If you want, and I can quite understand that you might not, a perfect image to sum up Labour’s social vision, look no further than the nearest cycle-infested street.
Fresh from Nanny’s nursery, like all adolescents reared on rules rather than values, cyclists unsurprisingly develop into perfect examples of the new conformism. Fit, thin and environmentally aware, cyclists tick all the boxes on Labour’s Good Citizen Grid. And, as a by product of such commendable conformism, they also put a human face on the future society we can expect should the Government get its way: self-righteous, self-regarding, selfish, rule reverential when it suits them, rule breaking when it doesn’t.
We all have our own favourite cyclist horror stories (from pram-pushing mothers being screamed at for daring to use a pedestrian crossing on green when a cyclist approaches, to the lunatic wing of the London cyclists lobby arguing for buses to be banned from bus lanes) but is there any chance of the Government acting to regulate them? None whatsoever. They may not pay tax or insurance as other road users do, they may not give a fig about the safety of pedestrians, but they are so obviously the darlings of Brown’s brave new world that they will be left to wallow in their own superiority for as long as they like.
And wallow they will, with the latest example of their anti-social, couldn’t give a monkey’s about anyone else, behaviour displaying itself in Perthshire where, much to the anger of local residents, roads are to be closed to accommodate something called the Etape Caledonia. This will involve 2000 of the lycra-wearing class pushing their pedals around the Highlands purely for the benefit of their own already swollen egos in Britain’s only (so far) closed-road cycling event.
Apart from restricting local residents’ freedom of movement and the obvious negative consequences for local businesses, the organisers of this tedious parade of self-absorbtion have decided to stage it on a Sunday, which will be a further blow to church attenders of advanced years who rely on road transport to reach their places of worship. But hell, do you think cyclists give a bugger about anyone else, especially the old and infirm?
Tags: cycling, etape caledonia, freedom of movement, uk
May 19, 2008 at 9:50 pm |
Impact on businesses ?????? at 700am on a Sunday Morning – have you talked to the many jubilant shopkeepers B&B establishments and numerous other jubilant “local Businesses” about the impact – I think you’ll find it’s been far from negative.
May 19, 2008 at 10:26 pm |
The Etape Caledonia was a great day out for cyclists of all abilities with immense benefits to all the participants and the local economy. The complainers should try show a more tolerance and accept that the roads are closed for s few hours once a year. The event could not possibly take place without the closures. There were 59 participants over the age of 60 in the event so not all ‘old folk’ go to church by car on a Sunday. Roll on 2009.