expanding audience, shrinking brain

That Bastion of all things middle class, the mighty 'The Daily Mail' is ready to fight our corner! With its finger on the pulse of all that is important, it briefly diverts from house price speculation and adulterous celebrities to offer moral support to the down trodden aeromodeller....

"For more than 20 years, members of the Plaster Down Flying Association have been playing with their model aircraft on Dartmoor.

Now they’ve been banned after complaints  from ramblers, who fear being strafed by the planes. I can think of no better use for model aeroplanes than strafing ramblers, who think they own the countryside.

Perhaps this is part of a wider crackdown. The owner of a remote-control plane in Cumbria has been fined £4,340 after breaching a no-fly zone near the submarine factory at Barrow-in-Furness.

Admittedly, the skies are becoming crowded these days, what with Amazon planning drone deliveries and the police scrambling helicopters every five minutes.

In the latest incident, the Met sent up Whirlybird One to tackle a reported ‘gunman’ on Parliament Hill Fields in North London. Turned out he was just practising Tai Chi.

I look forward to dog-fights between model aircraft and police helicopters in the no-fly zone over Hampstead Heath.

Ramblers at six o’clock, Sarge!"

So next time one of our slope sites is at risk, bypass the BMFA and get straight onto Richard Littlejohn (unless you enjoy both rambling and aeromodelling, that is).