Nothing to do with X1/9's

Just back from a few days in Fleetwood/Blackpool and the lakes.Great weather and some time out.
Always wanted to visit Lake Coniston,and find out all about Donald Campbell and the record breaking attempts that went on there.Visited a little museum in the town and saw lots of stuff to do with Bluebird,and the history behind it.The museum were gifted the remains of the craft,which reached over 300 MPH back in the '60's,and found out that its now being restored by volunteers and will be exhibited in a new building to the rear of the museum.The owner told me that they had been turned down by the lottery fund for money to help towards the restoration and building for this hugely famous and important boat.

I was shocked to hear this.Surely Donald Campbell,and Bluebird are part of the reason Britain was considered to be great all those years ago,and should be celebrated.Its people like that,pushing the boundaries that made the rest of the world look to us for engineering and technical expertise,and admired our spirit.

A few weeks ago a few of us went to see Concorde,and marvelled at its uniqueness,and wondered how we have nothing to replace it with,after a generation af technical advancement.If Donald Campbell had completed his second run,his record would have still stood today,and yet his efforts have largely been forgotten and ignored.What the hell has gone wrong?

Sorry to rant and get political,but I needed to vent..hopefully likeminded petrolheads will understand.

Tiff

Certainly do understand. I felt much the same when I visited there some time ago. The funding was just being talked about, I was astonished that there should be doubts or problems.

It's strange isn't it that this generation seems to think little of those achievements made "before their time", when, as you say Tiff, without those people that pushed barriers & doubted conventional thinking at the time much of what has happened since simply would not have! I think we were & still are not great at standing up & celebrating our inovators & the like, something to do with the British reserved nature, (we'd prefer to come second & be popular than win & no-one like us), it happens in sport all day long, but that's another story alltogether! Seems we're happy to pour money into other good causes!!

Cheers,

Nige

totaly agree

visited coniston in early nineties when on my way to penrith, bit of a detour off the m6 but was something i felt i had to do.

if you get the chance watch the BBC docurama "across the lake" with anthony hopkins playing campbell, a very moving storey which makes it clear how much preasure he was under

Totally agree we used to do things like speed records and Concorde just because we could. Now it needs to be PFI project before it's built. We just don't take risks anymore and so don't have the chance of winning.

I couldn't agree more.

The lottery funding was no doubt refused as the 2012 olympics black hole will be allocated the cash instead. How something can have gone up by 7.5 BILLION POUNDS and still be seen as acceptable is beyond me. It seems the original estimate was just a nice, low, random figure in order to get initial backing. The last plympics in Athens cost circa 8 billion (and still rising), so what made people think it would be cheaper in the UK?

Far more deserving causes are being denied with Bluebird being a perfect example.

Just back from Aberdeen and reading this for the first time.....yup.....lets not forget the dome.........something tells me that London gets more than it's fair share.

Adding to the way the Brits are changing and taking things beyond a joke ....these guys that were caught by the Iranian's are now being allowed to sell their stories. What happened to the official secrets act and the fact they were doing a job. Mr Blair, you're a muppet :shock:

We're becoming the laughing stock of the world. We need more people like Richard Branson who are willing to push the boundaries, love him or hate him.

We could also talk about all the railways that were closed too by a certain Mr Beaching. Look now and we could do with them, we could do with super high speed lines also but no, we put up with the same old kak we've lived with for years. As France celebrates it's newest addition to high speed rail transport what do we celebrate ...... ahh, that'll be the selling of Rover and TVR........mmmmmm

BUT THEN WHAT DO I KNOW?

Adding to the way the Brits are changing and taking things beyond a joke ....these guys that were caught by the Iranian's are now being allowed to sell their stories. What happened to the official secrets act and the fact they were doing a job. Mr Blair, you're a muppet Shocked

This is madness...A soldier etc joins the forces to serve queen and country,not to become tv stars,and get rich off the back of what was really quite an intense situation,which could have had far reaching concequences,I read on the BBC website that they have contacted Max Clifford for PR advice.No doubt a copy of the stories will reach the Iranians in the News of the World or similar,and the shit will really hit the fan.Mr Blair is leading us into being a target for the rest of the world,as well as leading us down the garden path.
If I had the cash,and a bit more bottle,I'd be away from this shitehole of a country hopefully to live somewhere where common sense still exsists.Somewhere I could find a dentist.Somewhere I could walk the streets in safety,and not be caught on and shouted at by CCTV cameras rather than real people.Where if I needed hospital treatment,I'd come out better rather than worse.Where I could start a small business without being snowed under by red tape and forms.BUT most of all,where respect and decency still survive.

What makes YOU proud to be British...

Actually I’m with you TIFF in saying at the moment I’m not terribly proud to be British. What I am though, is happy to be living in a country of such diverse beauty. Just this morning for example, I walked my lovely dog (Della the Crufts-Class-Winning Borzoi) down a bridleway to the woods. We saw a few grass snakes and I heard two skylarks singing on either side of the track. There was a multitude of blue plant thingies looking lovely in the verge (need to check up) and a bucket load of pigeons and doves playing chase. The wood was silent although you could still hear the wind moving through the growing crop of barley in the fields Upon heading back to the car I stopped and chatted with an old man with a stick who was leaning on the gate at the top of the track. I went home, got in my sports car and promptly blew up the engine.... nuts...

It’s easy to complain about life and I must admit it is terribly frustrating to see this one great country go downhill but it’s not all bad news and, anyway, which country has all the answers? Watching “A Place In The Sun” just shows it’s not all peachy on another continent. If it was, we’d all be there! Look for the good otherwise you’ll end up bitter and twisted as someone once told me.... Anyway, come back to me around November when it’s cold, foggy, grey and miserable and I might have just changed my mind!

Yeah, I know what you mean,on a blast on the bike up to the highlands on the bike,or wandering through the little villages in the east neuk of Fife,ther's nowhere I'd rather be..but these pleasures are getting less and less all the time,you gotta come home sometime!

Hi Tiff
Glad you enjoyed your trip to Coniston its a great place to wind down (my fav part of the lakes) we go there every year on family mass sailing holiday, my dad worked there for many years teaching sailing on the lake, Quite agree about Bluebird but the way i understood it is that the Cambell family are un-willing to give total ownership of the boat up and this is why the lottery grant was declined.

Lifes all about money................

Mark

Ah. I was under the impression that the boat was gifted to the museum in its entirety..There still must be some fund avaliable to complete the project though.It is a piece of history after all.

WHEN I JOINED THE ARMY IN 1977 YOU HAD TO SIGN THE OFFICAL SECRETS ACT AND I HAD TO SIGN IT AGAIN 12 YEARS LATTER WHEN I LEFT I WAS ALSO WORNED THAT I COULD NOT TELL ANY ONE WHAT I HAD SEEN OR DONE, A LOT OF WHAT I DID IS NOW OLD HAT, BUT BECAUSE I SIGNED THE ACT IF I TELL YOU I WAS IN THE FAUKLANDS I COULD BE DONE FOR REVELING SECRETS ???? YET GOOD OLD MR BLAIR NOW LETS TOM DICK AND HARRY DO WHAT THAY WON`T I THINK HE WILL FIND THAT THAY SIGNED THE SAME ACT AS I DID WHICH MEANS YOU KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT WHICH IS MORE THAN HE CAN DO, I AGREE EWEN HE IS A PRICE DICK HEAD

Think that most of our membership signed your form for the offical secrets act as the editor still needs articles for the magazine :lol:

we in Sutton are awaiting the arrival of the tram !
should be with us next year from Wimbledon and Croydon what goes around comes around.and if we were to raise the bridges on the railways we could have double decker carriages.