More poppycock proposals from our dismal Labour government. They’re set to force canal narrowboats to rip out… “diesel engines, petrol generators and wood-fired stoves”, and also plan to slam boat-owners with big “tax rises on marine fuel”. Plus all… “new boats will be required to be entirely electric.”

Not going to go down well among boaters on the Trent & Mersey and Cauldon canals through Stoke, and likely to remove a lot of the more traditional ‘woodsmoke’ narrowboats that walkers and visitors like to see on our local canals.

The Telegraph newspaper spoke about the news to the…

“National Association of Boat Owners, [whose spokesman] cautioned that replacing diesel engines and generators on canal boats would be impractical [and] could trigger a wave of homelessness, as people who lived on canal boats because of the high cost of housing would be unable to afford an enforced switch to electric power. “No way they could do it,” said Mr Braybrook. “They’d be forced off the water, off their off-grid lifestyle, and probably into homelessness.”