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Resort retort follows hack's 'hatchet attack'

Skegness has been revealed as the victim of a hatchet attack – in the local paper where many of its visitors come from.

The Nottingham Evening Post’s Mhairi McFarlane was responsible for the “crime”, published in the paper’s weekend supplement.

She was dispatched with her boyfriend to the resort for a weekend and wrote a 2,000-word warts-and-all study on the Lincolnshire seaside town – which not only upset some of the Post’s own readers, but infuriated a columnist in the Skegness Standard.

Mhairi spent a Saturday night and Sunday morning in Skegness to find out what she’s been missing – it was somewhere she’s never visited.

  • Mhairi’s orignal article
  • Some of what she wrote said: “To me, these resorts only existed as a setting for cigarette-card sized black-and-white pictures of my mum as a girl with a ribbon in her hair, sitting on a donkey in Filey.

    “When I was given the assignment of taking a trip to Skegness, at least I wasn’t going to be blinded by the prejudice of prior experience.

    “The tree-lined streets we walk along to the seafront are pretty, yet the shops are a surprise. I’ve obviously grown used to the fashionable high street selection in Nottingham.

    “For an early evening drink, the options are limited. Skegness seems to be full of the pounding-music, crackling neon-light sign kind of places that sell everything in bottles.

    “Back at the hotel, we can drink in the lounge, and this appears the best option.

    “Due to the average age of the guests, however, and the decor, it’s like being round at someone else’s grandparents.”

    Her full article can be found here.

    But the Skegness Standard’s Beachcombings editorial column, by “JC”, took exception and used the space to defend its town – to an audience already 100 per cent behind the east coast tourism spot.

    Obviously used to missives such as Mhairi’s, he wrote: “Over the years they have observed a syndrome which afflicts Skegness as a holiday resort.

    “It goes something like this… A young twentysomething newspaper or TV reporter, aspiring to join the middle class intelligentsia, comes to Skegness and produces a patronising report which infuriates the inhabitants, particularly those involved in the holiday trade.

    “The reporter, Mhairi, came to Skeg by train with her boyfriend for a weekend and proceeded to do a hatchet job on the town. And what a joyless couple they seemed to be.

    “The young reporter gives the impression of disliking anyone not in her class or age group. So Skegness was on a hiding to nothing from the start!

    “What is so sad is that, instead of searching out activities which might just appeal to someone like her, she goes headlong into doing the things which it was improbable she would enjoy. And she appears to hate all of it.

    “Mhairi condemns the local pub scene as “full of pounding music, crackling neon-light kind of places that sell everything in bottles”. There’s nothing like that in Nottingham then?

    “What she seems to forget is that many of Skegness’ attractions (not the pubs, of course), are designed to appeal to a very important section of the population – children.

    “But there are other attractions in the area for those who bother to seeks them out – wonderful gardens, excellent golf courses and leisure centres, several interesting museums, the Gibraltar Point Nature Reserve, the beauty of the Wolds, the isolation of the Fens, and quiet pursuits such as angling, walking, riding, painting and bird-watching.

    “You won’t find all of these easily during a two-day rail excursion, Mhairi. But have a proper week’s holiday here and you might!”

    And the Evening Post’s own mailbag bulged with views on her article, which must have struck a chord.

    Correspondence – which filled a two-page spread – included: “Your Miss McFarlane’s comments on bracing Skegness (Weekend magazine, July 12) came across as cold, hard snobbery to many of us who enjoy what Skeggy has to offer.”

    And: “What an arrogant, snobbish, class-conscious piece of rubbish it was. I have been holidaying at Skegness and its neighbouring resorts since I was knee-high to a grasshopper and I have never had a bad experience.”

    Also: “She, at every attempt, derided the folk and the place. The grannies with tattoos, the lads with baseball caps, the girls dancing in the amusement arcade, this world of fairground rides, bingo halls and thick carpet pubs. Who did she expect to find in Skegness, the Duchess of Devonshire?”

    But there was also some support: “Brilliant, I can’t stop laughing! She’s certainly gone up in my estimation. Mhairi was not being a snob, nor toffee nosed… she’s fun to read and has highlighted a prickly truth. Skeg has not changed over the past 30 years.”

    And Mhairi herself conceded, when approached by Holdthefrontpage: “I’m sorry if I have offended Skeggy inhabitants with what was meant to be a provocative and partisan piece based on only one night there.

    “However, a sad upshot of the furore is the cancellation of my forthcoming tour of north Notts. Mansfield: Through A Monocle was to feature myself and art critic Brian Sewell touring the area in a Bentley, looking for a suitable spot to hold a white-tie-and-diamonds party…”

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