Day 7: Wells-next-the-Sea to Cley-next-the-Sea

Weather: Sunny and warm with a light, following wind

Distance covered today: 18.5km ( 11.5mi)

Last night's B&B: Armeria Bed & Breakfast

% Complete: Cumulative distance: 86.8%: 143.2km

GPS satellite track of today's route: Day 7(click!)

My anxieties about the surge-damaged coastal path proved groundless.  I met a couple of posh Londoners in a café in Blakeney, and my concerns about the path came up in conversation. They assured me that they had just come along the affected bit of path in the opposite direction, and though there were signs and fences, everyone was just ignoring them.  In the event the path has had extensive repairs, with new boardwalks installed in places and all the earthworks repaired.  I can only imagine that the path remains closed because some jobsworth in ‘elf and safety hasn’t had the time to get up here from London to give the works the thumbs up. I met some National Trust workers along the way, and even they didn’t object to my presence or that of the hordes of holiday-makers traipsing illegally along the trail.  It is interesting how mass action seems to confer legitimacy on what is clearly illegitimate behaviour.

I was thinking about this and relating it to other examples, like the current mass action of the politicians against the BBC. First there was this move that transferred the cost of supporting the World Service from the Foreign Office to the Beeb.  Then, lately, there has been this multi-party supported move to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee.

Although it means so much more to me, I suppose there is an argument that the BBC is just like any other utility and I don’t get charged in the criminal courts when I don’t pay my gas bill. The difference is that if I don’t pay my gas bill, the gas man cuts off the gas, but there is no way the BBC can prevent me from continuing to watch telly if I don’t pay my licence. Millions of people will simply stop paying, and even if the Beeb prosecutes some of them in the civil courts, the overhead involved and the non-payment of fines will overwhelm the system. This will force the BBC to move to a set-top box subscription service, so that they can withdraw service for non-payment. That will make it have to fight for customers in direct competition with the likes of Sky, which is what Murdoch wants, and there lies American TV.  I’m not arguing that the Americans don’t make some high quality TV productions; they do, but anyone who has lived there knows that in the main, the dross that is produced is stultifying in the extreme.  As for radio, the subscription option isn’t open, so the only answer is advertising, and that prospect is simply horrifying.

Even the transfer of the costs of the World Service from the Foreign Office to the BBC is highly questionable.  When I lived overseas, I used hungrily to listen to the Beeb, whether it was to receive news of the latest coup in an adjacent country or the latest score in the then First Division. I understand only too well what the World Service meant to the residents of dictatorships across the world from Mandela to Aung San Suu.  The question though, is who should pay for it? The motivation for the World Service in the first place was to spread Western values of democracy and the rule of law, and equally to promote Britain in the eyes of the world as a beacon of those liberal values. Apart from the recipients of that vital information, the main beneficiaries of the ensuing goodwill were presumably the citizens of the UK.  It seems therefore that the tax system rather than BBC licence fees should bear the cost (it’s also a lot less regressive).  In fact it seems to defy logic that when the politicians are trying to marginalise the BBC into being just another subscription competitor in an open market, they are simultaneously saddling it with the cost of propagating the values of the UK body politic to the wider world!  Am I alone in perceiving this immense contradiction!

I suspect that the answer lies in the political ravages of the Murdoch press, especially after Levison. Politicians need Murdoch support and that of the press in general.  The press recognise that unless they make the running now, they will disappear under the onslaught of the internet.  The BBC remains a high quality, ‘free’ competitor (you pay the licence for entertainment and you get your news for free!), and it is much more vulnerable than the internet.  An unholy alliance develops between the press and the politicians to sink the Beeb.  I probably won’t be around for the last rites, but I can guarantee that when it happens, the world will have lost one of the greatest institutions in the history of mankind.

On the note of not being around, I suppose I have to ‘fess up!  I have been receiving all sorts of messages on the quiet back channels, asking me why on earth I am doing this short, sharp walk, when I had intended to do the Coast-to-Coast instead? They are also questioning the slightly dark content of this blog, compared to its exultantly gleeful predecessors. The reason is that I am going into hospital for a serious operation at the end of the month. My prostate cancer has returned and there is a small chance that by operating now, the consultant may be able to remove the cancer using a robotic technique. There are serious risks of morbidity and even mortality associated with the operation, given all the radiotherapy and HIFU (high intensity focussed ultrasound) treatment I have had in the past; but there is also a chance that it might work.  After much discussion in the family, and despite the risks, I have decided to go ahead.  Marion is coming back from the US to hold my hand and Veronica and Mazzi will be staying with Anna in London to cheer me on. The operation will be performed at the Royal Marsden in London, so I couldn’t be in better hands all round.

At least after this little gallop, I’ll be fighting fit for the op!  Tomorrow evening, I’ll meet my ever-suffering and always helpful Veronica at my final destination, Cromer. Her welcome presence will, as usual, delay the last post until we have returned home.

Brent geese in their thousands on the salt marsh

Unusually, a path through thick undergrowth

The salt marsh is extensive and reminiscent of the moors

Black-headed gull? (I thought it was more exotic!)

The walking was very comfortable, over springy marsh grass

 

Vessels sailing on dry land

The English will put anything in a sandwich!

Holiday walkers on the sea wall

Petronella marooned against the sea wall after the storm surge. With water now miles away, it won't be easy to float her

The Blakeney Hotel

An attractive street in Blakeney

 

Another vessel cast high and dry by the surge, but a different generation!

This is the life. I'll lie here on the banks of the sea wall looking at birds through my binocs, while you just lie there!

The so-called "closed" coastal path. People just ignored the sign, pulled down the fence and went for it. I followed them, I'm afraid! The path was fine....

The Cley windmill