Sargeant on Parade

Now that he is finished with probing the nation’s politicians, John Sargeant can indulge in larking about, preferably on the barges of Great Britain if his new TV series is anything to go by, says
Sally Saunders

As a certain water rat once said, there is nothing half as much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.

It’s a message that the former chief political correspondent of the BBC has taken to heart.

For, after decades strolling along the corridors of power, or standing in the rain outside No 10, he is simply messing about in boats. And trains. And the odd plane. Not for him penning weighty tomes about the state of modern politics or presenting highbrow discussions on Radio 4, like some of his former colleagues.

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PEOPLE had fun in the sun on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Devizes to mark the 25th anniversary of the Queen opening the restored Caen Hill flight of locks. Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire Sarah Troughton descended the flight of locks on Friday in a canal boat before stopping at Lock 43 known as the Queen Elizabeth II lock where the original ceremony took place on August 8, 1990.
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Ramsay Cudlipp takes to the canal on a Foxhangers holiday

‘IT’S the best method of forced relaxation,’said my new friend Sarah, as our boats gently bumped against each other in the lock. We were three days into our week-long journey along the Kennet and Avon Canal and I knew exactly what she meant. Living on a narrow-boat – and travelling in it – is one of the most tranquil holidays you can experience. Everyone you meet – such as people like Sarah, who we learned had owned a narrow-boat for nine years and spent at least two months of the year exploring the K&A – is unfailingly friendly and helpful, and you’re all operating at a slower pace than normal.
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