assault the barricades and go over the top, giving one another leg ups to vault over the top. "Like cats" they were said Cif. Very impressive the agility. The goons sprung into action with frantic calls on their walkie talkies and running around grim faced and desperate, trying to catch the acrobats.

Others, less agile but no less determined, used the "Great Escape" method and tried tunnelling down into the beach and underneath the barrier. We saw two lads come along and take a copious pish against the fence, followed a few mins later by an unknowing gentleman who started tunnelling with his bare hands right where they'd been urinating. Yeuch!

When the second goal went in, the boys presumably thought if they threw enough beer around then they might get shown on the telly by Mr Lineker. They'd been set an example and they didn't want to be outdone in what were evidently the de rigeur celebrations. Unfortunately however, since we were free and unregulated thanks to the private enterprise efforts, all our drink was in bottles and tin cans rather than in plastic glasses. It was very dangerous with a hail of these falling back to the beach and quite a number of the bottles smashing on the shingle. We withdrew at this point, because of the kids. I had a little battery radio and so we listened to the remainder of the game on that.

After the game, without wanting to sound Kremlinier than thou, we helped a couple of girls to pick up as much of the rubbish, cans, bottles and broken glass as we could and put it into some of the carrier bags that had been used to bring the booze and then left abandoned to blow over the beach. The broken glass in particular was very dangerous because it sinks in between the stones on the beach and you could hardly see it. There were no bins around at all because no provision had been made for non-payers.

So that was it. A good thing made bad by private enterprise's greed and determination to separate those who can pay from those who can not, along with the BBC's crass stupidity in repeatedly showing celebrations involving throwing glasses and beer and commenting on it approvingly.

I will try to get the effort up to write a letter of complaint to Brighton council, but it's hard to find the motivation when you know you'll be ignored completely in the interest of private profit for some git somewhere.

 

I see the issue clearly. Security was under-armed. Tasers with a 30 ft range would have done the trick and kept order. Is that what your letter would suggest for Wednesday ?

 

Might I propose con******g the beach over will make it far easier in future to sweep broken glass up

 

Sounds a delightful day out.

But yes, corporate greed and beery nationalists could ruin almost anything good that has ever been created.

 

Good to hear (literally) that the private sector loud speaker was working so well.

Public sector tannoys are so often muffled.

 

The most egregious behaviour in this torrid saga was the provocations of Lineker & Shearer.

If only these tools of the state could have followed the diligent example of the private sector security personnel.

 

In Germany in 2006 we ended up in a "fanfest" for the first England game. It was sh*t. I've never been back to one since.

 

Clive, nothing to do with all that commercial balls, it's to do with life and death. I lived in Brighton for 4 years having gone to Sussex Uni (is Lilly Longtongue going there or Brighton?). Good old Brighton resident Fat Boy Slim used to put on brilliant free event on the beach, including the Millennium eve event which attacked over 100,000 of us revellers. He then did another free event due to the success of the previous one, 250,000 turned up and unfortunately, many of us witnessed someone die by falling over the railings and there was also another death there that weekend. The whole town/city was a complete mess, far too many people crushed into a small area of the beach, what was meant to be a party turned into a nightmare for the local authorities and poor Norman, who was just trying to give a free concert to the locals. Hence why, they are no very particular to big events on and around the beach.

By the way, Lilly Longtongue will love living there, thought since I have moved away, it's got a bit too fancy and expensive, even the student area round Lewes road.

 

I'd join Clive and his fellow revolutionaries on this one, while reminding him that some private enterprise operations are good and some public sector ones bad. And there's a good chance that the oiks weren't well-educated and would therefore not be classified by him as middle class.

 

i was going to say, it starts from health and safety and the need to limit/control capacity. But @Timbers got there first.

 

I just don’t know what the appeal of Brighton is. So up itself. It’s got the sea but the beach isn’t very attractive. The city centre is unremarkable. It’s one of the last places in Britain I’d go for a holiday. Pretentious and charmless.

 

Britain is surrounded by sea and apart from towns in Cornwall and Devon there is no where beside the seaside I'd go for a holiday.

 

Sandwood Bay near Cape Wrath in north-west Scotland is the most fabulous beach I’ve been to in the UK. It’s a long walk to get there but well worth it. Of course, getting great weather as well is unlikely.

 

I'm sure she will too. She's very excited about it all and we're very proud of how hard she's worked for it. Passed her driving test first go too, which was a condition of getting on the paramedic degree course also. She stuck a picture of Brighton pier illuminated by night on her bedroom wall to inspire her for her A levels.

I know Brighton itself is fine. Those people were mainly stupid tourists and they're everywhere on the coast at this time of year. Also as Lilly pointed out, it was daytime drinking and people in high spirits. Everyone I've spoken too who's spent any time living there in Brighton has only good things to say.

I did try to motivate Lilly and Cifriana to join in the militant feminist protest march they were staging on the seafront at Brighton on Saturday. It was to demand that men stop sexualising the female breast. It was called 'Free The Nipple'. https://freethenipplebrighton.wordpress.com Very worthy cause that and one which I felt deserved our full support. And very brave and militant too. I presume the organisers were fully aware that the football was on and thought that the best way to publicise the cause would be for about 25 of them to march bare chested in front of around 6000 half cut football coming home beer swillers. Both declined. Bloody secret Tories the pair of 'em I reckon....

 

I can understand the need to get in and view the game inside this fenced off area, after all, it's unlikely you have a TV at home.

 

I agree that all nipples should be freed. Where do I sign ?