I don't agree with the digs at the "pleasure boaters" in the song. After all, it was the amateur boaters who campaigned from the forties onwards for the retention of the canals- the Rolts and Aikmans, the IWA, the local canal groups. And of course the paddle gear is just as stiff and the gates leak just as much for the pleasure boater as for the carrier. But for the rise in leisure use, the canals would have been severed and filled in in the 60s and 70s, which fate befell the Derby Canal, the Dearne and Dove, the Shrewsbury, and very nearly the Kennet and Avon. I've been told that if they could have found a buyer who would take responsibility for filling it in, the Ministry of Transport would have sold the Shroppy for £5000 in the 60s.