John Mccririrck Sues Channel 4 For Ageism

[woofgang]

Victimised pensioner or annoying gob on a stick who should have been dumped years ago?

[bob561941]

He was a mysogonist

[daftgrandad]

I once read him described as :-
"A hedge that has been pulled through a man backwards"

[bob561941]

he was a mysogonist

[Iluvspikey]

I saw him once at Ascot about 5or 6 years ago, he spoke to his wife 'booby' as he called her, like something nasty he'd trodden in, all she did was smile. If he'd have spoken to me like that, I'd have stuck him upside down in the nearest horse deposit!

[Old_Geezer]

I support his aim to remove agism, but I think he is pushing his luck. I think he's just miffed at losing his job.

[andy-hughes]

I don't think he will sue, however aggrieved he feels. Any solicitor will confirm that he has not been sacked, he has not had his contract renewed, which is entirely lawful, and the perogative of his employers, present and future.

I understand he is seriously respected as a racing journalist, and his eccentric performances have made him an amusing addition to televisison but -

All presenters have a shelf-life, his has come to and end, and at his age, he can surely coast into retiremnet on the cruise-ship circuit, or return to his first job as a print journalist.

He has had a good run, and at 73, he should be looking to wind down and take life easy, and relfect on his wonderful career.

[woofgang]

He was on r2 saying that he had got a firm to take it on no win no fee. I suspect though it was a ploy to advertise that he is up for hire.....

[NOX]

Hideously rude and unpleasant man, won't be sorry to see him go.

[Wharton]

I'd like to put a word in here for the poor horses getting their arses skelped by mindless midgets.

[andy-hughes]

Wharton - however it may appear to the viewer, whipping is not as cruel as it appears. For a start, a whip on the haunches of an animal of that size is only going to sting, and in most cases, the jockey is actually moving the whip into the horse's eyeline to encourage it to speed up, rather than physically hitting the horse with it.

Whipping is closely monitored by stewards, and jockeys are routinely punished for exessive use.

[woofgang]

andy, the reason that the "whip in eyeline' works is because the horse knows that it hurts to be hit!

[LoftyLottie]

Agree Woofgang. Show a kid a cane and that's enough to make them cower and behave!!

[andy-hughes]

I agree that use of the whip does cause some pain, but in proportion, a strike from a jockey whip on an animal the size and strength of a racehorse is unlikely to cause any serious discomfort - otherwise racehorses would simply refuse to run, whipped or not.

There is no benefit to having horses beaten, either in terms of their present and future performance, their health and wellbeing, and their overall responses to being ridden. Therefore use of the ship is tightly controlled by race stewards as I advised.

Personally I do not agree with whipping, but it should not be seen in terms of thoughtless cruelty.

[LoftyLottie]

Personally, Andy, I am against any sport that uses animals for human amusement and creates a situation where animals do want they don't want to do. If horses don't want to race why should they!! Let them refuse!!

[andy-hughes]

Lofty - i see your point, but I do believe that race horses enjoy racing.

I do not think it possible to make an animal that size race if it chooses not to - as indeed some do on occasion.

[woofgang]

andy that's the worst bit...the cruelty that is associated with racing is not thoughtless, its deliberate.

[andy-hughes]

I don't think training a racehorse with a whip is necessarily as cruel as it appears.

Any animal has to be trained with discipline, and a horse is unlikely to respond to a shouting or a smack on the bottom.

I am sure a whip may sting, but that does not equate to beating.

I don't imagine any horse is going to tolerate being beaten by a rider without attempts to throw him or her - or to immediately play up when a jockey mounts.

Race horses don;t do this, and the idea that they are whipped into racing is a proven fallacy by the simple fact that riderless horses often continue to the end of the race - which they are in no way compelled to do if they choose to stop.

[Wharton]

The inspiration for George Orwell to write Animal Farm.

I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.

[237SJ]

If an elephant or lion in a circus ring was whipped and made to perform tricks where the price paid for stumbling or falling was death, there`d be an outcry..