Punt Wars II - The Sequal

As the coverage of the "Punt Wars" continues in the national press, it's gets harder to work out what the truth of the story is. Are the independents the "good guys" or cowboys of the river? Is our modern age of health and safety strangling free enterprise or stopping the river Cam become the water bound grid locked equivalent of what has already happened to the local roads? Should we care about independents and independence?

It's hard not to find yourself asking what does independent and independence mean? Freedom? Freedom of personal choice, action and expression? John Stark the American general who fought in the War of Independence is generally credited with coining the phrase "Live free or die". Since then it has not only become the state motto of New Hampshire and but also for everyone from rednecks from the deep south to PG-13 Bruce Willis, the Vancouver punks D.O.A and Unix user groups.

With a bit of digging around it turns out that General John may himself have been a little free in borrowing the phrase from aa speech made by Camille Desmoulins titled "Better to Die than not Live Free" delivered early in the French Revolution. In fact the first Convention of the Delegates of the Scottish Friends of the People in Edinburgh on 11-13 December 1792 used the phrase "live free or die" and referred to it as a "French oath.

Still you get the feeling that what counted for all these people was not the precise origin or form of the words being used but the sentiment they were trying to express.

You can interpret his words as a battle cry or as a statement of the reality of our lives.

Do you believe others have the right or competency to choose where you live, what clothes you wear or even where you punt?


You can live as free men, but, if you choose not to, your society will die. If you don't exercise your freedom of expression when you have the chance you may find it is too late. So seize your freedom, get out on the water, raise your flag and Punt Free or Die Trying!

Punt Wars.....

If you believe the Daily Mail Cambridge is in the grip of "Punt Wars" as "rival touts sink boats, threaten each other with knives and left one tourist with a broken hip".

Now I know there have been allegations of strange happenings and suggestions that the some punters in town were exploiting their size to muscle out the competition..... How much of this is actually true? It's hard to tell.

As a believer in free markets I personally find it a little strange that it appears the local authorities seem to be fighting against the entrepreneurial efforts of local small businesses and trying to push the independents off the river. From the outside it would appear local policy is being used to force the independents to operate in increasingly dangerous ways and then punish them for doing so when they are trying to make a living.

The whole thing seemed to get slightly oppressive and scary when it got to the stage where the authorities appeared to be using "anti-terror" laws to spy on the independents. Are these "independent punters" really so dangerous that we need to use anti-terror laws to monitor them? What next detention without trial for being in possession of an unlicensed straw boater? Men in balaclavas making midnight raids on punting seditionaries found to be browsing for recipes for how to mix "Pimms" on the Internet? Waterboarding for using the water? Not very Cambridge, in fact from the outside it appears draconian, heavy handed and frankly just not cricket old chap.

Still while I may support the right of the independents to make a living without the threat of extraordinary rendition to Haverhill by the council there is one thing that drives me up the wall as a city resident and that is the damn "punt pimps".

I actually have nothing against these guys in particular
so the faces have been changed to protect the innocent...

These pushy touts desperate to sell tickets to tourists for punting on the Cam constantly harass anyone trying to peacefully negotiate their way through the middle of the City in the summertime. They are supposedly trying to persuade tourists to take a trip up the river, but as I got harassed for the fifth time as I tried to walk across the bridge over the river, a bag of shopping in each hand and a large packet of toilet rolls under my arm I did wonder exactly what you have to do to get these apparently myopic menaces to mellow out as I meander past the Mill Pond and the Quayside....

So drum roll please as Cambridge T-Shirts proudly presents our latest production, hope it makes your life a little better...... remember the old saying..... a T-Shirt a day keeps the punt pimps away....

Wordle Me Up!

If you have not encountered Wordle yet it is a very cool internet toy that generates word clouds from either a list of words or a RSS feed, a RSS feed like the one from this blog, who would have thought there could have been something so beautiful hiding in our random ramblings? If you want to try it out for yourself you can check out Wordle here...

Gwydir Street Party 2009 - Sat 27th June

The Gwydir Street Party is an annual community festival that takes place on Gwydir Street and Milford Street in the heart of Cambridge, UK.

The Street Party is a family event which includes children's activities, live music, street performers, 2nd hand stalls, food & drink + much more...

The aim of the event is to bring the local community together and to help raise money for various local charities. This years chosen charities are Friends Of Mill Road Cemetery, Arthur Rank, Cherry Trees & St Matthews Playgroup.

This years event will be on SATURDAY 27th JUNE 2009

You can find the Gwydir Street web site here and the Facebook group for the event here.

Depending who you listen to Gwydir Street in Cambridge is named for Baroness Gwydir, who owned the land of this area just before the area was redeveloped, it's translation seems a little muddled meaning either "Field of Blood" or "Sloping Street", given that it rises from the Upper Gwydir St end to the Mill Rd end by as much as 12 ft (almost a Cambridge mountain) I think I like the second one better....

If you want to show your Gwydir Streeet pride you can check out Cambridge T-Shirts Gwydir Street T-Shirt here.....