Steve Haywood wrote:
> 2008/11/23 Adrian Stott [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>>
>> Most of BW's costs are fixed. The number (let alone size) of boats,
>> and the amount each navigates, makes almost no difference to what BW
>> needs to spend per year to maintain the system
>>
>> In fact, the marginal cost to BW of a boat navigating a km of
>> waterway is *so* small that it does not justify the cost to BW of
>> installing even the simplest use-monitoring system.
>>
>> As a result, tolls are not an appropriate way to charge for boating
>> today. The charge needs to be mostly (if not entirely) fixed (i.e. a
>> single payment for unlimited use of the waterways concerned during a
>> stated period).
>>
>>
>
> I couldn't agree with Adrian more on this, especially the views he
> expresses later in his posting about the libertarian aspects of
> monitoring our movements.
So do I...it has taken me this long to recover enough to reply! ;-)
> There was a naive report issued earlier
> this year by IWAC (inland Waterways Advisory Council) which raised
> the prospect of all manner of extraordinary methods to monitor us
> ranging from enbedding microchips in our licence plates to the
> erection of road-type cameras at canal junctions to photograph us.
> OK, none of these wilder idea was was recommended by IWAC, but the
> fact they were on the table at all scared the hell out of me. The
> fact is, Laurence, computer-based toll charging would erode the sort
> of go-as-you-please canal cruising we all value so much.
In Ireland they have a go-as-you-please attitude to cruising, but they still
have enough staff to know where every boat that moves is located. We have
tried a good few times to go under their "radar" (including using one of the
only self operating tidal locks in the British Isles*), but the WI staff
soon find out.
I do now have to endue monitoring to get to Earnest. The Dublin M50 e-toll
works very well, just with number plate recognition. I have done it twice
since our car has been registered and been caught both times...and that
included one occasion when I slotted between 2 HGVs!
Of course in a year or so time we will all be monitored in and out of the
country (yes that means Britain, as in the big island of the Celtic
archepelago) and will have to submit travel plans before we go (that
includes ferries, air travel and private boats). All part of the "UK" ("UK"
Northern Ireland is as good as excluded) e-borders thingy.
http://press.homeoffice.gov.uk/faqs/controlling-our-borders/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/25/u_ireland_passport_issues/
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2005/aug/ebord.pdf
So those of you who think this will not be extended to other things we do in
this wonderful country of ours, are pretty naive.
Maybe they are worried that those of us that can, might stage an escape
plan! :-)
*
St Mullins - Barrow Navigation
OK so Brownshill Staunch on the Great Ouse / New Bedford is another
--
Neil Arlidge - NB Earnest
Follow the travels of TNC, now in Ireland
http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk/tour.html
