>>sites across the country fell into ruin. Commitment like that deserves
>>respect.
>
> Respect, sure. Subsidy? You haven't made the case IMHO.
>
>>Do you have no feeling for the history of cut and the thousands of
>>people
>>like Tony that have ensured its survival?
>
> Of course. That's one reason why I'm involved.
>
>>Or is everything for you a souless
>>matter of counting beans, reducible to a business plan and a bottom
>>line?
>
> See above. Those who pay the bills will *always* count the beans.
> Best we give them as many to count as possible.
>
>>Are people to be disposed of after they fulfilled their purpose?
>
> Isn't that "retirement"?
>
> Adrian
>
I think the issue here is the changing face of business. In 'A Canal
People' Sonia Rolt describes how Mr Veater of the GU looked after the
boaters at Hawkesbury and understood their viewpoint. I think this
benign paternalism was characteristic of many companies at the time - I
remember seeing at the GWR museum at Swindon that the GWR had an
artificial limb workshop - if railwaymen were injured in the company's
service they were patched up and found a job suited to their disability.
Such paternalism was repaid by the workforce's dedication to and pride
in their company.
The comments which have been made here about the professionalism of BW
waterside staff and the indignation about the unfairness of targeting
staff in BW because of incompetence elsewhere in DEFRA reflect this -
the issue is more about the heritage of 'British' values which the
waterways represent than the physical heritage structures. There's no
point in the government banging on about preserving British values
against Muslim terrorists if they are themselves busy destroying British
values by turning the waterways into a bean-counters' regime and
destroying the heritage of mutual support and pride which the waterways
represent. This was what Tom Rolt's books were all about - he saw in the
1940s that the dignity of work was being destroyed and with it a large
amount of the purpose of peoples' lives - if people are defined by what
they consume rather than what they produce, they are redefined from
being productive adults to being dependent children.
Sean
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