Party Pooper

I was present at the recent BMC lobbying event (The Issue, Summit 44) and agree that Dave Turnbull’s article is a balanced view of events. Richard Caborn made clear that mountaineering is unlike most of the other sports in his portfolio. This includes the dangers involved, the way mountaineers organise themselves and even the way the BMC operates. In short the government do not really understand us. Part of the driving force for this lobbying initiative is the loss of grants to the BMC, and Caborn made it very clear that the only route to more grant funding is to assist the government in its social engineering agenda. This includes targeting minorities and deprived areas. Admirable, but are they really core objectives of the BMC? What happens when the government’s agenda changes, as it surely will, and the grants are withdrawn again? Will the BMC be left with an unfunded infrastructure outside its remit?
- Pete Dixon, Manchester, Summit 45