jeddlad

Ignore him Matty, it winds Martin up so much more if you ignore him.......

I would Arthur but they've deleted it. My tweet was actually very polite asking them how they were keeping covid safe whilst filming. My comment about meeting them, wasn't meant to be threatening, I meant to highlight how they can clean their social media feeds to make everything look lovely and silence views they disagree with but if ever met them, they wouldn't be able to shut me up or delete my view in so easily in person as they can on twitter. Public figures such as the Foxes are, through their various social media efforts, have to expect public comments regardless of whether they agree or disagree....

Lol not even gonna bother with you, you've always been a prat in all the years you've been posting........

I've been another one watching this from the sidelines. After Matty's post a few pages back, I tweeted the Foxes and within 3 minutes, yes 3 minutes, they blocked me from their pathetic and sycophantic twitter feed........What a laugh............I really hope when this is all over, I met them on the canal....they won't silence me quite so easily then.........

As a gay man myself, I won't be worrying about the Equalities act this time.

It's a very similar sentiment when driving now. When I passed my driving test in the 80's, it was fairly common to stop if you saw someone broken down and offer assistance especially if it was a remote location, dark, raining etc etc. After some despicable crimes involving solo women broken down, it became the norm to approach and from a distance tell them you'd help but for them to stay in the car so they could lock it, if they felt uneasy. Now you just drive on past without a second glance or thought. I know 99.9% of drivers have mobile phones and cars are much more reilable these days, but we do lose a part of our society when we don't feel comfortable (for whatever reason) to help a stranger / child in need of assistance.

Lol, makes me smile every time.

Thanks for this. I would totally get involved and I'd enjoy meeting new people / boaters. My only experience of trying to join a CC was meeting an odious little man who was the Commodore of this particular club. It properly put me off but as in all walks of life there are different strokes for different folk.

Has anyone any experience of cruising clubs, apart from it being difficult to join them? I've always avoided them but I like the idea of meeting other leisure boaters and having people around to help out when my limited mechanical and electrical knowledge runs out. All the boat / cruising clubs I've seen, seem very well equipped. Have always been in marina's or CRT moorings. Have enjoyed them but the other boaters have always been mainly live aboards who don't travel much. I'm mainly single handed but do like trips with other boats. My main concern is having to bow and scrape to the Commodore! I'd be interested in hearing people's experiences.

Absolutely ditto

What would knowing the name of the other boat solve? Now if the other boater involved was on here that would be great. I'd deffo get the popcorn out for that one!

Wow, that must have been an interesting trip! All the time effort to check 298 boats not displaying a licence......I'd rather enjoy my trip and worry about where my next beer is coming from, not who has or hasn't licenced their boat!

Apparently the land does not belong to CRT but one of the water companys. As usual people took the piss. They couldn't just moor for a few days and move on. Oh no, we had the stay a long time and spread out onto the bank side brigade moor there. There were no signs where I was there last week but knew it was coming due to the mickey takers moored there.

Imho this post shows why the Facebook canal groups are thriving yet CWDF (although a wealth of knowledge is contained within these pages) is dominated by a handful of people. This place used to be my goto for canal stuff on the Web, now I only visit when I'm exhausted by the FB canal groups.

Lol, Snap! That's exactly what I do!

Won't be long before we need to book a simple cruise down the canal through a few locks. I'm not a CRT basher but I do wonder why they've half the staff on furlough.

I totally agree with you Nick. Far cheaper to support people and keep them living in an environment they are happy with. It's similar to the council providing grants to elderly people to spend on wet rooms, stair lifts, new boilers etc which enable them to continue living in their own home rather than pay for assisted or sheltered accommodation or care homes. I bought a house that had been upgraded this way. The deal they had signed up to was, new windows, boiler, roof, stair lift and a wet room. The total cost was £20k. If their mother had lived in the house for a further 5 years, there was no charge. If she died or went into care within the 5 years, the £20k was paid back to the council from the proceeds of the house sale. Unfortunately for the family, their mother died after 4 years so they had to pay back the council BUT the son was pleased his Mum lived comfortably in a decent house for the last 4 years of her life.

Last year I was going down the staircase locks at Stourport basin out onto the River Severn. I was a bit nervous having never been on the Severn before and was worried about the boat being sucked out of the lock onto the river before I'd had chance to climb down the ladder and get on board. As i was pondering the issue, a really nice chap who was a volo (not at Stourport) was walking past and asked if I'd like some help. He helped me down the locks even though it started to rain and he didn't have a coat. He ended up getting soaked and being late to meet his wife, what a top bloke, I couldn't thank him enough.

Unfortunately there will be a lot of this going on. Discreetly work whilst furloughed or a veiled threat about losing your job when this situation has calmed down.

I think what's annoyed everyone our site is that, there is no bar or cafe or shop, It's just static caravans, a lake and a children's playground. Everyone has paid for 12 months site rental in advance, the final installment was paid last month, the site aren't paying business rates at the moment and they've furloughed all of their staff. So essentially they have massively reduced their costs but their annual income remains almost the same. Granted they can't sell caravans at the moment but when I went to open up the family caravan, there were only 3 or 4 empty spots out of 75. My mate, the live in site manager is fed up as they have furloughed him, on 80% pay but still expect him to mow the grass etc.

We understand that so we're not too bothered but, when a company reduces it's overheads by furloughing it's staff, the Council stop charging business rates for the government closure period and that comapny's 2020 income remains the same as all its customers have paid in advance for their ground rent, don't you think it's a tad unfair Alan?

Most caravan sites have not allowed anyone on their property even to check their caravan or remove belongings. Ours allowed it during the 1st week but have since padlocked all entry gates. There are a number of couples caught out by this. They usually stay in cheap accommodation or motorhome in Spain over the winter and stay in their static caravan over the summer. Similar to boats who live aboard, if the caravan is your only UK residence, you can continue to live at the caravan park. However, unlike continuous cruisers, for a caravan to qualify as your sole UK residence, you must pay council tax on it..........which none do....on our site anyway.

Yes but it's far easier to move a boat to another marina than it is to move a static caravan to another caravan park. We have a family caravan on the East coast that is used mainly by my elderly parents. I often visit them when they are there. The caravan site has been woeful with its communication and I can't see, despite it having furlough their staff, that they will refund any ground rent for 2020, that's already been paid fully in advance. I'd love us to move site but it costs around a £1,500 to actually move the caravan by truck (including the existing site charging for it to be moved off their land). The only other option is to sell our caravan and buy another one on a different site. Unfortunately this is not cost effective for us as our caravan, although in good condition, is quiet old and not worth much. We'll be staying where we are and the site owners will think they did the right thing by not offering a refund or credit.

Very wise words. I'll remember that one.

Nick, Isn't it theft is a company keeps money that they are not legally entitled too? They should have a contingency in place. I'm tired of hearing the airlines bleat on about this. They take the money when the good times are here, buying ither airlines, paying shareholders and senior managers loads of dosh. If a business can only work by stealing money, they deserve to go bust.