Fantasy figures

THE £6.1 billion of pounds of annual economic and social value of the waterways claimed by CaRT is what they called white propaganda during the war, writes John Coxon.

Propaganda that does not try to hide its origin but does try to convince the recipient that its information is true by using subtle wording and repetition. Lord Haw Haw was an example of a white propagandist!

Like I said, 1,000,000 people using a single bridge every year, 460,000,000 using the towpaths, a saving of £1,100,000,000 to the NHS etc, etc are just fantasy figures.

No proof offered

No proof of any of these figures is ever offered by CaRT and this fact alone makes them suspicious.

If it's done to impress MPs then it might work. MPs will, apparently, believe anything; they don't live in the real world after all. If they could be persuaded that HS2 would only cost £36 billion before they voted for it then I think they'd believe anything.

They'd certainly be impressed by large figures and try to jump on the bandwagon, if they could use the numbers for their own ends!