On Monday, July 16, 2007 1:00 PM [GMT+1=CET], Roger Millin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Steve wrote: >> Me too - but for different reasons. For a start I'd challenge the >> idea that the waterways actually need publicising in the way they >> used to in the days when each Festival in its own way was fighting >> for the very existence of the system. I believe they still do need publicising. The only way we're going to get long-lasting proper funding for the waterways is by building up a much bigger body of public support, which is what soem of us have been working at for twenty years (in my case). We'll only get Government to see things our way if we can convince them that there are votes in it for them. >> What's the use, I ask, >> encouraging more and more people to the waterways when there aren't >> even enough moorings and other basic facilities for them once >> they've bought a boat? What's the use crowding the waterways with so >> many people that their sense of separateness from contemporary life >> which is their greatest attraction is gradually eroded? "Encouraging more and more people to the waterways" does not necesarily mean them buying boats. > It seems to me that > there is an element getting on to the system who have chosen to spend > their excess capital on a boat because it seems such a 'jolly good > thing' to do so. Still? I thought that was in the 1980s. > Nowadays its all toffee, > naff knick-knacks and a commentator *desperately* trying to get you > to shout for the white knight (yeuchhh!). Unfortunately that's what the public comes for. what we should hope for is that the boating element can be a learning experience for people wh have come for quite other reasons. I think that the National could do a lot to make that much more explicit. Unfortunately its managers donlt seem to want to. Some years ago I was sacked from the PA ccommentary team for trying to do exactly that. > There aren't even that many > boat-builders showing these days. Thank God! >> Increasingly, it's not much good socially either. >> More and people can't be bothered going to be moored in a field >> somewhere miles from the site. OK, the various clubs that do block >> bookings keep alive the spirit of the old Festivals, but the days >> when could amble around the site and pretty-well be sure of seeing >> all your waterways friends have long gone. That doesn't chime with my experience. Walking around the site I meet lots of people I know - that's apart fro those who come and seek me out in my office. > The social side was brilliant but the show could have been seen in about > half a day....if you wanted to stretch it out! Again, that's not what I find. I'd really like to go to some of the activities (Tony B's workshops, for example. and some of the presentations. Sadly my working hours at the show (9am to nearly midnight for six days) prevent me from doing so. > We were all situated a > huge distance from the show-ground, despite an early block booking. I think that might be a problem with block bookings. > (and the organisers had wanted to isolate us further at one stage by > leaving the swing bridge open all day, leaving the southern moorers a > huge hike around the perimeter of the site to get into the show). I wish I'd known that at the time - it would have made a good cartoon for the newsletter. >One > boater we met, who had booked well after us and yet was situated > right by the entrance, openly boasted to us as we lock-shared with > him that it was because he knew someone within the senior ranks of > the IWA that he got his preferential mooring. This sort of nepotism > degrades the whole organisation IMO. I take that with a big pinch of salt and suspect he was shooting a line, mainly because the senior ranks of the IWA have very little to do with the Festival. Also I know who was moored right by the entrance, and he was there because of the job he was doing at the event. Actually there is a good way of ensuring one gets a good mooring at the National - volunteer for a biggish job there that involves you arriving on site at least a week in advance. Then you'll be given one of the workers' moorings, which are very well placed, not least because we all arrive well in advance and need to be grouped together for security, and near where we'll be working. Last year the workers' moorings were in the lake. Having said that, this year I'm not going by boat and have booked myself into a hotel which is reputed to be much nearer the main site than any of the moorings. > Crick is a much better show and I feel that I will never again make > the effort to attend the National by boat and, probably not, by road. I've never felt the least inclination to visit Crick. I thank that many years working on the IWA stand at the London Boat Show (and this year at the Birmingham one) have convinced me that commercial boat shows aren't for me. I don't know yet whether I'll continue going to the National once I retire from the job I do there. I guess I won't go by boat, but I may go as a day visitor if it's near a railway station. Mike Stevens narrowboat Felis Catus III web-site www.mike-stevens.co.uk Defend the waterways. Visit the web site www.saveourwaterways.org.uk
