MBY & Appeasement

[PhilF]

Re: On witch hunts etc...

good point, he will only start on about sail material or the like, my mistake, delete the reference, or should I resign?

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[adarcy]

Re: On witch hunts etc...

Hear hear Observer.

I am not calling for Tom's resignation nor do I question his sincerity over what he may believe is a likely outcome to the derogation issue. Also, I do not expect editors to print things they think are plain wrong.

BUT, I am of the view that it must be difficult being an editor because expressing one's PERSONAL view in discussion at boat shows or on fora like here easily gets misunderstood as the considered editorial position. However using an editorial must surely be something more than an expression of a personal opinion. I have been surprised at the MBY editorial position recently where I do not think it fairly represents what I believe to be view of the majority of boat owners who read it (I exclude those who only buy it to dream of superyachts - always free to run in dreams).

Of course some writers feel the need to "lead" on some topics ( eg slavery, rights, environment, whatever) but, if they lead their readership from so far away that they lose them, then resignation calls are inevitable. This is because others (Government, RYA, environmentalists - take your choice) will assume and quote widely that the magazine position reflects some sort of consensus of the readership.

Maybe there has been wide discussion in the editorial team in MBY and the editorial is a considered team view not just one persons opinion, in which case I apologise for any unintended slur on Tom.

However, in that case, things are worse than I thought. I have not posted much ( by my standards) about the red issue but I tend to follow Gludy's reasoning on the tax raised and the damage to the industry. As I have said, we can move our boat abroad as well so all our boating money will go to swell another economy and HMG will get no tax at all on it. The only people who will be really hurt are the marginal boaters (in an economic sense) and those unable to move their boat abroad and the rest of the marine industry perhaps excluding large powerboat exporters. For a leader , or leader writer, in the UK MoBo world to express what he/they feel is a tolerable compromise (one which I, and I suspect many, will agree with) as an opening gambit before "the other side" has engaged, let alone budged an inch is IMHO poor negotiating tactics.

Anthony

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[kimhollamby]

Points all made and noted. I'm locking this thread down before it gets any more personal.

If you have a comment about that please PM me or email kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

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