Steve Haywood wrote:
> On 14/10/06, Will Chapman
>
> Please, if you have an axe to grind by all means write
> to BW but whilst this campaign is on I think it makes
> sense to put the BW-bashing on the back burner on this
> list and uk.rec.waterways, regardless of which point
> of view is correct.
>
> Deal? Do we have a truce?
>
> I'm afraid I do not agree with you, Will. This is the only forum which we
> have as boaters to discuss issues of importance to us. The Save Our
> Waterways campaign has my 100 per cent unqualified supporrt, and I only wish
> I wasn't so infernally busy at the moment that I couldn't do something more
> practical to help it.
>
> But nevertheless there are serious questions to be asked among ourselves
> about why this situation has come about, and for better or worse some of
> these are not answered by saying simply that DEFRA cut the cash, didn't it,
> that explains everything. Well, no, it doesn't. Maybe an organisation so
> committed to a policy of self sufficiency might have been better realising
> that it was never actually going to BE self sufficient, and that the public
> grants on which it depends needed defending more robustly before they were
> cut, not just afterwards.
>
Steve
The points you are making above are perfectly valid and, I think part of
the discussion that we should encourage as a real part of the campaign
(in fact, after I've finished this separate issue I'll join in).
What I describe as BW-bashing is not reasoned arguments like you have
put above. BW-bashing is inflammatory language and behaviour that is
often accompanied by a lack of reason and substance. BW, a corporate
body being vindictive? Referring to BW employees as using gestapo
tactics? Shouting near abuse at the Chief Executive in front of TV
cameras (fortunately switched off)? That's not the SOW campaign as I see
it. I see SOW as everyone who is so motivated to have these extreme
emotions as laying down their banners for a day and using one of ours
instead. Idealistic sure. Not achievable, maybe. But that shouldn't stop
us trying to speak as one.
> If we are going to have a truce, as you call it, then maybe the truce should
> be across the board. I spend a lot of time visiting IWA branches around the
> country; I have some general sense of the attitude of boaters, not just
> towards these latest cuts, but to Robin Evans policy generally. It is asking
> much, for instance, to ask boaters around on the Sharpness and Gloucester to
> put what you call 'BW-bashing' on the back burner while they are having
> their services cut and bridge keepers made redundant for reasons that have
> nothing at all to do with the DEFRA cuts.
>
Again I don't necessarily see that as BW bashing. It depends on the
language and way that it is expressed. We could call everyone in Defra
a bunch of twits (or worse) and, indeed, I myself have found myself
pushing the boundaries by using phrases like - gross mismanagement,
incompetance, but there is some evidence of this. But vindictive,
gestapo?
Lets have a measured, reasoned campaign. In fact we are looking for
from people like yourself that could help make sure that issues like
on the S&G...surely there is a way that the two causes (one really,
because without a properly maintained waterways, many of these
important other causes won't exist.
Cheers..
Will Chapman
Save Our Waterways first and argue the detail later.
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