Protests against the elite at Oxford - Cambridge boat race

Trenton Oldfield swam in between the two boats of Oxford and Cambridge to disrupt the race to protest against the elite .This begs the question , when the 2012 London Olympics is staged , will we witness more protest against the elite , the fact London is a plutocracy would suggest we will witness such spectacles.

Anti-elitist protester Trenton Oldfield, 35, brought the race to a halt for the first time in 11 years, claiming he deliberately swam in front of the two boat crews.

elitismleadstotyranny.squarespace.com...

www.dailymail.co.uk...

news.sky.com...

Good on him.

Screw the toffs, just a shame the police think this is a crime and deserving of punishment.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Keeps the population in the know of who the police will side with.

Silly little authoritarian drones.

I've been following this since yesterday when it occurred and although I don't really agree with how he protested, it's certainly got a message across, unfortunately people aren't really understanding the message and just name calling.

Trenton has a blog which can be found here: elitismleadstotyranny.squarespace.com...

The people responding to his actions are so blind, it's quite sickening to think that these are my own countrymen playing a part in their own deception. The blog desperately needs other people to join in the argument going on in the comments. They're making Trenton look like a whinging brat and not enough people are providing a counter-argument. Some people have tried, but they are mostly being ignored.

reply to post by mr-lizard

Those "toffs" are just rowers who have never done anything wrong, love their sport, and have spent every waking hour of the past year preparing for that race.

"authoritarian drones"...

With all due respect, your comment is moronic.

Originally posted by FOXMULDER147
reply to post by mr-lizard

 

Those "toffs" are just rowers who have never done anything wrong, love their sport, and have spent every waking hour of the past year preparing for that race.

"authoritarian drones"...

With all due respect, your comment is moronic.

They love their sport cause it demonstrates their wealth and is only available to others with similar wealth. And seriously, owning the water? the river? water rights? Just because its based on a legality doesn't make it right. The protesters weren't stupid. But the reactionaries sure were. If they just considered the protestors to be "obsticales" on par with turtles and rocks and let the race continue it woun't have been such a big deal, even if a protestor got himself hurt. But instead, he's been martyred analogously to Jesus. They succeeded in making an international spectacle representing the abuse of "authority". And the more their punishment the more they proved their point.

WATER IS SACRED - owning it is CRIMINAL. Water Rights are FRACKING WRONGs.

reply to post by Droidinvoid


We have a very long history of snobbery in this country, and we seem to ignore it when we're voting people into power.
We're idiots. We've allowed this to happen and we continue to support it by electing members of the corrupt and self-serving toff classes. We should not be giving these privileged imbeciles any authority, then the entire structure would crumble eventually.

I think this guy is an idiot for doing it the way he did, he really could have been killed. He clearly didn't think it through properly.

But I entirely support his sentiment.

We need to stop these privileged clubs from being automatically given positions of leadership and authority based on nothing but the wealth of their parents.

They are no more intelligent or capable than you or I, and yet they have a seemingly effortless path with doors opened for them and chairs pulled out for them wherever they go.

Time to bring it to an end and start electing genuine people who actually represent the majority of the British public, not simply the wealthy minority and their corporate friends.

you might be annoyed if you had trained for this race, but to class it as a crime, wise the hell up- British "justice" is becoming more about power than law/justice

I see Trenton's blog got pulled in the end then...

elitismleadstotyranny.squarespace.com...

The Daily Mail followed up the event and basically assassinated/discredited his character while inciting violence against him, writing:

So what do those who knew Oldfield as a schoolboy make of his overnight infamy? One wrote on a website: ‘[The words] self-absorbed and self-indulgent spring to mind. I was in the same year as Trenton and find his actions laughable.’

Another wrote ‘I remember him well. He actually made a complaint about a teacher showing parts of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to the class. He was a proper Right-winger back then. I thought he was a d***head.’

A friend of Oldfield who lives in London says: ‘He can be a real charmer. But the truth is that he’s from a privileged background and he’s happy to work his contacts to get ahead. He may dislike elitism, but he’s hardly a working-class hero.’

Indeed, in the coming weeks, Trenton Oldfield might come to realise that making trouble is not always appreciated in the country he has called home for 12 years.

One can’t help but wonder how far this confused young man would get in explaining his political ideas if he were locked in a room with the defeated Oxford crew.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

For the love of God, I wish people would wake up in the UK.