Corkkeys

True, it should also be noted that most people who live on boats do so because we like living on boats, amazing eh ?

There is no point trying to change the mind of these people. You have made your mind up. We all live on stationary pontoons whiling away the hours eating avocados when we should be spending that money on copies of the Daily mail and Brasso so I will carry on living a life contributing to society and caring for the people around me.

Well there we have it, this has nothing to do with boating, it has everything to do with your politics. Why are you talking about mobile phones and student debt? I don't think this needs much response, you have set your nonsensical justification for your opinion in a perfect light for all to see and undone yourself. You need no help from anyone else to show how bigoted your opinions are.

Boat wise, London is busy, very busy, but the picture being painted on this thread is very warped. I live on a 40ft nb. I do not like double mooring as I have a grumpy dog who barks at the slightest noise and refuses to cross another boat to get to the bank so, I will sometimes have to miss certain areas of central London if I don't wish to double moor. Having said that, if London was not so tightly packed with boats then boats would, I am sure, be much less secure than they are even now, and we have a number of security issues as I said in my earlier post. So, in busy areas, it can be beneficial to have a neighbour who will be looking out for your boat. Facilities are lacking, while the argument from CaRT and some boaters is that there are more facilities here than anywhere else in the country, these facilities are serving many many more people and so, they break down, get blocked etc. The notion that there are always queues at water points is not true, yes, in busy areas that will often be the case on a weekend but it really doesn't take long to water up and as boaters we go on boat time. There are people who abuse the facilities, just as there are people who do that in every other walk of life, I never understand why toilets in pubs, restaurants etc still have to have a sign telling people not to put wetwipes down but we hey, that's life, someone will always come along and try and stuff a nappy down the elsan at some point, we deal with it and move on. There are no recycling bins provided by the canal and river trust between Victoria park on the regents and, well actually they are the only ones I can picture east of Little venice which is frankly unacceptable from a charity which has just launched a campaign to get everyone to collect litter, where will that go? In local authority bins and they will foot the bill. So while the Canal and river trust keep exclaiming that they cannot keep up with demand, they keep on issuing licences and taking licence payments, selling land to developers, I could go on. Having said all that, they have a very difficult task on their hands, one I am really not sure the organisation has the ability to cope with but time will tell. This description of us all being continuous moorers? Well yes, we do moor after moving, that is a given but we certainly do move, otherwise we wouldn't have our licences renewed would we. The idea that we all have a secret moving schedules and space swap is paranoia and conspiracy theory and simply not true. If you take a look at the London boating facebook groups for example, anyone who asks to space swap is swiftly told off. I am sure there are a few boats which do this, just as there are a few boats which don't move as often or far but it really isn't many. Living on a boat as a cc-er, is a completely different lifestyle to having a holiday boat you leave in a marina and only take out when the sun shines but different doesn't mean bad. We have a wonderful community of knowledgeable, hardy, kind, skilled enthusiastic boaters and we will defend ourselves when attacked with such vitriol as that seen above. We make the canals safer by maintaining a presence there, we collect litter, we clear up oil spills from industry and help resolve structural issues, we act as liaison between authorities and hokld them to account when the CRT, Environment agency, local councils and Thames water for example all try to pass the buck and claim responsibility isn't theirs , we report injured animals we defend and assist victims of crime on the canals in London and we are the victims of crime, continuously, we have had to battle with an underfunded police force as our community were being mugged at knife point, women punched in the face while cycling so a thief could take their bike, homes invaded burgled, we have learned that their is safety in numbers and community and without us, (just last night my friend called me from their boat as someone drugged up to the eyeballs had climbed on their boat and tried to get in through the door, I came out with th dog and scared them off but my friend was terrified )that single, beautifully polished boat that pops into London for a few days tourism would be smashed and robbed because there would be no one around acting as presence and detterant. I have no doubt that things will change, the IWA hate us and lobby CRT to get rid of us but we will fight to keep our community. Yes there will always be people who dont play by the rules but next time you walk past a boat which looks a bit shabby and hasn't moved for a while, instead of tutting and raging online, think for a moment that person may, for example be unwell, physically or mentally, unable to access health services consistently because of their lifestyle, which may or may not have been their first choice, and be receiving threatening letters from CRT, it happens, so don't be too quick to judge a situation you know nothing about. London is a busy city with a huge population all on a wide specturm of living conditions and with different lives and needs, the canals in London are no different.

Why do people on boats outside London spend so much time getting upset about boats inside London?

This is dull. First sentence stands-I am responding to misery, 2nd quote, if you read it again, you will see I am not suggesting that, but the opposite. 3rd quote, Not a threat, just an odd thing to be so offensive and rude and advertise your boat. Trolls usually know better. I wouldn't want that information on a public forum, and I am not a rude git so goodness knows why he has done it. And to you, why are you unpicking my response rather than calling him out on his behaviour? I could bother to analyse that but I won't

The "Lady" is furious and wrote in rage. I retrospect I should have also asked firesprite if he knows how many people in full time employment in London receive housing benefit from their local authority merely to be able to afford to live in the city, not that I believe most people living on boats in London do so to save money.

We goodness me! Someone hasn't had their ready brek this morning have they?Did you drop teddy and have a bad dream? Someone is a proper mr grumpy pants. I'm so pleased that you enjoy your mooring in i'm guessing Hertford? Or perhaps somewhere up the Stort. Its beautiful up there isn't it? Thankfully the royal borough of not London doesn't have those terrfying well trained rats setting fire to the chippendale to keep themselves warm, sneaking up your ropes to have a dump in the canal, or god forbid running an engine for the ability to contibute to this stream of coot droppings we are calling a thread. More cow poo up that way though i'd venture, but you seem oddly enthused by "bovine droppings" so thats nice for you. But lets not dilly dally, what you speak is utter nonsense but lets break it down. London is busy-yes it really is! Its not only full of those pesky boat dwellers, but other people too! How dreadful. Perhaps you could venture in by train, that way you will have a quick exit route, after all, taking the boat in means spending an awful lot of time with us rats so i dont think you'd enjoy it, but hey at least we're all in plain site and not abke to jump out from the shadows and eat your children. But you could stay in one of those many beautiful canal side apartments your friends own. I assume they are as stupid as you, being priviledged enough to own or rent a canal side property and not clocking that canals are quite boaty. As for people, yes, thats right, we are people, just being able to choose to live where ever we like and get a job in a new place if we want, its not quite that simple but i really am not going to break off this train of thought to start educating you on social economics, you can look that one up yourself. Suffice to say that a year traveling around the canals of britain would be marvelous, if it weren't for that damn money thing, tut tut. Your terms squatters, freeloaders, spivs, all heavily loaded, trouble is, many of us arent as wonderful as you so we have to look the word spiv up! As for squatting, nothing wrong with that, especially when there are over 100,000 empty buildings in London, such as some of those lovely canal side properties, just sitting there earning someone money while people are left homeless and without access to basic needs, but we are not squatting, we pay a licence fee, you could call us guardians of the tow path in a sense. We get broken into, robbed, mugged, sexually assaulted, all so you don't have to, its a community service we provide, but we are of course VERMIN and so deserve this. I am pleased that you pay for your mooring, council tax, yada yada, its obviously contributing to society and making you the well rounded man we see here before us. Well done, have a brandy on the back deck to congratulate yourself. Narrowboat firesprite, (well done by the way for writing this bile and publicising your boat, I would seriously think about a renaming ceremony before you try bringing that thing inside the M25, you might not be best liked after this.) May your bilge always be soggy, Your ropes always slimey Your pins always pulled out the wind always be blowy the locks always against you.