Don't take your eye off the ball

[merse btpir]

Don't take your eye off the ball

We must guard against the slumber of complacency now the season has ended accelerated and induced further by the club's almost total lack of momentum during the close season. Was it merely coincidence that they only put the season ticket process out AFTER the fact that they hadn't, been was highlighted by the K'wankers that they love to deride?

Everybody ~ and I mean everybody ~ must ensure they do not take their eye off the ball of Gaming International obtaining the freehold in the lead-up to the Mayoral decision because this is just what Clarke Osborne will be banking on.

So keep the petition to the forefront, make sure it remains in your forethoughts and in the public eye.

Creeping towards 7,000!
today's total stands at: 6,887

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/gord ... n=sign-pet

[Southampton Gull]

I'm a little surprised it hasn't received greater numbers of signatures so maybe it needs another concerted push on all social media platforms.

[happytorq]

I'm a little surprised it hasn't received greater numbers of signatures so maybe it needs another concerted push on all social media platforms.

Really? I thought it was a pretty decent number since our average attendance is what, about 2000?

would be interesting in seeing what you thought it should get.

[Southampton Gull]

Well considering the population of Torbay alone dwarfs that figure I'd say at the moment it is below a figure that will show councillors definitively that the freehold is worth keeping.

I'm not saying it isn't impressive so far but considering its had national exposure I was hoping for many times the current number.

[happytorq]

Oh yeah - I had taken into account the already well-documented apathy of the Torbay public :/

Torbay has quite a few people there, but very few of them (proportionally speaking) ever seemed to give much of a toss about the local side. Growing up everybody seemed to support Liverpool or Manchester United, despite never having been anywhere near either city.

The Facebook group is something you have to get invited to, so the chances are people already know you're a Torquay fan before adding you - to get better numbers it should be shared beyond that small, self-selecting group. Is there a group of Torbay business who could share it? (they'd be impacted by visitors not showing up, etc).

[SenorDingDong]

Well considering the population of Torbay alone dwarfs that figure I'd say at the moment it is below a figure that will show councillors definitively that the freehold is worth keeping.

I'm not saying it isn't impressive so far but considering its had national exposure I was hoping for many times the current number.

I would suggest getting it posted on 'Spotted Torquay' might work in terms of getting it out amongst the Torbay public as that's one of the largest facebook groups for Torbay. Although it might get a little bit of the usual 'don't care, they're crap, I support Liverpool despite being born in Hele Village, YNWA!!' types commenting on it. Other than that there's not many focal points in Torbay in terms of people or institutions that can promote it, the club is by far the largest community institution in the Torbay area, which is ironic.

[Southampton Gull]

I think the football scene in general could help us out more. Millions of football fans there for the asking. I don't use any other football forums these days so maybe others could spread the word via ones they use. Most would sympathise I'm sure.

[SenorDingDong]

The South Devon League might be an option, I think they have a Facebook page, given the obvious links to the local area but the club has done so much to sever links to the local football community rather than serving as the pinnacle of it, as it should be doing, that I wonder if anyone would even care amongst those players.

[AlexGulls]

I see Gary Monk mentioned it on Twitter seems a lot of Leeds fans backed the petition and were suggesting trying to get a friendly down here. 7000 signatures there now.

[merse btpir]

Gone over 7,000 tonight.........7,035 as I post & yet still not a mention on the Herald Express!

[westyorkshiregull]

Not being a smart arse and i have signed it along with close family members but we need to plug as much as we can
...to make a difference I think we need 100000 signs

[Wraysburygull]

Have just fired out an email to The Torbay Chamber of Commerce with the petition link,highlighting the business benefits to the bay of TUFC.Just hope Osborne isn't a member

[merse btpir]

To the best of my knowledge the Herald Express has yet to mention the petition ~ even though it has been up and running for almost a month now ~ and again I put it to you all that this appalling apology for a newspaper is totally failing it's role as a news provider for a community leaving one to question just how many more people would sign it but don't even know of it's existence?

Clarke Osborne and his Goebbels like purveyor of information Tim Herbert must be laughing their socks off that Dave Thomas and Co can be bought off so easily under the totally fake guise of adhering to The Editors’ Code of Practice. What utter hypocrisy!

To report on it would neither:
infringe the commitment to accuracy
intrude into privacy
be construed as harassment
intrude into grief or shock
involve children, or their involvement in sex cases..... indeed I could go on and on. Instead, here is the code for you to read first hand and then ask yourself just why the Herald Express continue to indulge in censorship in such a deliberate way?

The Code ~ including this preamble and the public interest exceptions below – sets the framework for the highest professional standards that members of the press subscribing to the Independent Press Standards Organisation have undertaken to maintain. It is the cornerstone of the system of voluntary self-regulation to which they have made a binding contractual commitment. It balances both the rights of the individual and   the public's right to know.
To achieve that balance, it is essential that an agreed Code be honoured not only to the letter, but in the full spirit. It should be interpreted neither so narrowly as to compromise its commitment to respect the rights of the individual, nor so broadly that it infringes the fundamental right to freedom of expression – such as to inform, to be partisan, to challenge, shock, be satirical and to entertain – or prevents publication in the public interest.
It is the responsibility of editors and publishers to apply the Code to editorial material in both printed and online versions of their publications. They should take care to ensure it is observed rigorously by all editorial staff and external contributors, including non-journalists.
Editors must maintain in-house procedures to resolve complaints swiftly and, where required to do so, co- operate with IPSO. A publication subject to an adverse adjudication must publish it in full and with due prominence, as required by IPSO.
1. Accuracy
i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.
ii) A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and — where appropriate — an apology published. In cases involving IPSO, due prominence should be as required by the regulator. 
iii) A fair opportunity to reply to significant inaccuracies should be given, when reasonably called for.
iv) The Press, while free to editorialise and campaign, must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact.
v) A publication must report fairly and accurately the outcome of an action for defamation to which it has been a party, unless an agreed settlement states otherwise, or an agreed statement is published.
2. *Privacy
i) Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications.
ii) Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent. Account will be taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of information.
iii) It is unacceptable to photograph individuals, without their consent, in public or private places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.
3. *Harassment
i) Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.
ii) They must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals once asked to desist; nor remain on property when asked to leave and must not follow them. If requested, they must identify themselves and whom they represent.
iii)  Editors must ensure these principles are observed by those working for them and take care not to use non-compliant material from other sources.
4. Intrusion into grief or shock
In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication handled sensitively. These provisions should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings.
5. *Reporting Suicide
When reporting suicide, to prevent simulative acts care should be taken to avoid excessive detail of the method used, while taking into account the media's right to report legal proceedings.
6. *Children
i) All pupils should be free to complete their time at school without unnecessary intrusion.
ii) They must not be approached or photographed at school without permission of the school authorities.
iii) Children under 16 must not be interviewed or photographed on issues involving their own or another child’s welfare unless a custodial parent or similarly responsible adult consents.
iv) Children under 16 must not be paid for material involving their welfare, nor parents or guardians for material about their children or wards, unless it is clearly in the child's interest.
v) Editors must not use the fame, notoriety or position of a parent or guardian as sole justification for publishing details of a child's private life.
7. *Children in sex cases
The press must not, even if legally free to do so, identify children under 16 who are victims or witnesses in cases involving sex offences.
In any press report of a case involving a sexual offence against a child -
i) The child must not be identified.
ii) The adult may be identified.
iii) The word "incest" must not be used where a child victim might be identified.
iv)  Care must be taken that nothing in the report implies the relationship between the accused and the child.
8. *Hospitals
i) Journalists must identify themselves and obtain permission from a responsible executive before entering non-public areas of hospitals or similar institutions to pursue enquiries.
ii) The restrictions on intruding into privacy are particularly relevant to enquiries about individuals in hospitals or similar institutions.
9. *Reporting of Crime
i) Relatives or friends of persons convicted or accused of crime should not generally be identified without their consent, unless they are genuinely relevant to the story.
ii) Particular regard should be paid to the potentially vulnerable position of children who witness, or are victims of, crime. This should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings.
10. *Clandestine devices and subterfuge
i) The press must not seek to obtain or publish material acquired by using hidden cameras or clandestine listening devices; or by intercepting private or mobile telephone calls, messages or emails; or by the unauthorised removal of documents or photographs; or by accessing digitally-held information without consent.
ii) Engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge, including by agents or intermediaries, can generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means.
11. Victims of sexual assault
The press must not identify victims of sexual assault or publish material likely to contribute to such identification unless there is adequate justification and they are legally free to do so.
12. Discrimination
i) The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual's, race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability.
ii) Details of an individual's race, colour, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story.
13. Financial journalism
i) Even where the law does not prohibit it, journalists must not use for their own profit financial information they receive in advance of its general publication, nor should they pass such information to others.
ii) They must not write about shares or securities in whose performance they know that they or their close families have a significant financial interest without disclosing the interest to the editor or financial editor.
iii) They must not buy or sell, either directly or through nominees or agents, shares or securities about which they have written recently or about which they intend to write in the near future.
14. Confidential sources
Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information.
15. Witness payments in criminal trials
i) No payment or offer of payment to a witness – or any person who may reasonably be expected to be called as a witness – should be made in any case once proceedings are active as defined by the Contempt of Court Act 1981. This prohibition lasts until the suspect has been freed unconditionally by police without charge or bail or the proceedings are otherwise discontinued; or has entered a guilty plea to the court; or, in the event of a not guilty plea, the court has announced its verdict.
*ii) Where proceedings are not yet active but are likely and foreseeable, editors must not make or offer payment to any person who may reasonably be expected to be called as a witness, unless the information concerned ought demonstrably to be published in the public interest and there is an over-riding need to   make or promise payment for this to be done; and all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure  no financial dealings influence the evidence those witnesses give. In no circumstances should such payment be conditional on the outcome of a trial.
*iii) Any payment or offer of payment made to a person later cited to give evidence in proceedings must be disclosed to the prosecution and defence. The witness must be advised of this requirement.
16. *Payment to criminals
i) Payment or offers of payment for stories, pictures or information, which seek to exploit a particular crime or to glorify or glamorise crime in general, must not be made directly or via agents to convicted or confessed criminals or to their associates – who may include family, friends and colleagues.
ii) Editors invoking the public interest to justify payment or offers would need to demonstrate that there was good reason to believe the public interest would be served. If, despite payment, no public interest emerged, then the material should not be published.
The Public Interest
There may be exceptions to the clauses marked * where they can be demonstrated to be in the public interest.
The public interest includes, but is not confined to:
Detecting or exposing crime, or the threat of crime, or serious impropriety.
Protecting public health or safety.
Protecting the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation.
Disclosing a person or organisation’s failure or likely failure to comply with any obligation to which they are subject.
Disclosing a miscarriage of justice.
Raising or contributing to a matter of public debate, including serious cases of impropriety, unethical conduct or incompetence concerning the public.
Disclosing concealment, or likely concealment, of any of the above.
There is a public interest in freedom of expression itself.
The regulator will consider the extent to which material is already in the public domain or will or will become so.
Editors invoking the public interest will need to demonstrate that they reasonably believed publication - or journalistic activity taken with a view to publication – would both serve, and be proportionate to, the public interest and explain how they reached that decision at the time.
An exceptional public interest would need to be demonstrated to over-ride the normally paramount interests of children under 16.
Editors’ Code of Practice ©2017 Regulatory Funding Company

[merse btpir]

It's been pointed out to me that a reporter called Jamie Hawkins posted an article on April 21st. OK; fair enough the total number of signatures then stood at one and a half thousand.

Since then? Nothing (to the best of my knowledge and especially on the specialist Torquay United feature; the weekly podcast where the sports editor Richard Hughes hypocritically used the editors' code for not being open and opaque over all matters United.

If that's not a deliberate attempt to keep the truth from people then I don't know what is.

[Southampton Gull]

I've long held the Herald in contempt for their continued stance on keeping information from the fans. A more critical eye from the local rag might have put a stop to a lot of the decisions made by various controlling parties at Plainmoor. As someone else said, I see no reason why we couldn't hit six figures on the number of signatures. It just needs that push from somewhere to make it go viral and then it would be almost impossible to ignore.