Jump to content

Protesters to block GU link


bigcol

Featured Posts

smiley_offtopic.gif Sorry for this off topic information request Debbifiggy When you were involved with "Save our Canals" did you come across a David Babsky who lived on an old Humber keel? The reason I ask is that the faded sign save our canals was painted on the side of Sabina H when I bought her and I had heard that she was involved. I am trying to find any information concerning her before she came into my hands......thanks John

I'm really sorry but I don't, there were lots and lots of people from all sorts of backgrounds involved in the Save Our Waterways protest movement of 2006/07 across the whole country. I don't know if the original SOW website is still somewhere on the web as all the events were on there, often with pictures. The late and much missed Mike Steven's also had lots of reports on his website along with pictures if anyone has a lnk to that. I thought his website had been preserved somewhere but I'm not sure if it's the whole site which was very extensive, informative and great reading.

 

Debbi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of my close friends at Uni in the same politics lectures as me always said "among the first to be strung up from a lamp post" rather than "first up against the wall". I remember him fondly and even if he was probably one of the most rabid members of Militant in Bristol.

 

anyhow, getting back on topic, anyone bother today to go and see what was happening/disrupt the party/join the protest/whatever? From the photos on the MKnews website it certainly didn't look like more than 20 peeps, in fact probably less. Nothing like the old Save Our Waterways protest days when we got hundreds of people and a large number of boats for the very temporary blockade at Marsworth. Ricky was big too (thanks Clive and Sue and all) and lots of other places organised by lots of other people. We only moved boats at Marsworth into position for the blockade for long enough to give the press a good picture (same when we did Bulbourne) so didn't cause problems for anyone who needed to move. We all had a great time, boat banter then to the pub with live music. Happy days.

 

Debbi

 

 

Article in MK News: http://www.mkweb.co.uk/News/Community/GALLERY-Protestors-unite-against-the-Canal-River-Trust-20140607180705.htm

 

Twenty people and a dog

 

Richard

Edited by RLWP
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Some people travelled over three hours to be here"

 

AKA they came from all of 10 miles away by boat then?

Edited by The Dog House
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It worries me that local papers like this MK News and its online version MKweb seem to have less journalistic integrity than ever, putting up a one-sided story like this without any attempt at finding out the background or even giving CRT a chance to put their side.

 

Probably the rise of the Internet has squeezed the profits of local papers to the point that most of their news articles are basically press releases which have had as little work as possible done to them to turn them into articles. I would speculate that the main changes made by the newspaper here were to convert the document to the standard font used, and to add the words "Written byJESSICA DUNCAN". Call yourself a journalist, Jessica?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It worries me that local papers like this MK News and its online version MKweb seem to have less journalistic integrity than ever, putting up a one-sided story like this without any attempt at finding out the background or even giving CRT a chance to put their side.

 

Probably the rise of the Internet has squeezed the profits of local papers to the point that most of their news articles are basically press releases which have had as little work as possible done to them to turn them into articles. I would speculate that the main changes made by the newspaper here were to convert the document to the standard font used, and to add the words "Written byJESSICA DUNCAN". Call yourself a journalist, Jessica?

Crt did in fact have a response published. There were also more than twenty people attending :-)

(i was not one of them, I had a look see, then went shopping).

Edited by jenlyn
Link to comment
Share on other sites

EmmaB, I followed the link posted by RLWP (post #104), and that article has no mention of any response by CRT. I've now seen the response by CRT elsewhere on their site, but surely this article ought to at least refer to it anyway.

Jenlyn: The photo with the article appears to show only about 20 people, and the video of the man on the boat addressing people in a canalside pub garden briefly pans away at one point to show about that number too. I wasn't there, there could have been more, but if so they were camera-shy.

 

I always let facts get in the way, and if I find I've made an error in a post I do post a correction. ISTR I did so on this very thread when discussing CRT's possible legal options for opening the canal for navigation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

So did you attend, and do you have some actual "facts" for us, then?

Yes, sweetie, you asked so nicely.

 

No I didn't attend, not my scene frankly, all those filthy unwashed anarchists and their disgusting boats.

 

But a fact for you; CRT put their point of view on mkweb. The fact Mr X chose to ignore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I welcome protest and counter protest, especially if those protesting don't have permission. Means were free right?

I don't mind protest.

 

I do mind somebody causing me an obstruction in going about my business or enjoying my holiday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, the video’d speech from the gentleman with the loud-hailer made sense of the link with the ‘Austerity’ theme, in that he was protesting against the reduction in taxpayers money, for maintenance of the canals which have been largely paid for by those tax payers.

 

I believe him to be correct in classing the status transition as a mere money-saving device by the government, while simultaneously absolving themselves of responsibility and ostensibly handing ‘more control to the people’ – with the inevitable consequence we are seeing and are yet to see, in deterioration of the network.

 

I was pleased that he went some way to distance himself from the de Klerk denouncement of volunteering value.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, sweetie, you asked so nicely.

 

No I didn't attend, not my scene frankly, all those filthy unwashed anarchists and their disgusting boats.

 

But a fact for you; CRT put their point of view on mkweb. The fact Mr X chose to ignore.

The "sweetie" bit really does you no favours, but I guess you know that really?

 

Perhaps it would have been better had the article originally linked to shown more than one side of the story. It is, whatever you think about Peter's remarks, hardly a great piece of journalism.

 

OK there is, it seems, a link on the page to something where CRT comment, but not everybody who reads an article then automatically follows every other link on the page, (well I certainly don't, anyway, particularly where it is obviously older than the main article).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't know you were down here on holiday?

 

Rob,

 

As you know I am highly supportive of live aboard boaters.

 

However we have been trying to move both our boats up through the area that this protest was taking place, and fortunately were able to choose to go on Friday, to avoid any issues on Saturday. This was only possible because Cath has retired, and otherwise we might have been denied being able to fulfil some promises to other people because of the actions of these protesters.

 

I am strongly opposed to this kind of action, and increasingly frustrated by the things NBTA get involved in.

 

It will not stop me being highly supportive of live-aboard boaters, but Nick Brown and the NBTA really are totally misguided in my view, and I wish they would pack it in.

 

I have huge respect for you and the work you do, so can I ask you straight if you think this protest was a good idea, and, if so, why you think it is helpful?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, sweetie, you asked so nicely.

 

No I didn't attend, not my scene frankly, all those filthy unwashed anarchists and their disgusting boats.

 

But a fact for you; CRT put their point of view on mkweb. The fact Mr X chose to ignore.

 

I'm left scratching my head when I read EmmaB's posts like the one quoted above. She seemed so sweet and nice when she was Baby Spice in the Spice Girls, not a bad bone in her. What's taken its toll in the intervening years?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone reading my posts 107 and 111 carefully can see that I didn't choose to ignore the fact that CRT had had their point of view reported in another article, I was simply and understandably unaware at the time of my post 107 of the fact. EmmaB is choosing to misrepresent me. Just as she misrepresents opponents of Saturday's stoppage with her sarcastic comment

"No I didn't attend, not my scene frankly, all those filthy unwashed anarchists and their disgusting boats"

No one on this topic has said anything of that nature, have they?

 

I don't always agree with Nigel Moore's conclusions, but at least he's prepared to discuss controversial issues in a constructive manner...

 

Actually, the video’d speech from the gentleman with the loud-hailer made sense of the link with the ‘Austerity’ theme, in that he was protesting against the reduction in taxpayers money, for maintenance of the canals which have been largely paid for by those tax payers.

 

I believe him to be correct in classing the status transition as a mere money-saving device by the government, while simultaneously absolving themselves of responsibility and ostensibly handing ‘more control to the people’ – with the inevitable consequence we are seeing and are yet to see, in deterioration of the network.

 

I was pleased that he went some way to distance himself from the de Klerk denouncement of volunteering value.

 

On the wider and somewhat off-topic subject of the coalition's economic policy dubbed "Austerity" by its critics, versus the Gordon Brown ever-increasing national debt, I'll just confine myself to saying I think the 2010 election result was good for the UK's chances of long-term financial survival, and I recall that in that campaign even the Labour party were promising they would cut back government spending (overall, not specifically the canals) if re-elected. Not enough voters believed them apparently.

 

I don't see the conversion of the BW quango into the CRT charity as the government absolving themselves of responsibility for the canals, as ultimately any future government in office when lack of maintenance causes major closures is not going to find that the CRT's separation into a charity protects it from critics. Call me an optimist, but I suspect that one way or another governments will come up with just enough subsidy to prevent serious deterioration happening. I'm not saying that CRT will have enough money to do all the preventative maintenance they should, but if they continue to get more volunteers involved and can succeed in steadily increasing the numbers of boats so that licence income rises, there is some hope that they can square the circle. I have a sneaking feeling that what some boaters feel is an over-emphasis on walkers/cyclists/anglers/wildlife in CRT publicity and spending may actually be a cunning plan to paint the government into a corner where it feels obliged to keep the canals alive for the benefit of these other users.

 

So yes, I see deterioration of the network as a danger, but not inevitable. And given the desperate need to slow down the rate at which the national debt is increasing, Anita de Klerk's proposal that all the work on the canals should be done by paid workers not volunteers is just not going to happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of my close friends at Uni in the same politics lectures as me always said "among the first to be strung up from a lamp post" rather than "first up against the wall". I remember him fondly and even if he was probably one of the most rabid members of Militant in Bristol.

 

anyhow, getting back on topic, anyone bother today to go and see what was happening/disrupt the party/join the protest/whatever? From the photos on the MKnews website it certainly didn't look like more than 20 peeps, in fact probably less. Nothing like the old Save Our Waterways protest days when we got hundreds of people and a large number of boats for the very temporary blockade at Marsworth. Ricky was big too (thanks Clive and Sue and all) and lots of other places organised by lots of other people. We only moved boats at Marsworth into position for the blockade for long enough to give the press a good picture (same when we did Bulbourne) so didn't cause problems for anyone who needed to move. We all had a great time, boat banter then to the pub with live music. Happy days.

 

Debbi

 

Well remembered Debbi, tis a shame that people would rather become barrack room lawyers rather than get out and do something.

 

My small involvement in the SOW camapaign was the IWA organised blockade at Ware, a productive (publicity wise) if wet day:

 

IMG_0666-L.jpg

 

 

Tim

Edited by Tim Lewis
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't actually agree with this protest personally but what I said was that I support protest and counter protest. It's what we, the plebs have when our political system fails to represent us.

 

It would be hypocritical of me not to support the notion of protest having used this method regularly myself,sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

 

The answer to a protest you don't agree with is a counter protest, which, from what I read wouldn't be hard to win.

 

 

^^^^ this is in response to Alan's post, forgot to quote

Edited by Wanted
  • Greenie 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.