Time to check out real life and save our system

I know it's depressing but I suspect we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Britain's waterways thanks to everyone swallowing the 'third sector' codswallop.
The IWA, like a dog thats just been petted, wags its tail every time some minister praises it's work over the years.
It is so surprised to find someone who says it was right all along and the waterways should be looked after by a conservancy that it doesn't fight any more.
As long as politicians keep patting it on the head it can't be bothered to worry about inadequate funding, having to keep paying Evans his ludicrous salary, pension and perks, and the lack of confidence boaters have in the whole mess that is the NWC.
The other boater organisations are almost as uncritical and none are shouting out that the emperor has no clothes.
No BW successor can run the system properly without adequate financial support and Cameron and crew have no real interest in canals other than abandoning all financial responsibility for one of our great national assets.
They won't care if boaters are driven off and all the canals slowly silt up into weed and rubbish filled ditches - not their problem once it is a charity.
The rational approach would be for the taxpayer to provide the tiny amounts - about ten bankers bonuses a year - needed. We wouldn't even notice the 0.02p of tax it would take.
Instead we are going through this 'big society' farce for reasons of political dogma and the losers will be boaters and canal lovers.
I just wish the IWA and the rest would rediscover their crusading spirit and tell the greasy politicians they should be spending whatever it takes to keep such a fantastic national treasure in tip top condition.
If they are still spending £100,000,000,000 a year on the banks - and they are - then £100,000,000 on the waterways is much better value.
Lets stop massaging the egos of the 'great and good' being appointed to the various NWC committees and get back to a properly funded government operated system of British Waterways.

New Waterways Charity - the biggest con we've ever seen?

If the Government had come along and said to waterways people, "We are going to slash your budget so that you have about half what you actually need to keep the system going properly and you are never going to get any more regardless of inflation," there would have been uproar.
If it added the information that the waterways would continue to be run by the same bunch of former estate agents and accountants the politicians themselves had criticised as overpaid - and they would retain their bloated pay, perks and pension - we would conclude they were taking the piss.
If they then said that pathetic level of funding would disappear after losing much of its value, after a few years then most waterways people would conclude they were being abandoned by a government happy to abandon all responsibility for one of the country's great national assets and see a key part of our heritage in terminal decline.
A great campaign would have had ministers' ears ringing. There would have been narrowboat flotillas outside Parliament and the IWA and all the other defenders of the system would be shouting about the stupidity of such a plan.
So, how is it all right to do all that if the body left to pick up the pieces the Government has decided to throw away is given the title of a charity and finds committee seats for people who would otherwise be campaigning against what is happening?
How easily we are being conned into agreeing with the lie that a new waterways charity will make everything all right.
It's not too late to wake up and start fighting.