Arthur Marshall

Gawd, not that again...

Self employed and running a successful business for fifty years, thank you! And, as I said, mine was an extreme simplification. Raising fees to take account rising costs isn't inflationary. Raising them over and above that, which is what most businesses do, is. Odd how these business people ignore the stated provisos in an argument and immediately go on the defensive. Very thin-skinned, it seems. Can't imagine why.

Except under the revised T&Cs, CRT have made the cruising rules the same. Whether it would stand up in court we will never know. Not that it matters, as anyone with a home mooring out on a cruise is only interested in covering a bit of ground, not sitting under a tree for weeks.

Inflation doesn't mean prices with fixed costs have to rise. That just increases profits. If you own a field with caravans on it, the field doesn't cost you any more because of inflation - it's raising the cost of hiring the caravan (because you can) that causes inflation in the first place. Same as owning a rental house outright, no mortgage - but whacking up the rent just because everyone else has. Of course, some of your costs do increase, it's not quite as simple as that, but increaseing charges over costs is what fuels inflation, and makes some people rich. Which, after all, is the point.

That last sentence makes no sense whatsoever.. I will point out again that it doesn't matter to CRT what bit of the Macc that I choose to moor on (a bit like it doesn't matter where a CCer moors), or which farmer I pay for my mooring (or how much), I have to pay the same additional fee to CRT. It's not tied to a particular place at all - I paid the same when I moored on the Shroppie. The difference, of course, is that it can be adjusted for circumstance, so if I wanted to hang about in a popular spot like London, the CRT fee would be higher. For a CCer, this isn't the case, they now get the same small surcharge everywhere. This is logical for the ones that move round the system, but for the majority that don't I suspect further changes may be in the pipeline. The point is that everyone moors, but only some pay a fee to do so. That fee has nothing to do with the rent paid to the landlord. The law was written to be fair to those who wanted to cruise the system. It wasn't intended to cope with those who wanted to stay in a small area for whatever valid reason. That's the trouble with the law, which is inflexible, and the society it controls, which can change rapidly. Luckiky, CRT have found a way round it, following the example of those who have, themselves, found a way round the intention of the law.

There are plenty of "Cyclist dismount" signs though, and I am sure every time he sees one, Higgs dismounts and pushes his bike.

It does now. It didn't originally, the whole back end was the fuel tank, the rudder tube ran up through the middle of it.

On mine it goes mostly into the bilge, some drains out through the one working drain channel. If there is an integral fuel tank in the rear of the hull, as there was with mine, I'd worry that, with that amount of rust, it was rusting through, or the tiller tube, if it runs through it, was rusting through - either would fill the tank with water. My tank rusted through the other way first, sort of luckily, and filled the bilge with diesel.

Ebikes, escooters and all motorised transport should be treated like motorbikes , which is what they are. Numberplates and registered to an owner, who is liable for damage no matter who is riding. No reason why a licence shouldn't be required to ride them, either. Just because a government can't be bothered, doesn't mean it isn't a simple solution. They pass enough daft laws - if they can make it illegal to walk slowly down a road, they could sort ebikes.

Enforcement of cyclists has the same problem as enforcement of CC rules - identification. It's impossible for ordinary bikes to be identifiable though it would be perfectly easy for electrics if the will was there, which it isn't. That would take politicians (of all stamps and at all levels) who had some interest in real life rather than playing games.

Water was so low at the T&M summit last week that I couldn't get into one of the Stoke locks, and it has rained a bit lately. The CRT bloke who came to sort it out blamed vandals for opening paddles overnight - I did point out that the gates on the flight leaked so much that a lock someone had just emptied (and mistakenly shut the gates on me as I approached it), was half full again by the time I'd walked up to it. Others on the flight, filled by someone going up just before me, were almost empty by the time I reached them. It really doesn't bode well for the summer. Until a few years ago there were anti vandal locks on the top couple, too, presumably taken off because vandalism isn't really a problem.

I passed a few hire fleets over the last few weeks and was surprised that most of them were still pretty full of unhired ones. But at the prices mentioned, and the way the weather has been (and was forecast to be) , I suppose it's to be expected. Doesn't bode well, though for them, especially with the expected summer water shortages and stoppages on the popular rings.

If you think the UK can do anything whatsoever to prevent wars, especially after doing its best to bust a local alliance, declaring its willingness to break international law and its opposition to any general definition of human rights, you really need help. We'd be a lot better off having a nice well kept water park to play on while the rest of the fools play games.

Ah, almost every sensible contribution to a debate needs a bit of racism to spice it up, doesn't it?

I'd imagine CRT keep an eye on the site, though I'd have my doubts about it even being a valid listing.