Trenton Oldfield, the boat race disruptor

I can't believe that! Total over-reaction, or what?! He swam in front of some boats. No bomb involved. No violence. Ok, it was THE Boat Race, but come on................!

additional info to *Bags' excellent link

the "no's" are winning here

#britainsgotsense

I just read the interview he gave to R5. He reminded me of the bod who insists on walking the country unclothed and ends up in and out of court and prison.

It always strikes me that people like this essentially think themselves to be much cleverer than they really are and are aggrieved that nobody else shares that opinion and when they do not get the career progression/jobs they are convinced they deserve, decide to join the awkward squad and be even more awkward than anybody else.

The man's a prat but it's a bit hard on his wife.

I think that it is a harsh reaction. Many people protest and we have that right to do so. He was an idiot, imo, to do what he did but it was not an act of terrorism! However I do think governments and courts are making examples of people to discourage protests, which of course should be safe and not endanger life or damage private property... which I do not think he did. However it is obviously a legally OK decision.

As a lifelong protester I do worry that the right to protest is being undermined.

I do not necessarily think his behaviour warrants either his imprisonment or his deportation but my opinion on him stands.

Flickety the harsh reaction I was referring to was the court, just in case you thought I meant yours!

It seems like an over-reaction to me. But, we have long been wanting this country to get tougher, haven't we?

have we? Tougher on what..the democratic right to protest in public or on criminals?

criminalization of protest

He did endanger life – his own. How would those rowers or the following boats have felt if they'd killed him. You really wouldn,t want to get your head tangled with those oars, not to mention with the motor boats behind. His choice, I suppose, but there are plenty of ways he could have made a protest without spoiling the event. The guys who row in this race train very hard and it's a complete toerag who then goes and wrecks it for them.

I think the court judgement is a bit 'steep' too. I wonder if the judge had a rowing blue?

I agree that he's a prat. I also agree that he has a perfect right to protest. I'm not sure I agree he has a right to spoil a much-loved national sporting event.

I was going to "do a jingle" and not bother to look at other links, but I did.

That hand grip to haul him out of the water is not a good one. Better grab each other's wrists – more secure.

Now I'll go and look at the other link.

I was wondering if Oldfield himself is one of the elite at all (not that I really know who or what counts as elite; after all, there are different kinds – intellectual elitism can be useful (no harm in recognising when someone is better at something than someone else and rewarding them according to how valuable what they are good at is to society), class elitism probably not.

This page about him made me laugh

An idiot, and we have plenty of home-grown ones. However, his wife is British and his child will be also. He has served his time and that should be the end of it.

Any flapjacks going begging, Bags? I think I've withdrawal symptoms coming on.

From what I' 've briefly (as always) read about him, he's a full-time protestor - writes and publishes books. Harmless enough.

Re the hand grip, perhaps they weren't feeling very enthusiastic.

Just enjoys making a nuisance of himself, then. That figures. The idiot.

Yes. Doesn't seem to have much of a 'cause' in this instance.

But does it warrant shipping him out of the country?!

Well, if he isn't British, I suppose it's not totally unreasonable to tell him to go and make a nuisance of himself in his own country instead. Why should we have to deal with him? We have enough nitwits of our own.

#devil's advocate view

What a pity they don't send others who cause trouble/protest, back to their own countries as quickly.

I guess we trust Australia not to abuse his human rights. That isn't the case with all countries.

Ella I agree, I think there have been much worse people allowed to stay here. I agree he is a prat and that what he did was wrong but he didn't actually hurt anyone did he? Is there more to this than meets the eye?

I think it's absolutely disgusting that this man is effectively being deported for his actions. No doubt some would view what he did as dangerous and irresponsible but it was an act of protest that, whilst inconvenient and annoying to participants and spectators, didn't endanger anybody but himself.

I view such a decision as vindictive, and suggestive of the sort of elitism that he was highlighting.