zimzim

Presently moored at Queen's Head, ready to start up Tardebigge flight in the morning. We have seen maybe 4 or 5 boats all day, and we have the visitor moorings to ourselves. All the hire bases we have passed (on the Avon Ring) over the past week have been full of boats.... what's going on?!

Because ten years ago, the current supplier at the behest of the British government set up a dedicated factory on UK soil to manufacture the passports. This factory, and its workers, are now being scrapped by Her Majesty's Government........ Nice. BTW - this doesn't really have much to do with Brexit, in so far as this would/could have happened in any event.

Ha! - Sadly, for the moment at least, I am one of those pesky regular hirer types, but would be really happy to share a dram should our paths ever cross Thoughts to add on looking at my earlier photo: 1. The post-it pad is there for me to scribble my diy review on anything I try for future reference - some things I might replace when empty, others I might not. 2. The bottle of water is a really important fixture - my personal preference is for a dash of water with almost every whisky. I find most too harsh without it. The 'correct' technique is try whisky first without it, then add water to taste again. I think many are put off whisky all together by trying hard to drink it neat. I do like Penderyn (the Welsh whisky) - there is some in the photo somewhere....likewise Yamazaki (Japanese) and some Scandinavian 'Scotch' that once passed by. Laphroaig was mentioned earlier - i would not recommend this to the OP in light of comments made - it represents an extreme of the smokiness spectrum. Many love it, but for me it is medicinal in nature, rather like drinking Dettol....it's an interesting experience but not in my collection any more! Additions to my selection are based on whatever happens to be on offer when I wander through the supermarket - I would never pay top dollar. Also, I am a very easy person to Christmas and birthday presents for (Father's day is coming up!)

Good or bad whisky verdicts are purely subjective of course. If you are interested in the subject, I sometimes see whisky tasting evenings advertised? Alternatively, you could do what I did.... ... well, a chap's got to have a hobby. Also, i would recommend 'The World Atlas of Whisky' by Dave Broom - everything you could ever wish to know.

Must be misunderstanding - This is exactly what 'old-world' rail freight is good at, and it should be encouraged and invested in. Sadly, HS2 will go from London northwards. Actually, the overall picture for the UK is that only around one quarter of all containers arriving at our ports find their way inland by rail. Again, this is not a happy statistic, but it is the trend. Rail freight struggles to be anything more than a fairly blunt instrument - great for moving bulk commodities over long distances, but not so good for the agile, just-in-time supply chains of modern manufacturing. The International Railway Journal puts it thus: THE steep decline in demand for coal continued to erode rail freight traffic in Britain during the 2016-17 financial year, according to statistics published by the Office of Rail and Road on June 8. The total volume of freight moved fell to its lowest level since the late 1990s, dipping 3% to 17.2 billion net tonne-km. Of the seven commodity groups coal suffered the sharpest drop declining 39% compared with 2015-16 to 1.4 billion net tonne-km. The total volume of freight lifted dipped 8% to 79.4%, its lowest level since 1984-85, when traffic was hit badly by a lengthy strike by coal miners. Freight train movements fell 5% to 224,000, while freight train kilometres declined 3% to 34 million-km. RIP Capacity argument? Actually no..... we do need to invest properly in our railways. I just don't think HS2 is a good project.

We must agree to differ on your definition of meaningful.... Using a ton/mile analysis will of course tend to weight in favour of long distance movement of very heavy freight (historically, raw materials and commodity items such as coal, steel, etc) The reason this is not used by the Department for Transport is that the UK's logistical requirements are increasingly concerned with the holistic problem of moving goods from points of entry to the doorsteps of consumers. This is achieved by a system of mainly palletised and containerised transport through national and regional distribution centres, overwhelmingly by road. Rightly or wrongly, the decline in heavy industry in this country, and most significantly the transport of coal, has contributed most to the reduced demand for this kind of 'old world' freight. Rail remains the best possible solution for that kind of transport problem - it's just not the problem that we face any more.

Rail accounts for less than 10% of all freight movement in the UK - the vast majority is transported by road.

Just an observation, but I am quite often given cause to grumble about not being able to moor near a pub that i would like to use, because all VMs have been taken by boats that are busy cooking their evening meals whilst downing the first of their evenings drinks on board. My grumbles usually involve wondering why they have bothered to stop on a mooring that is handy for a pub that they have no intention of using - if I were them I would be out in the middle of nowhere with my spag bol and my bottle of wine. Is it because people are strangely drawn to moor in spots that 'seem popular'? Should something be done to help the pubs to make the most of passing boat trade - limited as it is?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16-Steel-Folding-Ring-Spiral-Ground-Anchor-Outdoor-Stake-Screw-Boat-Trap-Canopy-/232126300434?epid=2148224041&hash=item360bce4112:g:Tk0AAOSwB09YEbzZ What are thoughts on these spiral ground-anchor kind of things? Is this, coupled with chain/padlock about as tamper-proof as you can be (without armco/rings/etc)?

I think I understand the word. The Dept for Transport table uses it in this table to refer to numbers of passengers, not numbers of trains on lines. (Not my table. Not my definition). I appreciate that it can be used to refer to trains on lines. I guess the question would be whether we should spend billions adding capacity for more trains on routes where the capacity to carry passengers already seems least challenged? I think that's logical.

That is a truism, of course.... However, the £56 billion - £100+ billion (depending on whose estimate you take) that is earmarked for HS2 can only be spent once. There's another truism. The point is that it is being spent where it is needed least. An argument against HS2 is not an argument against infrastructure spending.

It is simply a matter of applying our (tax payer) resources where they are needed most urgently, and that is in the provision of local commuting capacity. There are people all over the country who are enduring awful journeys to work daily. HS2 will do nothing for them, except possibly burn money that could have been used to help them. HS2 is a solution looking for a problem.

It gets a bit wearing to see the capacity argument trotted out anecdotally as factual, so here are some (inconvenient) DFT statistics. The jury may wish to observe which rails services in the UK have the least overcrowding problem, and reach their own conclusions as to why we are building HS2.

Thankfully not. The only times I have been 'in' it was just a question of standing up. I take the point about having both hands free. The thought only came about having recently met at a lock a very slightly built lady-of-some-years who was pottering about with a pretty serious (and heavy-looking) ratchet device strapped to her back. It occurred to me that if she fell in, she was going straight to the bottom!