Arthur Marshall

I've sunk, been burgled, been shouted at... didn't spend tons originally but made up for it later. Thirty years later, still love the old tub, the sound of rain on the roof and those odd days sitting on the back in the sun with a good book...

The licence is for your benefit, so you can moor in the marina and, should you wish, use the canal. Nothing else.

Need is irrelevant, as is logic or common sense. All that matters is what a marina says you have to have to be allowed by them to moor in it. Nobody has to justify anything. There's no end to this particular argument, as we all know... There's no law, for example, to say I can't live most of the year on my current leisure mooring as I did on the previous one, except that this farmer will turf me off and the other one didn't mind. Laws, terms and conditions, rules, guidelines - none of them have any actual meaning or effect unless they are enforceable, and, if they are, and they are enforced, and you don't have the reciprocal clout to disenforce it, then you're stuffed, and that's all that matters. It all comes down to where you are in the food chain...

If it is mostly hirers, which I'm not sure of, then it comes down again to the wilfull ignorance of those who do something potentially dangerous without any research. People buy chainsaws in the same way. But something like this can happen to the most careful of us. It only takes one small lapse of attention at the wrong time and glug... A friend of mine hung up and sank at Wardle, and I left the boat in reverse and nearly did the same, both of us with over twenty years experience. It's just that 99% of the time you get away with it, same as car driving errors.

My boat and engine, for reasons historical, vibrates horribly at certain speeds. It doesn't appear to be fixable at a reasonable cost. It's fine at very, very slow, comfortable at 2 or 3 mph. It's the bit between tickover and 2 that threatens the fillings in my teeth and the engine bolts. So for fishermen I drop the speed by a third, and if they don't llike it they can go and torture fish on rivers. I have the same problem with the 1 mph brigade and those who slow right down at bridges. I used to get annoyed about the last lot, which I finally realised was pointless, so now I just park on the mud for a bit, make a cup of tea and catch them up again half an hour later. In extreme cases I overtake.

I always assumed they went on at the same time, in the same room. That's the one. If that's the agreement, they aren't doing much trading as some of those wrecks have been there for about fifteen years!

I accept your figures, I just find it remarkably high. I do wonder about the accuracy of CRT's checker website, though it should be linked to the licensing section. And your numbers wouldn't have included the boats without any number showing, either. If yiu recall, were they mostly on offside moorings? I know there was a boatyard on the t&m at Stoke that always seemed to have nothing but apparently abandoned and unlicensed boats, though last time I went by I saw some there with licenses. I always wondered how they got away with it.

That does seem rather a lot. Considering that the Macc, Peak Forest and Caldon aren't exactly a rampaging mass of boats, and assuming the sizeable majority of boats do show licences, you must have gone past a couple of thousand boats in that area in September. I do find that hard to believe, as only three or four boats go past my mooring on the Macc most days I'm down there. And the Caldon is even quieter. I suspect you may have counted a lot of them twice as you went up and back.

I assumed the reason for slowing was so that the drag of the boat didn't hoick their keepnets into the cut. Got told recently that most don't use them now, but of course they do in competition. I slow down slightly, but then my max speed is 3mph anyway.

As a relatively (these days anyway) rule respecting good boater, I can't say I've ever been worried about any daft rules CRt or BW before them impose. I didn't when I lived on a leisure mooring, either. In practice, I don't think the bulk of these changes will affect anyone who boats with a bit of consideration. And I still think the oddest changes are down to their seemingly endless hassle with young Dunkley, ex of this parish.

Yes, but all that means is that an agency worker is treated as self employed, and that depends on the exact nature of the contract. There's no such thing as a worker who is neither employed or self employed, because by the nature of working, you are doing something for somebody. All the rest is arguing as to who pays the tax etc, and how much. Agencies prefer you to be self employed because it's cheaper for them, and if the contract doesn't specify that you can only work for them, and not take up other work aas well round the edges, they might get away with it. A lot of them insisted that their contractees set up limited companies (at their own expense, obviously) and acted as directors (which meant the contractee paid less tax as he paid himself in dividends rather than wages) and that caused chaos as it was essentially illegal but took years to sort out. As usual, the law is a mess because it's written by twits with no training. That's why lawyers are rich and the rest of us aren't.

Yes, but even working on a casual basis you are either employed or self employed. Either way, someone is responsible for sorting out your NI and tax liability. If it's you, you're self employed. If it's someone else, you're an employee. If you're not paying tax or NI, and the Revenue doesn't know about you, you're probably a musician... OK, part of the illegal black economy! If you're not paying tax or NI, but live in a mansion, and have a million quid in the bank, you're a cabinet member...

A bit out of context - "worker" is only part of the definition. It gets further defined so the worker is either an enployee or self employed. It means nothing by itself.

Looks like a lobster pot situation - if you're not in a lockdown place you can travel to a place that is, but once there you're in lockdown so you can't leave. Also known as Hotel California Syndrome. As the infection rate appears to worsen dramatically under local lockdown, I'd avoid those places like, if you'll forgive the phrase, the plague.

All open today Yes, we went down to what is, in honour of her Scottishness, referred to as the Big Hoose by the winding hole for the night before going home.

Re the funeral, I think the six rule applies, so you can go to a pub in groups of six but mustn't mingle. If you turn up as a group of 30 the landlord can now, i think, be fined (or even closed down) for letting you in or even socialising outside his premises. So five groups of six are fine, one of thirty is probably illegal. And I think that's now law, not advice, with a grand fine if you get it wrong. Though that might only be in the NE, i haven't bothered to check where the fines are, but as the cops don't seem to know either... I'm also trying to think of a pub in Macc big enough to house 30 people social distancing. You best look it up in the morning, because who knows what the law will be by Friday? ETA the figure of 30 attenders seems to be just advice, not law, or it was on 4September and I can't see any update.

It's partly a mess because it's almost impossible to know what today's rules are, as our great leader has recently proved. If they change at midnight, how are you supposed to find out? No-one listens to local radio, what's left of it, there's no real local papers left, tv local news is rubbish, so everyone gets their info from Facebook, gods help us.. I visited a friend on the Wirral yesterday, which is under local rules, and neither if us could make head or tail of them. Over the road, in Cheshire, it's national rules. 12 pages of mixed advice, law changes and suggestions published at midnight and then threatening thousand pound fines? It's just chaos. The only sensible behaviour is to keep out of the way of as many people as you can, wear a mask when required if only out of politeness and regard for other people's feelings, and grab the first vaccine that comes along.

Maintenance is well behind now. They may get repaired over winter... They don't bother on the T&M until the second paddle gets bust, umless it's a psired lock in which case they don't bother at all until the second lock gives up the ghost..

Not sure. When I came down earlier this year, the pounds were empty and the lockie told me that if the reservoir is below a certain level, it gets priority for the water over the canal overnight and they can't run water down into the pounds until it's refilled.

You won't get that, because Serco et al will regard it as commercially important info. Remember, they are in this to make a profit, not save lives. For the same reason, the Govt have shown no interest in the WHO instant test though it's quicker and cheaper than anything else, as well as being available now - because it has to be administered by a health professional, ie the NHS. They may of course be forced to in the end.

And all because LadyG went to Lincoln. I knew going there would cause trouble. Horrible place.

If you have a home mooring, why would you want to spend a couple of months sitting under a tree somewhere else? Generally, you leave your home point and wander around for a while, maybe a weekend, maybe six months, and then go home, rest up, and do it again. That's called cruising. Most home moorers are leisure boaters, so it won't bother them, because we go on our boats to move, not plonk ourselves down. And the same goes for liveaboards, surely. Their home mooring is because it's convenient for work or school or whatever, so you'd only leave it to cruise. I really can't see the problem. And as Nigel pointed out on many an occasion , if you've got a home mooring you have no legal right to stop anywhere else except by the grace of CRT. The 14 day rule only applies to CCers.

And out the sides and round the back. I suppose they are better than nothing. Maybe.

Is this CRT's "Get Tony Dunkley" department working overtime?

I would be surprised if wearing a cheap cloth mask is of any use at all, and they fog my specs up and I don't like them. Due to beardedness, they don't seal at all. Visors are apparently useless. But it seems polite in the current situation to wear a mask when asked, so I do, if only to stop other people worrying a bit. It's nice if they feel a bit safer, even if it almost certainly isn't true. But, as I said in the dog poo thread, most people are plonkers and the trick is to try and keep oneself as safe as you can and not get depressed because there are a lot of idiots out there. You aint going to change human nature, though if enough of them refuse a vaccine when it arrives, Darwinism might lend a hand.