Dear All,
I am more than willing to broaden the debate, if this is what this thread can be called. However, I do take issue with throw away comments particularly posted by chillitt (although I am not solely pointing the blame here) which are unfounded and basically show a prejudice to the showman’s way of life!
Anyway, putting that to one side let me once again address the points you’ve raised Toad. Firstly calling the Showman’s Guild and your local Council short sighted seems a rather rash move to make. Also accusing the Council of illegal acts publicly seems rather risky to me, I personally wouldn’t like to do something such as this in case it resulted in a libel case. I wonder if many councillors read this forum? This doesn’t seem a good way to open what is supposed to be a friendly discussion or win others round to your point of view.
The town centre location is what makes Warwick Mop a Mop and not just a fun fair. I can assure you that any showman would prefer building up in a street to building up in a muddy field. Let’s imagine for just a moment you got your way and the Mop moved, to the race course (as is often suggested despite it being impossible). Opposite the race course are lots of houses all bought by people knowing the Mop happens in the town centre. Now they really would have grounds to complain if it was suddenly moved to their door step. You moved to where the fair happens by choice (a big difference), it didn’t come to you because someone else wanted it moved.
How can you possibly say people do not know when the Mop happens, unlike Easter which is a ‘moveable feast’, the Mop has been the Friday and Saturday after the 12th October for ever and a day? Each Mop town has specified dates, Stratford’s is the 12th, Southam the Monday after the 12th, Banbury Fair is the Wed/Thurs/Fri after the 12th. Notice a trend? Why not take a highlighter to the 12th October on your 2009 calendar then you can work out when it is! In addition posters are displayed in local shops as not everyone is local to the town or knows of the tradition. Maybe you are one of the shop keepers who refuse to display a poster and as such do not inform their customers of the event.
I still find the million pound figure a bit far fetched, we could all speculate lost revenue to any amount we wanted. There is also plenty of evidence to suggest many businesses do benefit. The café’s, restaurants, even the pub benefited from Toad’s opening it would appear! Indeed some businesses hold Mop promotions; again the evidence is there for all to see during the Mop. Obviously some suffer but the fact remains these businesses chose to open in a Mop town and if they did not do their homework when renting their premises can hardly complain after the event.
What I personally would like to see is an honest discussion on the matter. If instead of making ludicrous claims, posting messages about rigged games, racist showmen, balaclava clad gangs of youths and so forth you actually discussed your issues in a reasonable manner I’m sure a different result could be achieved. You can never hope to move the Mop and would waste considerable time and energy in doing so. Just as it cannot be hoped to satisfy everyone when the Mop is in town, the same must apply to other events. I’m sure people moan that the Market is not what it used to be, the Victorian Evening sells ‘flashing LED light sabres’, the craft fair closes Smith Street to traffic and so forth. If everyone worked with it and said ‘ok it happens, how can I make the best of it’ so much more could be achieved from which we could all benefit.
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