Wednesday 22 May 2013

The First Rule Of (Children’s) Fight Club…

…is that there will be no Fight Club. At least, not if Southend Council have their way:
The Elite Fighting Championship: Double Impact event was supposed to take place at the Chase Sports and Fitness Centre in Westcliff on Saturday. However, a council spokesman said on Friday:
“Unfortunately we have had to ask for this mixed Thai and boxing event to be cancelled due to fundamental concerns over child protection.
“This centred around the apparent age of the children competing in this event.”
 Yes. That's all.

Oh, that and they had the nerve to fail to genuflect and ask their ruler's permission, of course:
The spokesman said had the council been involved from the beginning the outcome may have been different.
Oh, really? So, it's not really the age you object to at all, it's that they had the temerity to think they could do something without involving the State?
He said: “Then we would have been able to raise our concerns over the age of some competitors; the event organiser could have perhaps has a modified format, allowing it to go-ahead.”
 Even better - this was a charity event.
The poster for the Westcliff bouts features pictures of both children and adults, and advertised it as being a mixed “muay thai, K1 and boxing event” which was donating money to the Macmillan Cancer Support Fund.
/golfclap for Southend Council there, then...

6 comments:

Twenty_Rothmans said...

Inspired by your story, I googled 'mealy-mouthed cock' in the hope of identifying a position vacant for someone just like the anonymous 'council spokesman'.

Although the results were quite interesting, alas, it seems that the job market might not be so lucrative for him.

The I googled 'wanker'...

I kind of wish I hadn't.

Umbongo said...

Macmillan Cancer Care is a genuine charity. I wonder if Southend Council would have been so solicitous of the cheeeeldren's welfare had the event been in support of WWF, Oxfam or any fake/political charity you care to name.

Bucko said...

Learning a martial art is like learning any other sport or learning a musical instrument. In order to become an expert, you need to start in childhood.

This is nothing to do with child protection, councils just hate to see people having fun.

Dr Cromarty said...

If they think MMA is tough they should see what happens in the ruck in mini rugby among the 10 year olds.

Clarissa said...

I take it that Southend Council will be banning the teaching of martial arts anywhere in the borough? For the sake of the children, obviously.

JuliaM said...

"I kind of wish I hadn't."

Heh!

" I wonder if Southend Council would have been so solicitous of the cheeeeldren's welfare had the event been in support of WWF, Oxfam or any fake/political charity you care to name."

I wonder if perhaps that's why they wanted a seat at the table? To steer such discussions their way?

"This is nothing to do with child protection, councils just hate to see people having fun."

Well, this IS the council that forgot to calculate for parents who wanted to watch their kids play sport, so it's clearly an alien concept to them.

"I take it that Southend Council will be banning the teaching of martial arts anywhere in the borough? "

Oh, you just know they would if they could!