There were no bums
on show at the weekend in Otterburn but there might have been a reason for
that. The Firing Range was busy. Noisily busy. Like a huge herd of anti-lagged
Lancers ready to rally. Apparently the Gibralter Army was on a training
exercise. I didn't even know Gibralter had an army. Still you learn something
new every day.
Apparently the Royal Gibraltar Regiment
is part of the British Armed Forces, so that's alright then. We're not likely
to be invaded.
Another thing I learned, the 'Jock
affair' is gathering momentum. Quite a number of cars on the Cheviot Stages
Rally were sporting 'Justice for Jock' stickers. Even folk who don't really
know him very well. It's an incident and an outcome that has captured the imagination
of the great British rallying public.
Goodness knows where it will all end. It
reminds me of the last time that our governing body was under fire.
It was fully thirty years ago. The MSA
was then part of the Royal Automobile Club and there was widespread dis-satisfaction
within the ranks. It got to the stage whereby a group of well known figures
within the sport made a formal approach to the Automobile Association to create
a rival motor sports governing body.
At that time the AA had its principal
office in Erskine just to the west of Glasgow so one Scottish and two English members
of the group made the approach. In those days the RAC and the AA were great
rivals. They were the main two road rescue organisations in the country, and
very competitive, so the AA regarded this idea as worthy of consideration.
The Royal Automobile Club got wind of
this and apparently used their political connections to stifle the idea under
promise of change. That change took a while, and it wasn't till 1999 that the
independent Motor Sports Association (MSA) was created to govern motor sport in the UK.
A brave new world beckoned. And now this.
It has to be resolved, and quickly. If allowed to fester it will only get worse.
There's a compromise on the table, but
it needs both sides to go for it. The trouble is, the National Court is an
independent body too and there would appear to be no mechanism within the
current judicial system to challenge its judgements.
In many respects, the MSA is no
different from many other sports governing bodies, just look at the fankle the FA
(Football Association), the ECB (England Cricket Board), UKA (UK Athletics) and
British Cycling have got themselves into recently.
The big difference these days is 'social
media'. The fans now have a voice and apparently better understand how to use
this new medium rather better than governing bodies and even the national Government
itself!
Hopefully, common sense will prevail.
Fingers crossed, eh?
