My Photo

Contact me:

  • Email
    albion@dumsday.com
  • Phone
    07788 973733


Canal blogs and other feeds

« Voluptuous Leviathan | Main | News links »

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Red diesel - today's hot issue.

Fuel Threat To Canal Boaters - This Is Money.

Two big issues are dominating the conversations of liveaboard canal boaters at the moment.  Red diesel and continuous cruising licences.  I've been wary of tackling either, but I know I have to soon.  Here's a toe in the water on the subject of red diesel.

This_is_money_red_dieselOn Sunday I filled up Granny's front and rear diesel tanks with the 'red' stuff, and it cost me close to £100.  That's three weeks of heat and a couple of months of hot water and electricity.  That's 2 1/2 times what it cost me when I bought Granny in 1999.  And that could be cheap if plans go ahead next year to push up the duty on red diesel to road levels.  But the stories in the newspapers are all about diesel for farmers and road vehicles; nothing about canal boaters. 

I've been hawking the story around various journalists, and this week one of them agreed to write it. This Is Money is a personal finance website from the same stable as the Daily Mail, and shares many of its stories with the paper.  I persuaded the journalist that the rising price of red diesel is a serious issue for boaters, and he's done a story about it under the headline Fuel Threat To Canal Boaters.

The story features quotes from RBOA vice-chairman Ivor Caplan and my Snecklifter chum Mike Holloway.  I also put him in touch with others, including Sue of No Problem, George Boyle of Alton and John Chard of Stokie, but I guess his deadlines were too tight to feature more of them.   

Nothing in the tabloid world is accurate, but this story's not too bad as these things go.  There's one glaring inaccuracy, though.  'Britain's army of canal boaters'?  Surely we are a navy?

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b11469e200d8345b035569e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Red diesel - today's hot issue. :

» Continuous Cruisers around Gayton from Retirement with No Problem
"..I have told them my pension only just about covers what I have chosen to do for my retirement, what with the threat of the diesel being 3 times more than it is now in a couple of years it is impossible for me to pay...." [Read More]

Comments

Where's Granny?

twitterings

    follow me on Twitter

    July 2009

    Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
        1 2 3 4 5
    6 7 8 9 10 11 12
    13 14 15 16 17 18 19
    20 21 22 23 24 25 26
    27 28 29 30 31    
    Blog powered by TypePad
    Member since 08/2003