S.A.D.U.S.

A friend applying for accreditation to cover a European Summit was surprised to be asked for €99 to cover the cost of refreshments and Wifi. As he is a vegetarian there isn't much chance of him getting his money's worth out of the buffet table. Once upon a time events could be judged on the quality of the catering and other freebees. It depends on the sponsors of course, when Kellogs were involved in cycling everyone's camera bags were making a gentle scrunching sound as they left the venue. Times are changing though and last year covering the Boardmasters Festival at Newquay the press liaison demanded a compulsory media "donation" to Surfers Against Sewage". I was so taken aback that I paid up but thinking about I should have objected on moral grounds because I'm actually in favour of sewage. That's because the stuff they are campaigning against only becomes sewage when it's in a sewer and if we didn't have sewers...I can see that they have chosen their name to have a catchy acronym but the consequences of someone getting the wrong number when calling in the SAS could be too serious to contemplate. A sensible solution would be the adoption of something more accurate "Surfers Against Discharging Untreated Sewage" or S.A.D.U.S.