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.
On 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?
