What's all the fuss?

Well, it's nice of Mr PW to let me have a little blog linked into his enormous website to share a few thoughts. It's a pity that he didn't let me in sooner, as there was plenty to comment about over the last few weeks.

There was a bit of a kerfuffle about that online petition to 10 Downing Street. It was started by a fellow in South Wales, who enjoyed walking by the Neath Canal and who was disturbed by the suggestion on a television programme that BW's property assets might be sold off by a desperate government.

The Inland Waterways Association didn't seem too pleased that he'd done that. Some people might think that "they didn't like it because they didn't think of it"! Well, it wouldn't be the first time...

Anyway, not wanting to be left behind, the IWA spread the word and encouraged members and friends to sign up, as other groups did, and the last time I looked, there were nearly 20,000 names on the petition! Not bad in a few weeks.

Well, the prophecies of doom failed to come true and the government announced that BW would keep its property portfolio - for now...

Did the petition make a jot of difference or would that have happened anyway? Who can say? But, at least, with the petition making the "top ten" you can be sure that people with the power to make and influence decisions were aware of it.

As if that wasn't enough excitement, just as we are sighing with relief, there are people who are saying that BW shouldn't have a property portfolio anyway and that it should have been confiscated. BW say that quite a lot of their maintenance bill is funded from the profits from the property, while there are some who reckon that BW is putting a spin on the figures and the property isn't helping at all.

It's all too much for me - is that tea brewed yet?

Ben-9