initially , news of the campaign was run on quiet news days , but then as momentum grew and the days became quieter towards the end of july and into august , not a day seemed to go by without a sympathetic news report : a familys houseboat stranded upon a mudbank in a stagnant river , which , it was observed , was less than twenty miles from a large foreign-owned beer factory ; or an octogenarian swimmer who needed to be rescued when , after diving at his favourite spot , he found himself plunging head first javelin-like into half a metre of mud he blamed four new jetties which had been built to accommodate the tourists .