Just what is it people want a national touring club to do? Apart from financially supporting a national rally, like York, I can't think of anything that isn't either better done on a local level or isn't better done elsewhere. When I started touring the information gathered and distributed by the CTC was invaluable, now I have Google. The local groups have been poorly supported, but all the evidence is that this has been recognised and is being addressed. It's easier than ever to set up a new group or affiliate a club. And funding is available in addition to the allocation grant for any project you can make a simple case for. IMO this is the role a national organisation with an interest in touring should be fulfilling, I hope the improvements I've seen over the last five years continue. If that was all the CTC did it would be a pretty small club, and even as an old school touring cyclist I have to recognise that. It's a big club with diverse interests, that's good for cycling even is it isn't necessarily the best for me.
BC is riding high after it's major rebranding and name change, bolstered by Murdoch's millions and getting a lot of attention, good, the more positive noise the better. I saw a recent Skyride in Southampton, there was more there for free than at the £12 to enter Orbital festival I was at the day before. Someone is paying for that and we have to realise that the golden goose will be off elsewhere the moment it's no longer an advantage for the Murdoch Brands. One of the criticisms of the CTC during the charitee debate was the vulnerability of it's funding, maybe those critics ought to consider the security of BCs finances before praising it so highly. I suspect if the funds were to reduce, it wouldn't be it's core sports activities that suffered first. One of the other criticisms during the charitee debate was how it would affect the influence of members on policy, I have no idea how BC make their policy, but there doesn't seem much membership involvement.
I'd support a name change if it was to something that better represented what the CTC do. I couldn't care less about the winged wheel, it has an historical importance, but it looks of its time and isn't the best emblem to represent the present organisation. Not only that, nobody knows what it's about. Try this; show it to people who don't associate you with cycling and see what they think it is. When I tried that more thought it had something to do with flying than cycling.