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Everything posted by Arthur Marshall
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What? No white collar worker ever took a couple of pencils home? When I worked in a furniture factory, on the night shift whole wardrobes would walk out the door. The firm's lorry went out for fish and chips and delivered the stuff at the same time. Perks, they called it. Management turned a blind eye. It just isn't black and white, any more than the CCing rules, or Tony's arguments with CRT are. It's fifty shades of grey, to coin a phrase, and everyone sees them differently. The law tries to differentiate, and is a useful guideline, but that's all, mainly because it derives from a certain very specific point of view. It's a mistake, I think, to see it as almost godgiven, as a way to decide on how people (usually other people, not oneself) should live. Of course, I could be wrong. And, possibly, it isn't really a relevant discussion on this thread, but it is an interesting one.
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November Lockdown (Two threads merged)
Arthur Marshall replied to matty40s's topic in General Boating
Teachers have been reclassified as childminders. But they can't put learning online as last week the government reneged on the promises they'd made to schools to provide laptops for kids without them, cutting the promised provision by 80%. -
November Lockdown (Two threads merged)
Arthur Marshall replied to matty40s's topic in General Boating
Mine gets left on a farm mooring, no shore power. I usually leave the hopper windows open for ventilation but can't this year as the mink get in! I just drain the water heater and leave taps open, put a bit of cover over the cruiser deck and go and check the poor old thing every few weeks. I am presuming even in the part lockdown I can still do that, though will check and if not it should be OK for a month anyway. All the soft furnishings get a bit manky but they'll dry out quick enough in spring, should I live to see it (If i don't, it becomes someone else's problem). Books and bedding come off this week. -
Hmm. Can't remember mentioning UK law. But I'll wager you break some of them nearly every time you go out in your car (and, if I could be bothered, I'm sure i could find some still on the statute book you'd find indefensible). Once you accept that one is optional, you can't argue that another is compulsory, you can't just pick and choose. Well, you can, you can argue what you like, you can cherry pick what you want, but it doesn't change the fact that you don't regard the law as inviolate. Who decides which are ok to be obeyed, and which not? Every individual, individually, every day.
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November Lockdown (Two threads merged)
Arthur Marshall replied to matty40s's topic in General Boating
Right, as usual. The Graun, that is. -
Welcome back, if briefly. Your last sentence is, indeed, what I would generally expect from a member of the other forum. I'm glad your usual attitude isn't reflected by all those who apppear on both. And as I've said above, if you don't want stuff shared across social media, it's best to keep it to yourself. The world, for better or worse (probably the latter), has moved on.
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No, because sometimes laws just don't work any more and someone somewhere sometime has to amend them so they reflect the real world. Unfortunately, mostly those who could don't because other things seem to them to be more important. Or are you suggesting that laws must always be obeyed, even if they are manifestly morally wrong? Several people have been hanged for using that argument.
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I'm afraid that while it may well be a technical infringement of copyright,the general assumption is that once you've shared something on the web, and social media in particular, your rights have gone up in smoke and unless you have specified that it's copyrighted and given contact details, it's in the public domain. Everything you write or post is stored, used and, if possible, sold by Google, FB etc, so I don't think you can complain too much about someone copying a photo from one site to another, as long as they aren't making money out of it. For example, I post a lot of music, and people use some of my stuff and I don't get a penny (or, usually, credit) for it unless they record it. I don't mind. The rule is, if you don't want it in the public domain, keep it to yourself. The law might catch up with reality one day, but as it usually doesn't, i doubt it.
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Most of us leisure boaters do that, which is why CRT changed the t&cs to say when you were off your home mooring you had to cruise. What you shouldn't do is stay in the same place (definition undefined) for a long time. If you want to do that, you should either go back to your mooring or get one where you want to be. It does seem a logical position to take.
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Whether it is right or wrong in anyone's moral judgement is sadly irrelevant to the law. This is primarily written to protect property and property owners, and the more property you have, the more likely you are to win your case. The law says, no licence, no boat. And CRT have the right in law to refuse a licence. This though isn't Tony's case, it's the crucial fact that no River Licence is enshrined in law while the Registration is. He's right. However, I suspect the law will agree with CRT that they are de facto the same thing, that the vat issue is irrelevant, that Tony should have got his BSS and not played silly buggers with the exemption, and that CRT were within their rights to take his boat. Whether we think all this is morally right or wrong just doesn't matter. Halbert's barmy decisions and statements are also irrelevant as in that court, they don't set precedents and aren't binding on anyone else, which is lucky as to anyone with half a brain they are (in accordance with the great tradition of judges) obvious nonsense. It's pointless quoting them.
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Facebook insisting on photo of new members
Arthur Marshall replied to jenevers's topic in Boat Equipment
Facebook was one of the first to use face recognition software. It then popped up to label you in other people's photos, and tell you about it. It was quite interesting as it was wrong most of the time, meaning the data that it sells on about you was nicely up the duff. Basically, just like the police stuff, and Google's, it couldn't tell people apart - just didn't work, any more than self driving cars can tell a person from a minor obstruction it can drive over. It's why the targeted advertising of all these things keeps trying to flog you stuff you wouldn't touch with that long but of wood on the boat roof. -
Anyone who has any dealings with lawyers will know they are appallingly and arrogantly inefficient. Even when doing something as simple as buying a house you have to bully them to get any action. Shoesmiths, I am sure, just used this as a method. I'm also sure Tony is aware of it. His argument is that what CRT say is a Registration (the rivers only licence) isn't. I doubt the court will agree with him. The VAT always struck me as a side issue and another losing argument. When picking fights, it's alwsys best to pick winnable ones. Tony's last one was the Liverpool lightship, and that didn't go well either. The law gets interpreted by judges, and they tend to go with the big battalions. It's there for the protection of property and major property holders, and it's a mistake to think it has anything to do with fairness or justice. I'll be very glad if I'm proved wrong and Tony wins his case. He's one of those whose eccentricities should be cherished, not condemned. He does no harm (annoying BW and CRT doesn't count) and has done a lot of good.
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I always thought we'd lose the Weaver. Getting rid of the full time lockies, then all the trouble with the locks, then free access to the lift. All too expensive and not enough traffic. Buying a boat was the best decision I ever made, and I blame it for the fact that I'm still more or less sane. The lsst fifty years of the system have been terrific both for those who live on it and those who play on it, but I suspect it'll be largely left to the fishermen in another ten.
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Canal & River Trust broadens online passage booking offer
Arthur Marshall replied to Ray T's topic in Waterways News & Press
Maybe I'm biased. It's the only place I've ever had my ropes cut. -
Canal & River Trust broadens online passage booking offer
Arthur Marshall replied to Ray T's topic in Waterways News & Press
CRTs systems aren't notorious for being any good, though, are they? In fact, very few IT systems are. And surely not everyone has registered on their systems. So what happens at the tunnel when an unlicensed boat turns up? -
Canal & River Trust broadens online passage booking offer
Arthur Marshall replied to Ray T's topic in Waterways News & Press
Another thought. I presume that when you book online you'll need your boat name and, more importantly, number. So, in one brilliant swoop, "stealth" boats will be unable to move round the system, and CRT will know exactly where unlicensed ones are and will be waiting to pounce on them the moment they come out of the tunnel... -
Canal & River Trust broadens online passage booking offer
Arthur Marshall replied to Ray T's topic in Waterways News & Press
No phone number on their notices any more, unless they've changed them again. There was at first, then they all got replaced leaving it off. And the same applies - phone reception is rubbish on the canal. -
Having spoken to a few of the good ones who have left RCR because of the long hours and low pay, on the rare occasion I get one who does a good job I do chuck an exrra tenner at them. If you get one of the contractors they pull in when their own employees aren't available, I don't usually as they're charging RCR their proper rate and probably on £70 an hour. The two who walked away leaving me stranded, and the pair who swore at the farmer where I moor, no. Bit mixed, RCR engineers.
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Canal & River Trust broadens online passage booking offer
Arthur Marshall replied to Ray T's topic in Waterways News & Press
Sorry, but that's rubbish. That's like saying you don't have a life if you don't share everything on social media. There are many people who don't have internet. Insisting that the only way to navigate the system is via IT is just stupid - half the time you can't even get a mobile phone signal. The lock keepers and tunnel blokes have got to be there anyway, as in the "boating season" there are always boats going through, so the only difference it makes it to mess up the boaters. -
Canal & River Trust broadens online passage booking offer
Arthur Marshall replied to Ray T's topic in Waterways News & Press
That's the logical approach. If I'm not sure when I'll get there, i just book six spots over two days. Bit tough on everyone else, but there it is, it's what the system's for. Ludicrous. -
Canal & River Trust broadens online passage booking offer
Arthur Marshall replied to Ray T's topic in Waterways News & Press
It does if you've got internet on board. And you've got a decent connection. The real problem, apart from Luddites, is that it all assumes that you know days before what time you're going to get to a place. And if there's one thing we learnt this year, it's that anything can go wrong, any time.