As Many Of My Friends Know,

I collect stamps,

many collectors concentrate on a theme, such as 'poster' stamps, that is a poster that advertised a town or product and were then made into a stamp, back in the early 1900's people were encourage to travel to seaside towns by train for holidays, one of the most famous posters was the Jolly Fisherman of Skegness, the term 'its so bracing', is thought to have been dreamed up by an unknown member of the Railway Staff, in 2008, the Queen sent a letter to the resort to mark the 100th anniversary of the town’s mascot, but now it is time for a new mascot, enter the Health & Safety brigade,

and a new poster for Skegness, it is all because of Lincolnshire County Council’s ward member for Skegness, Ken Miller, he claims that 'we can’t have the fisherman with his arms outstretched because there is an issue with health and safety,’ and to complete their health and safety vigilance, the council has removed the Jolly Fisherman’s pipe, for fear it would encourage smoking,


so welcome to the new statue,

I have to say looking at the original poster painted by artist John Hassall, I think the new statue looks hideous, so does Skegness Civic Society chairman Steve Kirk, he commented, 'when a photograph of the proposal was passed around at a council meeting, people were in hysterics laughing at how bad it is, the design looks horrific and does not resemble the fabled Jolly Fisherman at all, I have received more than 100 emails and comments about it from people who are desperate to have it changed, the Jolly Fisherman is a symbol of the town and people are proud of it, but this image looks like a gargoyle and will become a laughing stock,’


and Skegness mayor Mark Anderson added, 'the statue looks like a garden gnome, We are known for a being a jolly seaside town but we are being dictated to by health-and-safety rules, the fisherman is an icon and we are mightily upset that he’s being changed in case some drunk idiot decides to hang from his arms and falls off or hurts themselves,' common sense really but then what has that to do with Health & Safety?