Peaceful protesters sworn at by participants in Trinny and Susannah.

[theUrbanDryad]

here

Trinny and Susannah have decided to put clothes on the Long Man Of Wilmington.

Bless em.

because what it really is has been forgotten, they're giving him his own meaning.

not unlike Christians and christmas trees...

ooh yeah uffington is that old: wikipedia

the priory mentioned in prev link is landmark trust property - lush, top place to stay

It sounded like "goodbye suckers" to me, which fits the context better

stupid stunt anyway

Can't flippin' stand T & S anyway. A friend of mine tried to gauge what my reaction would be to one of their 'surprise' makeovers, and and I told her if one of them grabbed any part of my anatomy I'd give her a chinese burn... whatever plans she may have had brewing, I think that scared her off

Purely on conservation grounds, it's an astoundingly ignorant thing to do.

"because what it really is has been forgotten, they're giving him his own meaning."

If that's the case, and they can't claim any real historical authenticity for the meaning they're choosing to attach to it - surely it shouldn't take precedence over whatever Trinny and Tranny or anyone else wants to do with it? In that sense it's not like desecrating a church/Christ statue at all.

Am only arguing from a logic point of view, I can't stand the daft bints (or churches either, for that matter).

Christmas trees are exactly sacred to Christianity though

Or indeed have much in the way of religious significance at all.

not quite sure why I typed 'and' twice there. Makes me sound all over-excited...

is uffington still open to public? have vivid m,emories of climbing up it and turning round 3 times in the eye when i was a nipper.

...and Christians don't get huffy about people doing anything non-Christmas related to fir trees, do they?

Thinks carefully about getting huffy about a fir tree

Well, sadly I do know of instances, but I suppose that's just because there are an awful lot of Church-goers in the world who get their knickers in a twist about odd things.

Those two are complete cows, anyway.

Not really SueBaroo?!

True enough about the knicker-twisting though.

meandmyflyingmachine, sadly yes.

I know people who got very animated by the removal of a Christmas tree over Christmas from a shopping mall, I know people who argue with other believers that they shouldn't have christmas trees at all, I know people who like to decorate fake ones every year.

ok, that last one isn't that odd in context

Ah, but I bet the removal of the Christmas tree is all about the Christmas/Xmas/Winterval blather that surfaces every Christmas. Not about the tree itself.

Oh, you'd be surprised - I've read long (oh how long they seemed) discourses about how the fir tree was a symbol of the cross, light in the darkness, life in the death of winter etc.

really, the antiquity of the site is irrelevant. people have been using the site for as far as living memory goes back. they look after the site, have restored the Long Man on at least one occasion as well as doing more prosaic things, like pick litter.

to put it in context - you wouldn't go to a new church or mosque and try to dress a statue of Christ or Allah in women's clothing, so why do it in this case?

regardless of the above, the behaviour of those in the white costumes was pretty appalling.

I can't stand T & S anyway but are they going to do for an encore? Paint Stonehenge?

Ancient monuments should be respected, not trashed IMHO.

Sue - I thought the firtree came from German traditions and was pagan in origin (like a lot of Christian traditions admittedly).

bookwormmum, yes, it did. I'm just pointing out that some Christians have indeed put their own meanings on an older symbol.

I can't get my knickers in a twist about the perceived 'desecration'. The 'desecration' isn't permanent, the site doesn't belong to the pagans, it has been appropriated by them not created by them and the stunt wasn't designed as an attack on any particular group of people. If I were there I would expect to be able to enjoy the site as freely as anyone else.

If they trampled all over it when it could damage it then that is not on. If they were rude, then that is sad.

It's not analogous with desecrating a new church though. A closer analogy would be: I find an old abandoned building which I think might once have been used as a shrine to the Grubshanks Deity of the Third Outer Moonlet of the planet Frik. I and my lik-minded chums meet up there every so often and enact rituals of our own designing in honour of said deity. One Saturday we pitch up there to find that a gang of hapless youths have wandered in and started a tiddlywinks club in there. So we get all shitty and say "This hut is sacred, get out". To which they quite reasonably reply "Goodbye, fuckers".

That was what I wanted to say

GS - amusing, but wrong

Suckers

it is not on for conservation reasons though, Greeny, you are just being arsey for the sake of an argument

it was definitely fuckers i'm afraid F&Z

i wasn't there but i have a friend who was and heard it without the wind blowing down the mike of the video camera!!