You are all Dossers

[carlt]

'she was referring to all liveaboards.' is one of the most sweeping generalisations/misrepresentations I have ever heard

You didn't hear it then?

[cotswoldsman]

Or maybe she knew a bit about it and was refering, not to the majority of boaters who pay their way, but the small minority who take the p*ss by not paying a licence fee and creating an eyesore we've all seen them, so why pretend this woman's condemning all boaters?

 

Boats without licence I have not seen them but then I am not in the habit of looking if people have paid there licence, don't see many boaters creating an eyesore infact not even sure what you mean by that statement. Presume you mean boaters that don't feel the need to paint and clean there boats, bit like a lot of the houses I see as cruise round the system.

[g-man]

I was talking to someone in Solihull, once who told me that everybody in Coventry was scum.

 

And mighty proud of it we are! But, of course it's nonsense everyone knows the scum live in Treacle Town (Nuneaton)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited to add smiley

Edited October 22, 2009 by g-man

[Chris Pink]

Yeah, I should have placed the word people in inverted comma's. Knew you'd get me on that one you bugger!

 

Well everyone knows that liveaboard boater are not people, not really, not what we think of as 'people'.

[Lady Muck]

We must be scum, I know this because of the way I am treated by the black cab drivers at Tottenham Hale station, when I'm in my boat clothes and ask to go to the marina. Funny how they don't treat me like this when I'm suited, booted, tapping away on a blackberry and asking to go to Stansted. That's why I've booked a minicab to the airport for my up and coming work trip to Dublin tomorrow.

 

So easy to judge.....

[Cosmic]

You didn't hear it then?

I didn't hear it either, but I have now. Linky Its at 58:20

 

What she said was

 

I live alongside a canal and there are plenty of dossers who live in narrowboats on the canal and they don't pay council tax and they don't work, these narrowboat people, they just drift from one town to the next, and funny they haven't been a target today.

[Nine of Hearts]

I live alongside a canal and there are plenty of dossers who live in narrowboats on the canal and they don't pay council tax and they don't work, these narrowboat people, they just drift from one town to the next, and funny they haven't been a target today.

 

Such ignorance! We don't drift, we travel under power. If we just drifted, we'd all be piled up in one part of the network. Shows what she knows.

[carlt]

If we just drifted, we'd all be piled up in one part of the network.

According to some that part is called the Kennet and Avon.

[RLWP]

Because she didn't identify a certain sector of the boating community, she was referring to all liveaboards.

 

I was talking to someone in Solihull, once who told me that everybody in Coventry was scum.

 

Obviously untrue of course but their town is perceived to be higher up the social strata than Cov and the snob always needs someone to look down on.

 

Just because you look down on scruffy (in your opinion) boats doesn't mean someone isn't looking down on you.

 

Thing about people from Solihull is that no matter how superior they feel to everyone else, they know they are lower in the pecking order to people from Knowle.

 

Richard

[homer2911]

You didn't hear it then?

 

Actually, yes

[Athy]

Whereabouts do Springer owners come in the boaty hierarchy?

[Chris Pink]

Whereabouts do Springer owners come in the boaty hierarchy?

 

just under their boats

[Doorman]

Judge theee not less thee thyself be judged

 

 

Yes, if you're bold enough to fire the bullets, be prepared to take the return shots!

 

just under their boats

 

 

[right_freds_dead]

funny enough, ive been chomping on the idea of sailing away and heard this comment on radio 2 vine show the other day and it made me laugh. general opposition to narrow boaters and caravan livers. based entirely on jealousy and bitterness.

 

a case of 'i have to get up at 5am callcentre time and work for a huge bank busting loan on a bitter little terrace in a bitter little northern town, and i dont see why anyone else should escape from it. i like the X factor and believe everything the tv says to me. i dispise books and freedom and instead prefer the microwave lifestyle of the sheeple majority. also, my life is hell.....

 

its good to know some people simple choke themselves to death with bitterness and inner cowardice.

[Kate and James]

We can't wait to get shot of our house and join the ranks of Dossers! Yay!!

[homer2911]

Listening to Jeremy Vine show today on radio 2. Subject was people living in static caravans and not paying council tax (Henious offence). One lady caller to the show remarked that she lived on a caravan park next to a canal and said people should be more concerned about the DOSSERS that live on the canal who do not pay council tax and just swan around from town to town, a bit harsh me thinks but on looking up the Cambridge distionary definition of a DOSSER might give an option to debate ---DOSSER - ''SOMEONE WHO HAS NO HOME OR MONEY'' or ''A VERY LAZY PERSON''

Now I have very little money, my boat is my home and I have been known to laze about and drink cider - So maybe the caller is right - I wonder how many more Dossers there are ?????????

 

I sit me, or has the verbatim post of the woman's actual words been removed?

[Cosmic]

Post 56

[homer2911]

Post 56

 

Thanks to Cosmic for putting me right on the posting containing the actual quote, which is:

 

I live alongside a canal and there are plenty of dossers who live in narrowboats on the canal and they don't pay council tax and they don't work, these narrowboat people, they just drift from one town to the next, and funny they haven't been a target today.

 

The operative word is 'these canal people', with the emphasis on these, because it is only these canal people that the lady is condemning, and I join her in doing so.

 

You have to admit that there are plenty of people who 'live in narrowboats on the canal and they don't pay council tax and they don't work'. If there aren't, then narrow-boat dwellers aren't representative of society. Anyone who says that such people don't exist on the canals is either blind, or a fool, or a left wing liberal who can't let themselves admit to the fact.

 

To condemn someone who states such an uncomfortable truth with such phrases as:

Daily Mail readers and finger pointers!

 

Jeremy Vine show and it's listeners are the radio equivalent of the 'Daily Mail'

 

the sort of people who never go out of the house

 

she was trying to elevate her own position in society

 

she was almost certainly trying to be superior because she was envious, and a desire to keep the inferior ones in their place

 

Maybe these people have narrow minds and secretly yearn for a life on narrow boats

 

 

 

 

is to inhabit the fairy-tale world of Gordon Brown - did you see the pity in the eyes of Harriet Harman and Douglas Alexander as they flanked Gordon Brown at this weeks PMQ's, as he repeated the same answers over and over?

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilR]

A friend of ours who like us is liveaboard, claims that part of the BW license fee is aportioned as council tax. Can anyone verify this?

 

Your friend is obviously unaware of the true cost of Council Tax and water rates. If the BW licence fee included some element of Council Tax there would be thousands of non-liveaboards wanting a refund!

[Smelly]

Thanks to Cosmic for putting me right on the posting containing the actual quote, which is:

 

I live alongside a canal and there are plenty of dossers who live in narrowboats on the canal and they don't pay council tax and they don't work, these narrowboat people, they just drift from one town to the next, and funny they haven't been a target today.

 

The operative word is 'these canal people', with the emphasis on these, because it is only these canal people that the lady is condemning, and I join her in doing so.

 

You have to admit that there are plenty of people who 'live in narrowboats on the canal and they don't pay council tax and they don't work'. If there aren't, then narrow-boat dwellers aren't representative of society. Anyone who says that such people don't exist on the canals is either blind, or a fool, or a left wing liberal who can't let themselves admit to the fact.

 

To condemn someone who states such an uncomfortable truth with such phrases as:

Daily Mail readers and finger pointers!

 

Jeremy Vine show and it's listeners are the radio equivalent of the 'Daily Mail'

 

the sort of people who never go out of the house

 

she was trying to elevate her own position in society

 

she was almost certainly trying to be superior because she was envious, and a desire to keep the inferior ones in their place

 

Maybe these people have narrow minds and secretly yearn for a life on narrow boats

 

 

 

 

is to inhabit the fairy-tale world of Gordon Brown - did you see the pity in the eyes of Harriet Harman and Douglas Alexander as they flanked Gordon Brown at this weeks PMQ's, as he repeated the same answers over and over?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pensioners or the self employed, maybe the independently wealthy???? xcuse a lack of editing but battery says no

[Cosmic]

I live alongside a canal and there are plenty of dossers who live in narrowboats on the canal and they don't pay council tax and they don't work, these narrowboat people, they just drift from one town to the next, and funny they haven't been a target today.

 

The operative word is 'these canal people', with the emphasis on these, because it is only these canal people that the lady is condemning, and I join her in doing so.

I've just listened to this again and, to be fair, it's not easy to tell whether she was calling all people who live in narrowboats dossers (which is how it came across), or just (as you suggest) the ones who don't work. It seems that she sent in a text or an email which Jeremy Vine read out. He might have edited the message and changed the context, and he certainly read it in his best "Indignant of Hemel Hempstead" voice.

[Phil Ambrose]

Don't think any of the licence goes to council tax. Friends of mine lived on a permanent mooring and they got clobbered by the council for council tax...

 

The owner of our marina successfuly argued that he paid business rates on it so they were not entitled to second dibs. It worked but I suspect the local council thought it too much trouble to try and prove who was or was'nt liable, the expenditure in time and money was not going to be viable.

[Guest TowpathTownie]

Thanks to Cosmic for putting me right on the posting containing the actual quote

 

To condemn someone who states such an uncomfortable truth with such phrases as:

 

she was trying to elevate her own position in society

 

is to inhabit the fairy-tale world of Gordon Brown

 

My reply, prior to the posting of the full 'quote' in post 56, was based on the initial post of this topic. With the revelation of the full text it's easier to disect the semantics of the full quote and have an alternative perspective of opinion.

Edited October 23, 2009 by TowpathTownie

[homer2911]

My reply, prior to the posting of the full 'quote' in post 56, was based on the initial post of this topic. With the revelation of the full text it's easier to disect the semantics of the full quote and have an alternative perspective of opinion.

 

That's very gracious of you TT

[mrsmelly]

Listening to Jeremy Vine show today on radio 2. Subject was people living in static caravans and not paying council tax (Henious offence). One lady caller to the show remarked that she lived on a caravan park next to a canal and said people should be more concerned about the DOSSERS that live on the canal who do not pay council tax and just swan around from town to town, a bit harsh me thinks but on looking up the Cambridge distionary definition of a DOSSER might give an option to debate ---DOSSER - ''SOMEONE WHO HAS NO HOME OR MONEY'' or ''A VERY LAZY PERSON''

Now I have very little money, my boat is my home and I have been known to laze about and drink cider - So maybe the caller is right - I wonder how many more Dossers there are ?????????

 

I have got it a bit wrong I work loads of hours, but I drink shit loads of cider and guinness so can I be an honory Dosser pleeeeeeze ?