Mick and Maggie

I found this on Simons Liveaboard blog. I'm not sure how representative of peoples thoughts or who its aimed at. But is somehow has a certain eerie ring to it! Divide and Rule The following standard operating procedure came to my attention recently. Find a vocal boater who has indicated some sympathy or personal interest with what you are trying to do and who has time on their hands. If that boater has axes to grind with others (especially if it's with any of the dissenting established representative organisations or individuals cheeky enough to disagree!) so much the better. If not proceed with the following steps anyway. Woo them, invite them to meetings etc, and make them out to be a great froward thinking hero. Most importantly make sure you tell the victim that you believe they are representative of a wider silent majority who agree with your agenda. Being a silent majority of course this can't be proved but don't worry about that, take our word for it... Note: It is particularly important not to let them get wind of any dissenting views at this stage. Flatter and encourage the poor sod some more. If the victim still does not have an axe to grind with others, repeat steps 3-5. Make sure they put themselves about on the forums etc and use them as stalking horse to gather more dissenters. If they are struggling with point 7, feed them the right messages under the pretence of 'helping'. Make sure they get sent things no-one else has seen to make them feel even more confident and important. Flatter and encourage the poor sod some more. Repeat any or all of steps 3 to 9 as required. Use all this this as smoke and mirrors to try to hide the fact that a whole other load of people disagree. Please note that the tactic becomes even more effective if you can find more than one boater. (Our experience to date suggests there are usually many others prepared to join in.)

Spoken like a true boater. After all, a cassette full of crap is just an updated bucket and chuck it system.

Richard, what an interesting conundrum. I have the feeling that you will be viewed with some scepticism as representing the weird and wacky world of the forum. Anyone who has ever dropped by the forum will have gone away with a wonderful insight to life on the cut. It's a bit late in the day, but as most organisations work on an annual membership figure. Maybe the number of account holders who have logged on in the last 12 months would be sufficient. Lapsed members are outside of the time limit and do not get counted. If you are asked about a constitution - well there are certain terms and conditions that apply to being a registered member of the forum. If you are asked about your remit. You are the nominated representative and your role is to report back to the membership. Not to represent the diverse views of individuals. ​I look forward to your report, I'm sure that there will be people on here who will accept the report as is, and others that will challenge each line word for word. Its the way of the wacky world that is CWDF.

Wasps and ladybirds numbers have had a bad year as many of the insects that usually overwinter did not survive. Butterflies seem to me to be in good numbers comparable with the previous two years. Brimstone and fritillary were amongst the ones I noted in bigger numbers. Dragonflies seem to be in much better numbers than the previous two years. Red Darter and four spot chasers were almost everywhere. Pipistrelle and Daubenton's bats suffered from the delayed start to spring and are reduced in numbers compared to the last two years. Birds seem to have had a very good year and we know of swallows that have reared three broods. The flying ant season seems to have spread over more days than the last couple of years. The continued mild weather will allow this years fledglings a better chance to learn the skills to survive the winter.

The bottom line is £76,000 of our money was spent on the pursuit of someone who would not and could not pay. Was it proportionate and did it give any credence to a charity seeking public donations. I don't think so. The publicity around a charity that is being seen to trample all over a disabled person will be uppermost in the public mind. Good deeds are soon forgotten bad deeds are remembered forever. The bigger picture is that millions of our money was lost on speculation on pub chains when pubs were closing in large numbers. Even more millions was wasted on the Gloucester docks development. Both were poor decision processes. In this case £76,000 is of little concern. Just ignore a maintenance issue - books sorted! BW was out of touch, CaRT is out of control.

Is it the PFLP, Popular Front for the Liberation of Plastics?

I don't think he has refused to pay, he has been unable to gain a safety cert. So CaRT will not issue the licence. Spend limited money on BCC which amounts to nothing left for obtaining a licence. Pay licence. then nothing left for BCC. Chicken and egg. A huge m'learned friends fees that have been paid to achieve a pyrrhic victory. Now CaRT has a bad creditor for the foreseeable future. He walks away, byeee. He can apply to go bankrupt - couple of years the debit is wiped. Hello CaRT - licence please. What a waste of money and it still does not set a precedent for the future.

Johns canopies was recommended to me by Pete. (pearley) We took pete's advice. First class workmanship, all done on the visitor moorings in Birmingham. Measured and fitted in about ten days. When the pram cover needs replacing - I know exactly where I shall be going. Compared to others on price, it was no contest. The item is as good as new and has stood up well. So its Johns Canopies for us!

Dave Have a green one! It's an environmental disaster according to the daily mail. I think it's environmentally bad news. In reality it is a spillage that has polluted a length of waterway. Which will recover without intervention being required. DEFRA has refused to ban chemicals products that empirical evidence gathered elsewhere has seen them banned in other countries. No mention of the water company being censured, but with one eye on an election on the horizon - time for Benyon to bring the greens onside. According to a typical under reaction of the mail 'It killed all the freshwater shrimp, caddis fly and mayfly, leaving trout and other fish with nothing to feed on and in turn hitting predators up the food chain such as otters, kingfishers and herons.' Otters Kingfishers and Herons will move to where food is available. But these three are in the main fish eaters and so food will not be in short supply. Trout and other fish can go long periods without food. Few fish are domiciled and will move looking for food. Prey will wash down from further up stream and will soon repopulate the area. NIMBY Environment Minister Richard Benyon has ordered his staff at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to investigate how the pesticide, chlorpyrifos, can be banned from general domestic use. Mr Benyon, who owns a country estate flanking the Kennet further downstream near Reading, said he was alarmed to find ‘how easy’ it was to buy the pesticide online.‘I have asked Defra to find out why this chemical is so readily available and to suggest what restrictions we should be imposing,’ he said.

In the early hours of the morning he was arrested by officers in Lincolnshire following an incident of disorder. Who knows he might have thrown himself down the dungeon steps.

Yes, I was talking with a couple of CaRT employees a few days ago who said some of their vehicles had trackers fitter. Not against theft, but to be able to record where vehicles are and go during the day. I said, have they not heard of smart phones which have the same system inbuilt. Apparently not.

Only you know your personal circumstances. So teaching grandmother to suck eggs. I typed in 'boat owners association UK' into a web browser. Up came the following items. You can go to each site and read their documentation. Just in case you have more problems, here is a simple guide to using the web. http://websearch.about.com/od/justforkids/Just_for_Kids_A_Kids_Guide_to_the_Web.htm RBOA: Residential Boat Owners' Association‎. Boat dwellers on the coasts, rivers and canals of Britain. Includes articles, waterway issues, newsletter, membership information, and links. www.rboa.org.uk ‎ NABO: National Association of Boat Owners. Helping boat owners , listening to boat owners. nabo.org.uk HNOC: Historic Narrow Boat Club. The Historic Narrow Boat Club was formed in 1966 and is a not-for profit club dedicated to preserving the working heritage of UK canals, from the boats hnbc.org.uk CBOA: Commercial Boat Operators Association - transport by water promotes the commercial use of inland waterways for freight traffic. www.cboa.org.uk

Cycling, Angling, Rambling, Trust.

How many associations represent boat owners exclusively?

No original thought once again. I can't possibly enter into a battle of wits with an unarmed troll. When someone is good at doing something they are called a master. Trolls specialise in baiting people. So I think its fair for me to acknowledge that you are indeed a master baiter. How is the suntan going?

I think its an antipodean term of endearment. G'day hobbler?

How very perceptive of me. In my original posting I said 'There is none so blind as those that will not see.' So you have gone the troll route - assume things that were not said. Then argue for the sake of an argument, that what was not said, was said - Then when all else fails try to be offensive. I feel so sad for your condition and I don't feel its an amusing one at all. But I always try to end on an upbeat. So do enjoy the sunshine in Australia, there is no need to send a card. G'day cobbler.

Now you have so much to say about me and yet you know nothing of me. Wow, do you have a crystal ball? Are you one of those Gypsy Rose Lee people. Dressed as a woman and telling fortunes, with a false gold earring. A bit like your protestations. So you still have not answered the 'That's not really changing the perspective' statement. Perspectives are like opinions. There are so many to choose from. You might want to start with 'diametrically opposite perspective' which is what nyou are assuming, You could work your way out from there. ​ I have started so I shall finish - Do you have a valid point about my previous posting or are you digging through to Australia?

I see that you are having difficulty in understanding a viewpoint as well as a change of perspective. So I shall address each of your issues that have been conjured up to support a pisspotical standpoint. Sensible fishermen and boaters would not fish on a lock mooring or attempt to moor in the middle of a fishing match. Anyone is free to take a photograph of anyone in a public place. Hundreds of people have taken photographs of us on the boat and I am sure that fishermen everywhere have been photographed in the same way. I would have considered a fishing match to be a no mooring area for the length of the match. The fishermen would have arrived in the morning and my boat has not been out of the water for two years. So I can claim on your system of logic that my boat was there first. So you can have another go at answering my previous posting now that the semantics have been dealt with.

Lets change the perspective. As I am cruising along, If I get the urge to moor up for a cup of tea and there just happens to be a fishing match going on. Should I choose to pull over and have a cup of tea. Im not disturbing all those fishing folk, just a few of them. Before some time later, pulling the pins and continuing on my way. After all, there was no - No Mooring - sign at that point. Nice flat soft boft banks where I can knock in the pins easily. I can get into the bank side and not need to use the boat plank. I can chill out and live my own life as I wish. The fishermen will find it much more enjoyable and neither of us have any need to get worked up. Problem what problem?

There is quite a furore going on at the moment. No, not the old chestnut about the pros and cons of cassette over pump-out toilet system. That argument was settled a long time ago. The overwhelming evidence points to a macerator pump out as being the best option. The updated version of 'bucket and chuck it' that is a cassette is so old school and has been consigned to canal history. However, in this instance the furore is one that has been fabricated about people overstaying on visitor moorings. Now I am a bit philosophical. I don't make the common assumption that everyone on a visitor mooring has overstayed. I have no idea at all if that is the case on arrival. Because we are out on our boat and away from our home territory. Unless I want to overstay on a mooring to monitor the comings and goings which would defeat the object. There is no way that I am going to actually know. So I make the assumption that it was just a bit of bad luck and I can either move on or ask someone if I can breast up to their boat. With the best will in the world, there are other problems that need to be sorted out first. How many times have you come to a mooring to find boats not sharing mooring rings. This poor practice is leaving what was described as 'privacy gaps'. There is this notion bandied about of being a 'considerate' boater. But I have had boaters on visitor moorings refuse to move their boats closer and close up the 'privacy gap' to allow me enough space to moor. I have had people refuse to let me breast up when I have asked. In that instance, I don't have an axe to grind. Some people just do not like people walking across their front or back decks. So what will the Canal and River Trust do to educate boaters on a more friendly etiquette. If boats around me move on and my boat becomes isolated in a gap, I will move the boat to make a single larger space. I will always share a ring. I offer to let other boats breast up alongside. I get taken up on the offer, about 50% of the time. But I don't wait to be asked I always offer. Here the angler dry's his keepnet on the no fishing notice. Yet at the same time there is another huge elephant in the room that I have come across many many times. But not only on visitor moorings, but on lock landings and water points. I have been greeted with shouts and arm waving, I have had threats to break my boat windows and other kinds of abuse such as maggots and ground-bait thrown at the boat. I don't see or know of any meaningful consultation taking place to address the issue. I don't see any suggestions such as on the spot £25 fines being levied against the miscreants. In this case the whole of a landing can be 'off limits' to boaters from early morning to late in the evening. A second angler dry's his net. This huge elephant is totally ignored by the Canal and River Trust. There is none so blind as those that will not see. The reason for this 'wilful blindness' is because your boat has a name and number. You can hardly pick up your boat and walk away. Fishermen can pack up their tackle and move on in no time at all. In other words boat owners are a soft and easy target. A rich source of incidental pickings for fines and charges. Canal and River Trust North East Head Quarters Fearns Wharf Neptune Street Leeds So by way of example, the two fishermen in my example above are located on a river pontoon. The pontoon is clearly marked - No Fishing - and is located outside the offices of the Canal and River Trust at Fearns Wharf Leeds. A place where CaRT staff are walking by all day long. No enforcement here - well not unless you overstay on the pontoon. That'll be £25 please, kerching!

Quite a downpour last night and its continued again today on and off. Full up here at the moment boats moored both sides. Some sort of festival going on in stainforth today, so its been like the M1 all day. We are remaining here until monday morning then wending our way towards Doncaster.

There is currently only one collective of boaters that have formulated an association that gives a voice on behalf of their membership. Where is the confusion when there is no alternative to consider. If something better comes along, some time in the future, you then have a choice.

The 15 minute, 30 minuet or do you want the full hour?

Been beaten to it? https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR4E1-v4_h_v77kLjuuaiIaaHYgbXlLUnNwWCpRYlV2LzvuUoYnIg You're talking 19 carat crap