While I despise the third sector that takes the taxpayer shilling, I am not opposed in principle to charitable giving. However, I equally despise the flamboyant, overtly self-aggrandising charity events that are more about the fund-raiser than the charity. If you want to give, then give, and keep it to yourself. If you want to get others to give, well, tell them about the cause and ask if they are willing to donate.
But, no, we get the braggarts and show-offs who just have to let the world know how wonderful they are and in so doing are happy to inconvenience those around them.
A man on a lawnmower is set to cause delays for motorists in Hampshire, Berkshire and Oxford.
Phil Voice is travelling 1,250 miles from Bergerac in France to John O’Groats in aid of horticultural charity, Perennial.
Travelling at an estimated 10mph on the professional ride-on mower through West Meon and Headley, he is expected to reach Oxford late on Saturday.
Okay, I’ve not heard of this charity before. Now that I have, you can be damned sure that I will never donate to it. My reaction here is to curse Phil Voice for being arrogant, selfish and self-righteous. Who does he think he is, forcing the traffic to travel at 10mph, just so that he can boast about his chosen charity event? I am not well disposed to this kind of behaviour at all. Indeed, my reaction is to observe that the man is an areshole of the first order. A bit like the cretin who thinks that the London Marathon is there for his benefit and the rest of London be damned while he crawls around the route dressed as a snail (although in his case, even the charity decided enough was enough).
All that said, the dreadful Children in Need yetanotherthon is looming on the horizon. Yet again we will see idiot celebrities queuing up to make fools of themselves all in the name of charideee. No, I’m not going to give you any money. I’ll find an independent charity that quietly gets on with its business without making a huge fuss and give it to them.
Yes, I understand that charities need to let people know what they are about. However, it can be done without these cretinous marathons and stupid fundraising events. If it is worth giving to and people want to support it, then it will succeed. If not, well, then it should go.
Jimmy Savile was of course the personification of Charidee.
I live not too many kilometers from Bergerac and NOBODY that I know French or British has heard of this, as far as I am aware his journey has not been on local or national television, but then the French don’t have much respect for charities as they see charitable institutions as robbers.
And who would gainsay them?
This attention-starved numpty will be driving on single-tracked country lanes if that’s the route he’s taking. That’s farming country. If a proper tractor doesn’t tip him into a ditch, he’ll probably get stuck behind a silage trailer.
A leaky silage trailer, perhaps… 😈
God forbid that an eccentric Englishman going about his lawful business should dare to do something that might cause a handful of others a momentary delay. Just how much is a small vehicle moving at ten miles an hour likely to genuinely hold up a car?
Perhaps you need to reexamine your liberal sympathies.
I don’t need to re-examine anything. The man is a selfish attention seeking arsehole (his nationality is neither here nor there) deserving of no sympathy from me and will get none. The how much is irrelevant; the fact that he is doing it is enough. Not causing others unnecessary inconvenience is a basic courtesy.
If the how much is irrelevant, then by driving or riding any sort of vehicle we all commit the same offence: we delay one another, we cause inconvenience. It is an inevitable consequence of using common resources. One might even call it tragic.
I’ve seen a few strawmen in my time, but this empire state sized one is worthy of a CAP subsidy all of its own. Congratulations.
Yes but, John, but most of us don’t use common resources as a platform on which to display attention-seeking twattery, precisely because we know we have the potential to inconvenience others.
Precisely. The difference is obvious.