If You Believe ‘The Outdoors Should Be Accessible To Everyone’, Then This Is The Result

When Neil Barrow first volunteered with mountain rescue 40 years ago, for weeks on end the Lake District fells would be capped with snow. Winters with the Patterdale mountain rescue team, of which he is now deputy leader, would involve big and complicated rescues, during which he would bring down the experienced hikers who had become injured or ill tackling the national park’s famous peaks in snow and ice. But thanks to climate change, the Lake District is no longer a winter destination for experienced mountaineers, and instead their rescues often involve ill-prepared novices who are chasing the sunsets and vistas that they have seen on Instagram and TikTok.

Ah, the new generation!  

David Gracie, a volunteer of nine years and one of the team’s other deputies, said many of the callouts involved groups of younger people who, pre-pandemic, may not have thought to visit the Lakes.

I don't thing the last four words were all that necessary, David. 

“I guess people can see on the phones and through social media, there’s more stuff going on, and I think they’re keener to get out and go and see and explore, which is great,” he said. However, issues arise when walkers are underprepared or overestimate their ability to tackle some of the more challenging hikes. Often inexperienced hikers will set off too late. One group took the train all the way from Brighton before setting out on a climb the same day, and ended up calling for help in the early hours of the next morning. Their most recent rescue, Farley said, involved two girls who had been using a navigation app on their phone, and called for help from Striding Edge. “We went up and they said they’d seen something on TikTok, and they wanted to go up to the top of Helvellyn, and they didn’t quite make it to the top,” he said. “They got a bit stuck, and then got really scared, and then they called for help. I guess that’s a little bit more typical now.”

Welcome to the modern world. It must be tiring enough to have to go rescue someone experienced who has been caught out by a sudden change in weather, but to have to rescue some braineless 'influencer' intent on getting more clicks must be utterly infuriating. I don't know how they do it.

Especially since they do it for nothing... 

All of this means the team’s workload has almost doubled – they previously averaged somewhere between 60 and 65 jobs a year. “It’s got more time-consuming, without a doubt,” Barrow said. The intensity is taking its toll. They are unpaid volunteers, with jobs, and many with young families as well. The fear, Farley said, was “if the numbers continue to rise, I don’t know whether it is sustainable in the long run.”

It isn't. And could there be a greater contrast between rescuers and rescued? 

“I am not sure why we are continuing to give these older people a platform.”

Because they built that platform, and the sport that you are paid vast sums to appear in.

Hamilton has for the moment also ended his long-running stand-off with the FIA over removing his piercings while driving. Since April the FIA’s strict enforcement of its rule banning drivers from wearing jewellery in the car has been at odds with Hamilton, who has said he would not remove his nose stud.

The issue has been put on hold twice since then under medical exemptions and Hamilton could have faced a potential ban from racing had it not been resolved but the FIA has now confirmed Hamilton has removed the piercing for practice at the British Grand Prix.

They tended not to boast about what they'd do before caving in like a sulky toddler promised an extra helping of ice cream before doing what they were told to in the first place, too... 

But She's Not A Child, Judge...

Judge Rupert Lowe said: “From a great deal of what I’ve read about you it seems like you’re rather proud of that (criminal record).

“You like getting into the trouble and like getting the public to spend thousands and thousands of pounds on you, your friends seem to like it and that’s the way you’re living your life.

“People actually have a need for police when real crimes take place and children like you, who like to waste people’s time, make that impossible.

“You are effectively a badly behaved child.

"This is a troubled young lady who will need ongoing help and support.”

“I have no doubt your difficult background obviously plays a part in your bad childish behaviour, but what you will realise in due course is when you get past the age of 18 you are not a child anymore.

“There will come a point when you will have to become a grown up.

“I think you regarded that (Criminal Behaviour Order) as a bit of a game to play. You go round breaching it so you can get all the attention from the authorities.”

So how old is this lisping little moppet? 

Using fake names, the 19-year-old made 16 bogus calls reporting women carrying weapons and self-harming in public.

Err... 

Psychiatrist Dr Muzaffar Hussain told the court Williams, formerly from Medway and Kent Avenue, Canterbury, before moving to Basildon, Essex, did not suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder.

Her barrister Kerry Waite argued Williams is “a young person crying out for attention and help” who suffers “a great deal of immaturity”.

As the great Vampire Slayer once said "No, that's when you shout 'Help!' in a loud voice." 

Neoteny Generation...

"The tree appeared to be stable and I think there were people walking under the tree in front of me. I decided it was probably the optimum route," she said in a statement read to court.

"I walked my dog under first and I followed. It was clearly open."

She added: "I don't recall seeing any officer on my side of the road and no-one tried to stop me from walking under the tree."

Yes, of course, it must have been the fault of the police, and never, ever the people who decided to walk under the tree....

But since they get blamed for it regardless, is it surprising when they overreact?

Enter It For The Turner Prize!

Debbie Ballard had an armchair she didn't want. What to do? Well, what else but just leave it in her front garden?

The council sent Ms Ballard a letter last week demanding the mum-of-two remove the chair within 14 days, labelling it as “rubbish”.

Did this shame her into moving it? Did it make her wonder if perhaps she, a 47 year old jobless single mother reliant on state handouts, had some responsibility not to (further) blight the area around her? Did she look at the neat gardens around her and think maybe they'd rather not live next to a tip?

Reader, it did not:

… the former IT manager pointed out many front yards in the street had rubbish, broken furniture and debris piled high and pavements were covered with litter and dog mess. Ms Ballard called on the council to focus on street cleaning and worse eyesores before targeting on her single chair.

Ah, yes. The ‘But everyone else does it even more!’ gambit. Did that work when you were a kid? It didn't when I was. It certainly doesn't work when it can be seen that the houses around her aren't like this, when the 'Daily Mail' photographer comes to call...

And then what else, for today’s attention-seeking child-adult, but go one step further in protest at daddy council’s order?

Debbie Ballard has built a quaint living room scene, complete with potted plants and framed pictures of pets, in the front garden of her Westcliff home after Southend Council asked her to remove an armchair.

Strangers have been turning up at the house in Salisbury Avenue to take photographs.

A perfect vignette of a certain section of modern society. Innit?