Lesson for a New Golden Age?

Like many I was impressed and informed by the BBC's recent documentary, the Golden Age of Canals.

Two things struck me in the documentary:

• The primacy of restoring and maintaining the navigation.
• The fact that all this happened by direct action from canal enthusiasts and the pioneer leisure boaters, despite a routinely obstructive and hostile navigation authority.

These themes are two things I spend so much of my life trying to pursue, so it's good to have a positive reality check and realise that I and many others are not far out of line with the prioirties of the original pioneers, when we harp on about the much smaller battles we seem to have to fight these days.


Pleased to hear Tom Chaplin's comment on one of the pioneers. "... he was told he wasn't meant to and he just did it."

Compare and Contrast

BW have just offered a post for recruitment - a waterways operative on the K+A. The salary offered, £13-18k pa. If anyone doesn't know, the waterways operatives are the people on the front line maintaining and managing the waterways day-to-day.

Robin Evans' (Chief Executive) received a package in 2009/10 of £233k (and was sitting on a pension pot just shy of £1.4 million pounds).

This suggests that you could, if you sack Robin, replace him with around 15 additional operatives on the front line.

How would you like to see the money spent? I know what I think.