Express Mortgages Express Loans Bingo Lose Weight Franchising Dating Shopping Book Shop Find Spare Parts Cut Your Bills Wine Shop Legal Store FlatShare Cruises

CLIFF RICHARD FANS THWARTED AS HEALTH & SAFETY ZEALOT SPOILS THE PARTY

Cliff fans won't be happy that their idol has been deemed a health and safety risk

Saturday November 29,2008

By Richard and Judy

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(2)

IF THERE was even the faintest shadow of a doubt that Britain’s health and safety culture now operates on the general level of a basket case, confirmation arrived this week in the shape of the most unthreatening man in pop – Sir Cliff Richard.

Yes, our Cliff has been officially deemed to be a health and safety risk.

The people who run Sheffield Arena banned fans from camping outside the box office ahead of tomorrow’s sale of tickets for Cliff’s 50th anniversary tour.

He will be playing Sheffield on October 14 next year, his 69th birthday, and every selfrespecting Cliff fan intends to be there, by hook or by crook.

Dozens planned to pitch their tents on the pavement as early as midweek to be sure of getting their tickets. It’s what Cliff fans do.

Sleeping bags and space blankets are also a common sight outside London’s Royal Albert Hall in the week that the Prom tickets go on sale. Ditto, Harrods before the sales. It’s what we Brits do, and we’re very good at it. Campers share their food, tea and stoves and everyone has a lovely time and goes home happy.

Campers share their food, tea and stoves and everyone has a lovely time and goes home happy.

Well, not any more in Sheffield, at least. Simon Bailey, the arena’s marketing manager, waffled on about his “duty of care to our customers”, which he could not provide if people camped outside his theatre for days at a time.

They don’t want or need your “care”, Mr Bailey. They’re perfectly capable of looking after themselves.

As indignant thwarted Cliff fan Viv Johnson, 60, said: “We’re adults. We’ve never had any trouble before. After a cup of tea we’re usually asleep by 11pm.”

But Mr Bailey will have none of that. “The Arena is not suitable for people to be camping out exposed to the elements,” he says, for all the world like a fussy nanny horrified by her charges’ suggestion that they camp out on the lawn one night for fun.

Oh, get a life, Bailey.

Sheffield’s finest are perfectly capable of enduring a few chilly November nights on the street, especially if it means
they get front-row seats to see their idol. No one’s going to sue the Arena if they get wet or catch a cold.

I have no idea what Simon Bailey looks like but if you see someone looking suspiciously like Private Pike locking up at the arena one night, scarf wrapped carefully round his neck and a silly expression on his face, it’s a pound to a penny that’ll be him.

PAVEMENT CAMPERS

01.12.08, 4:25pm

pretty certain the box office at the arena is round the back well away from the road and the pavements so cant see what the problem is

• Posted by: Beth • Report Comment

ONE COULDN'T AGREE MORE.

30.11.08, 7:39pm

When the Health and Safety act was strengthened by this collection of clothed apes we call"New labour", it was inevitable that this country would react exactly as it did, and will do for the unforseeable future. You see, as a mature person who can't stand fools, who detests childishness in adults I have had to come to terms with the fact that a massive, uncontrolled brain drain has left us with a dearth of depth, an abyss where common sense thrived, and where respect for the feelings of others in making decisions has been replaced by the "jobsworth" ego. If I sound like some pompous twit from a Swiss cuckoo land, then forgive me. I find my tolerance level being twanged to it's limit.

• Posted by: bluenote • Report Comment