I see the Christmas break has given all the whingeing holiday boaters time to email Narrowboat World to complain about any boater who is not like them.
This collection of Daily Mail readers are upset because they can't moor exactly outside the pub or shop of their choice when on their two week break.
The people to blame are, of course, boaters they like to label 'continuous moorers' and choose to hate with a passion only available to the ignorant.
The boaters who are not like them are those of us out on the system for long periods, whether or not they are technically continuous cruisers.
Holiday boaters see these people moored in the spaces where they expect to be able to tie when they arrive at 7.00pm after a long day.
They may see them in the same area on the way back a few days later and without any thought they decide they are breaking the mooring rules.
The real picture is not ever going to be seen by those that pass in the night.
Boaters who live on their boats and cruise tend to travel two or three hours a day so they get to prime moorings before holiday boats.
Boaters continuously on the system also tend to stay on morings the full time allowed and will be more inclined to opt for longer stays (7/14 days) if they are available nearby. They need to run their everyday lives whilst cruising - shopping, doctors, post etc. That's why you tend to see them twice in a holiday.
Continuous cruisers also tend to explore whole areas so they will pass through certain areas several times. We spent the early part of this year visiting Chester, Manchester and the Peak Forest. That meant we pased through hotspots like Middlewich, Nantwich, Chester etc a number of times and could easily be labeled 'continuous moorers' by passing holiday boaters.
Bigotry founded in ignorance from holiday boaters sows poison in the boating community. Of course there are boats around London and on the K&A that don't obey the rules but there are many more continuous cruisers who move a lot and don't overstay.
Bigots will not be persuaded as long as they can't moor by the pub, but a little more logical thought might reduce the bile levels.
Floater
Just won't go away
Wednesday 26 December 2012
Christmas bile
Thursday 18 October 2012
Artist's impression or adjustment?
The artist's impression of plans to upgrade Birmingham's National Indoor Arena and open it up to the canal look impressive, but leave some questions.
Take a look at the impression and the reality in the two pictures.
Why have the four tower blocks in the top right lost 4 or 5 stories?
Is it really planned to destroy the lovely mature trees that edge the towpath at the Old Turn?
Why can't planners - and the public - be presented with something less artistic and more accurate?
Tuesday 18 September 2012
Mooring Auctions – and how to push more boaters into continuous cruising
I have observed the site closely over the last couple of years and there are clear trends which are disturbing both for the future income of the Trust and the financial well-being of boaters.
Friday 13 July 2012
Are continuous cruisers to become outcasts of the system?
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Lovely canal - so why neglect it?
We have just completed a week or so on the Upper Peak Forest, a canal we visit at least annually and where we used to have moorings.
It is one of the most attractive and scenic canals in the country, with wide views of the Peak District and is likely to see more visitors than ever this year, thanks to southern drought restrictions and the Olympics.
So why is it so neglected by British Waterways?
From Marple to Whalley Bridge it is in dire need of dredging and if it were not for the weekly visits by coal boats even boats of a normal draft of 30" or so would have even more problems.
The offside vegetation is so overgrown that it is difficult for two boats to pass in many places, especially if there is a moored boat.
Mind you he would have been lucky to have found a mooring as collapsed banks and submerged coping stones are the order of the day. The moorings on the Peak Forest section of Marple are in bad condition for almost their entire length and have been for at least 4-5 years. There are collapsed banks at almost every swing bridge making it an art form to drop crew without grounding.
At Disley on a narrow section of towpath just where the canal breached a few years ago a collapsed edge has been fenced off with orange rash and ignored for at least a year and the same is true for a long section of the visitor moorings in Whalley Bridge.
Add in a couple of trees that fell earlier this year but have been left for boats to scrape past at the expense of their paintwork and the sad picture is complete.
Why has BW chosen to let this lovely canal deteriorate?
We don't have an answer - just a suspicion that all these problems affect boaters rather than walkers, cyclists or fishermen. Somehow boaters' needs are bottom of the list. Certainly well below paying bogus bonuses to BW bosses.
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Is charity a dirty word?
Charity for me is something handed out from the haves to the have-nots. The givers, whether they are wealthy individuals, religious groups or even ordinary people get to feel good about themselves. They can polish their self image and tell themselves they are good people, even if they spend the rest of the week exploiting their employees and ripping off customers or fellow believers.
The recipients of charity get to feel demeaned and diminished, forced to beg for help and to hope they are one of the prefered good causes of the 'philanthropists' currently so praised by politicians of all pastel shades.
That is one of the key failings of charity, it is not help handed out to those most in need, it is help given to those causes rich individuals or organisations with a particular religious or social agenda decide are worthy of help.
Charity is not only a cold and shameful thing for the recipient, it is discriminatory and benefits the giver at least as much as the recipient - even without a tax break.
The proper way for a society to look after its people, culture, landscape and whatever else is precious to the members of that society is collectively.
That means all the members of that society making a contribution through the tax system which is commensurate with the individual's means and collectively sufficient to do whatever is necessary.
That is how a civilised society looks after its poor, sick and weak, defends its borders, polices its citizens, educates the young and cares for the old.
In America the total tax take is smaller than ours and those in need depend much more on the whims of philanthropists. The result is more homeless, hopeless people at the bottom of the pile.
In Scandinavian countries the total tax take is larger than ours, around 50% of income. They have universal health care and education, proper pensions for the retired and a social security system that doesn't produce abject poverty.
This government wants to drive us towards the American approach. If they succeed the poor, the old and the sick will be increasingly beholden to the whims of eccentric millionaires and extreme religions.
I have no liking for 'philanthropy' I want a society that looks after all its members properly and equally. That means taxation and more of it. If it falls more heavily on the rich, as it should, they must stop whingeing and see it for what it is - enforced philanthropy for the benefit of the society which has rewarded them so well.
Saturday 31 March 2012
A matter of class
George Galloway's humiliation of Labour in Bradford highlights one distinction between socialist parties and Labour - a willingness to ackowledge that class is not a thing of the past.
New Labour under the slimy Tony Blair and friends began the drift away from the party's working class roots by deciding they couldn't get elected as the party of the working class because key middle ground voters didn't want to be identified as working people. They made the cynical decision that those who still saw themselves as working class had nowhere else to go so it was OK to sell out to middle England with all it's pretentions and prejudice.
That was probably true but Milliband would be deluded if he calculates that him and his current batch of university educated, middle class, well-heeled ministers and MPs can continue to depend on the loyalty of the mass of working class voters.
Quite apart from those running into the disturbing embrace of the far right, an increasing number are realising Labour has abandoned them for the white van men who see no further than the next hike in petrol prices and need to be wooed by regular attacks on the poor (scroungers) and non whites (asylum seekers).
If Labour wishes to return to its roots, a large if, then it needs to return to the analysis of class, especially at a time when the redefined upper classes, judged by wealth as well as birth these days, is unashamedly tipping the balance in favour of capital and the controllers if wealth by removing or selling off anything owned by society as a whole and benefiting the poor more than the rich. That runs from reducing the rights of unions to selling off the NHS. Difficult, of course, as Blair and Brown had been doing something very similar.
Most of all - instead of abandoning class - we need to revisit the concept of class.
We may no longer have legions of blue collar workers. Instead they wear suits and work in call centres or office jobs, or they wear uniforms and help Tesco make its billions.
The problem is that many of those people have been conned into believing they are not part of the working class.
A socialist Labour Party would be working with the unions to recruit that mass of white collar working class people, explaining how they are being exploited and convincing them that by joining together they can and should challenge the owners of capital.
This country is still overwhelmingly working class, even if the bank workers, shop salespeople, call centre employees and other labourers at the technology workface have been encouraged to see themselves differently.
The task facing Labour is to out itself at the head of an angry new, white collar working class and teach them that having to wear a tie doesn't turn them into little Tories.
Stand up for these working people, encourage them to join unions, tell them they should and must stand together against rapacious employers.
It is still all about class, us and them, and Labour's tragedy us that has allowed the Tories to change perceptions, ever since Thatcher's massive con-trick of council house sales.
Time to reattach testicles, get some real working class people at the top and claim back the working class voter, whatever they currently think they are.