Nigel Farage complains about “insane” cycle lanes…but is all as it seems?; Cyclist praised for helping pensioner; Danny MacA-skills; No Brits for Ineos at Giro; Plastic bike lane; Bike theft plea; Simon Yates eyes Giro redemption + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Nigel Farage complains about "insane" cycle lanes blocking emergency services
This is totally insane. These cycle lanes are a joke. pic.twitter.com/jlRFXILgJs
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) May 3, 2021
“This is totally insane. These cycle lanes are a joke,” Nigel Farage wrote, posting this video on Twitter to his 1.6 million followers. Here we have the latest instalment in the former politician’s new career as an anti-cycling bingo caller (when he is not selling birthday messages for £75 a pop on Cameo).
The comments to the tweet are, as you might expect, mixed. While there are many replies, often from people with English and British flags in their name, giving it the usual ‘road tax’, cyclists cannot afford cars etc…There are also plenty of sensible ones…
Well if more people used bikes there wouldn’t be all those cars blocking the ambulance would there?
So I’m sure you meant this is totally insane, all these cars are a joke…
— Geoff Wilton (@geoffwilton2) May 3, 2021
The answer is fewer motor vehicles
— Take That, Cyclists! (@TakeThatCycIist) May 3, 2021
Lol, imagine seeing that and thinking bicycles are the problem 😂
— Praise The Loud (@PraiseTheLoud) May 3, 2021
Of the less sensible comments, most were along the same lines as Farage’s November Daily Mail article titled “Cyclists need to stop being so pious, pay road tax – and obey the rules like us motorists”.
Take this one for example…
Cyclists’s are sad people who cant afford cars
— Charlie Parks 🇬🇧 🏴🚘🚗 (@Chas566) May 3, 2021
Danny MacAskill takes bunny hopping to another level
Dodging your Monday jobs like….
🎥 @RobbieMfilms #mountainbike #hippyhop #✌️ pic.twitter.com/CIB817qOXJ
— Danny MacAskill (@danny_macaskill) May 3, 2021
It is always a good day when Danny MacAskill drops a clip showing off his skills. Best leave this one to the professional, unless you want a face full of dirt. On the plus side, you might get £250 from You’ve Been Framed…
At the end of January, the Scot released his latest nerve-shredding film, as he took on the Dubh Slabs – a 500m drop down an exposed slab rock face usually only fit for mountaineers and climbers. MacAskill said it was his “wildest” adventure yet, so you know it is going to be epic.
East Renfrewshire Police urge cyclists to secure against bike thefts as demand raises value of second-hand bikes
East Renfrewshire Police urged cyclists to make sure their bikes are properly protected from bike thieves. The call comes after two bikes worth thousands of pounds were stolen from a property in Clarkston, with police warning the pandemic bike shortage has pushed up the value of second-hand bikes, making them more attractive for thieves.
The Merida road bike and Giant hybrid had a combined value of around £3,000 and were taken from the property in Stamperland Drive. Barrhead News reports police in the area are now urging cyclists to take extra care. “Since the start of the pandemic, the retail supply of bicycles has been limited and this has driven up the price of second-hand bicycles,” Sergeant Michael Morgenthaler of East Renfrewshire’s community policing team told the news website.
“This has made them a lucrative commodity for thieves who can sell them. We would urge owners to review their security measures to safeguard their property. Bike marking is a useful deterrent and can help to recover stolen property and detect those involved in these types of crimes.”
Mexico City bike path made from plastic waste may offer a solution to the city's flooding problem
Dutch infrastructure company PlasticRoad has created a climate-adaptive bike path made from one tonne of plastic waste. The path in Mexico City is the group’s first pilot project for its road system that allows storage of rain and runoff water to help alleviate the risk of flooding. WorldHighways reports the design means the cycle path offers temporary water storage and drainage which is monitored by sensors and gradually releases rainwater back to the ground.
“Our third pilot in Mexico is an opportunity to test our product under a different set of climate conditions, which will provide us with significant data in order to explore international markets outside our country of origin—the Netherlands—in the future,” said Eric Kievit, managing director at PlasticRoad.
London mayoral candidates' plans for cycling
Regular road.cc contributor Laura Laker has penned this useful guide if you need the low-down on what the London mayoral candidates have said about cycling ahead of this week’s election. Although, if your name is Shaun Bailey, it might not make comfortable reading…
Three of the main West Midlands mayoral candidates back active travel pledges
Coventry’s Bicycle Mayor, Adam Tranter, put five key pledges to the West Midlands mayoral candidates to gauge their commitment to supporting active travel policies. Andy Street (Conservative), Liam Byrne MP (Labour) and Jenny Wilkinson (Liberal Democrats) backed all of the pledges.
The five key asks they agreed to were:
1. Pledge to meet the government’s targets to double levels of cycling by 2025 and for 50% of all journeys in West Midlands towns and cities to be walked or cycled by 2030.
2. Only commit funding to projects that provide high-quality active travel provision in line with LTN1/20 guidance. This provision should be assessed by an independent peer review board.
3. Sign up to the Vision Zero ambition to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries from the streets of the West Midlands.
4. Support the local implementation of active neighbourhoods, enabling safe and more active communities. Launch a publicly-stated target and plan to reduce car dependency in the West Midlands.
5. Appoint an Active Travel Commissioner to lead the West Midlands cycling and walking revolution; providing them with the political support and funding to achieve real change.
Green Party candidate Steve Caudwell said he “supported these aims” and already featured many of the pledges in his manifesto but did not want to formally sign up because of his concern “of the growth of pledge politics”. Reform UK candidate Pete Durnell said his party supports active travel but he did not want to sign up to pledges as a matter of policy.
Adam Tranter explained the need for active travel being treated as a priority by whoever is elected. “Enabling a shift to walking and cycling for short journeys is no longer a ‘nice to have’,” he explained.
“It’s essential to clean up the region’s toxic air, tackle climate change and to build a more equitable and healthy transport system. We need to reduce our car dependency and the time for change is now; the next elected Mayor of the West Midlands needs to not only have a bold vision but a desire to act immediately to realise the region’s active travel potential.”
Simon Yates eyes Giro d'Italia redemption ahead of Grande Partenza in Turin this Saturday
#Giro 🇮🇹
It’s so close we can almost taste it!
Who’s ready for the @giroditalia? 𝗪𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘! 💪 pic.twitter.com/lDWutOkJIg
— Team BikeExchange (@GreenEDGEteam) May 3, 2021
Simon Yates has unfinished business with the Giro d’Italia. In 2018, he cracked on stage 19 having led the race for 13 days, winning three stages. Last year he tested positive for Covid and was forced to withdraw before the end of the first week. Now, the 28-year-old is back with a full BikeExchange team willing to support his bid for the maglia rosa.
“I hope this year I can have clear run and a good go at fighting for the win and we have a very strong team to try to do that,” Yates said. “I like so many things about the Giro; the parcours, the food, the fans. I really enjoy racing in Italy, it is a great place to be a bike racer. This year the route looks very hard, of course there are some differences to the previous years that I have raced at the Giro d’Italia. It is bookended with two time trials and time trials are not my speciality, so we will try to limit the losses there.”
The race begins on Saturday with an 8km flat individual time trial in Turin and what looks likely to be a relatively easy sprint stage on Sunday.
Dangerous driver ignores zebra crossing
Pedestrians don’t matter, human life doesn’t count, they are in the way, he’s in a hurry! pic.twitter.com/4vh919CcMI
— Cyclegranny 🚴♀️ (@anneramsey740) May 3, 2021
Here is a quick one for all the Nigel Farage comments accusing cyclists of breaking the rules of the roads.
Just kids enjoying riding bikes
Dozens of East Vancouver kids have built a makeshift trail-riding course inside a local park. It started last summer, after city officials gave them the green light. But as @jonnhernandez reports, this year, it looks like the park board has changed its tune. pic.twitter.com/HyouV1r2rA
— CBC British Columbia (@cbcnewsbc) May 4, 2021
Cyclist praised for helping elderly man who fell out of mobility scooter
This cyclist was the only person to stop when he spotted an elderly man who’d been thrown from his mobility scooter – we need more people like him 👏❤️ pic.twitter.com/lA8UY6OmMP
— LADbible (@ladbible) May 2, 2021
This cyclist stopped to help an elderly man who had fallen out of his mobility scooter. The video was originally shared by LADbible and attracted plenty of attention on Twitter where the cyclist has been praised…
Well done ❣️So proud of you ❣️ That’s is a fantastic truth reaction from a cyclist 🚴 👍🙏👌🤙
— Steve J. (@triptube) May 3, 2021
Well done to the cyclist 🚴♀️,
Hope the gentleman was ok 👍— T D (@501TD) May 2, 2021
Well done to him. Less well done to the commenters who suggested the video was clearly a set up as there was someone filming…thankfully a few people have got in early to explain the concept of cameras mounted to handlebars.
Pretty easy to mount a camera on a bike – this one payed off during that time trial, as a driver involved in a hit and run with another competitor passed me, and they were caught up with by the police before the end of the day. pic.twitter.com/RDOAPRnXrW
— Nathaniel Cleland (@bellezzasolocle) May 3, 2021
The video also raised the interesting question of why was the cyclist the only person to stop? We have seen some people saying cyclists are generally more in tune with their surroundings? Thoughts?
Nigel Farage blames cycle lanes...but is all as it seems?
This is the front of University College Hospital – there are advertised road closures here owing to roadworks. There was a temporary “popup” cycle lane on the Euston Road following the reduction in traffic last year, but I think that has now gone. This is misleading at best. https://t.co/Z3ZEaJm4L2
— David Hardstaff (@DavidHardstaff) May 3, 2021
Nigel Farage looked at the gridlocked cars in the video above and decided it was right to blame the congestion on cycle lanes. However, as some in the replies and a few comments under this live blog pointed out, it is not clear if the space has been closed off for roadworks.
Global Nomad commented: “Looks like the Euston Road with University College London on the left – Euston station over behind on the right….The Euston Road has a temporary segregated cycle lane which for much of the way takes up the previous bus lane – there is still a bus lane now and the two other lanes have become a single lane in some stretches. In the video clip you can still see the bus lane that the ambulance is trying to get into but the cars have not moved forward enough to allow it…”
Selective camerawork. Why are the barriers across the bike lane ( is it closed) and the duel carriage way inside lane. Are there roadworks behind the cameraman. Why does he not pan around 180 degrees. This is pathetic anti cycling propaganda. Must try harder.
— southeast8 (@8_southeast) May 3, 2021
Anyone else got any local knowledge or pictures?
Also worth noting that as recently as last week a cyclist was taken to hospital with injuries after a collision with a van driver on the Euston Road. Camden New Journal reported at the time that the cyclist was seen sat on the floor being treated for a head injury before being taken to hospital by paramedics.
Ineos announces Tao-free (and Brit-free) Giro line-up, as Bernal makes debut
None of Ineos’ British riders have been selected for the Giro, including the 2020 champion Tao Geoghegan Hart. Egan Bernal makes his Giro debut, and will be the team’s joint leader with Pavel Sivakov. Ineos also says the two individual time-trials will create an opportunity for current world time-trial champion Filippo Ganna “to shine in those rainbow colours.” Here’s the eight-man team:
Egan Bernal
Pavel Sivakov
Filippo Ganna
Jonathan Castroviejo
Jhonatan Narváez
Salvatore Puccio
Gianni Moscon
Daniel Martínez
You've heard of cars in cycle lanes. Now get ready for... Jeeps in docking stations
Good morning to everyone except this guy. pic.twitter.com/lEc0SPCcS5
— Ya-Ting Liu (@yating_liu) May 3, 2021
Siri, show me entitlement.
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Latest Comments
Apologies JOHN5880.
At least the good folk of Clevedon can see that £ 425 k to reverse some painting and chuck away a few bollards was, relatively speaking, a bargain. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp9rv0nxv54o
Concerns over street trees are often overblown. Many older trees are not species that would now be planted as street trees, which also points to the fact that many large trees are actually at or near the end of their reasonable life. Trees are important. Street trees can perform multiple roles (though those roles are not often maximised). However, not all trees perform well as street trees. Street trees should serve the use of the street. If they don't, they should be replaced appropriately.
Presumably, CycloWatt must know this—and have a plan to avoid or address these issues?
£1.7 m for construction plus £2.7 for removal plus compensations for injured people, local taxpayers might not be so keen on supporting cycling infrastructure. after this fiasco.
Shame, I was hoping to steal a mattress from The Sleep Centre and get away with it rapidly on my bike.
Brim Brothers ran into problems with the stability of the interface between cleat and shoe. The interface is never perfect, particularly across the many kinds of shoe out there, and there is always a smidgen of flex there, more than there is in a steel spindle of a pedal, more than there is an al or carbon crank - which adds noise to the power signal. Brim Brothers also ran into longevity issues. The cleat is a high-wear area, and the shoe is also subject to lots of abrasion. Fairly hostile to delicate electronics. This PM is going to face major issues with wear on the cleat. It's also going to really struggle to solve that huge stack height issue. The Brim Brothers PM had the electronics on a separate pod, clipped to the top of the shoe, with a ribbon cable encased in a steel-wire reinforced, rubberised resin running down to the force plate. So the electronics were fairly safe, and the force plate added very little to the stack height. However, the connection from the electronics pod down the side of the shoe to the force plate was subject to being worn through and damaged with use. Brim Brothers never really solved that - had it made it to mass production, they would have had to cost-in semi-regular replacing of plate+pods, as riders wore down connectors (particularly on their foot down side).
It's surely long overdue that whilst civil fines should remain in place for minor offences such as overstaying paid-for time in a parking space or parking in a permit only area without a permit, parking that puts other people in danger, e.g. parking on blind bends or, as here, parking in such a way that pedestrians/cyclists are forced to leave their protected space and move into the roadway, should be criminalised and incur points as well as fines. Plenty of people can afford a £50 fine and I've known quite a few who just regard it as an occasional hazard of being able to park where you like; when a few such offences could put their licence at risk they would start to think a bit harder about it.
Sounds like we're both right - the organisation is indeed still proscribed, and the protests were silent and peaceful. Yes, there are people protesting and expressing sympathy with Hamas or shouting antisemitic slogans - but as I understand it the recent ones were not. As for critical mass being proscribed ... I would hope that's paranoia. Except that in the case of the JSO / XR folks there seemed to be a quick mutual escalation between them and government/ police when their actions were seen to be effective (causing a fuss). I still doubt this would happen in the case of cycle protests / gatherings, mostly because they aren't frequent or aiming to be as noisy. So most politicians don't see enough mileage in making it an "issue". But note there are already some who might. Such types may be increasingly gathered in Reform as some of the Conservatives migrate there.
Considering the fuss over £2 parking fees here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c204p0pprvxo a £50 fine might be enough to make them vote for reform!
63 thoughts on “Nigel Farage complains about “insane” cycle lanes…but is all as it seems?; Cyclist praised for helping pensioner; Danny MacA-skills; No Brits for Ineos at Giro; Plastic bike lane; Bike theft plea; Simon Yates eyes Giro redemption + more on the live blog”
We don’t need cycle lanes.
We don’t need cycle lanes. What we need is a network of segregated ’emergency vehicle’ lanes, with priority over other traffic at junctions, that cyclists are permitted to use.
HoarseMann wrote:
That is a great idea, like to see the gammons coming out in favour of denying access for emergency vehicles!
The fully fixed cycle lanes
The fully fixed cycle lanes in London allow emegency vehicles to use them as shown by one cyclists video of a fire engine using it. Doesn’t stop the gams arguing against those as well.
So what was there before the
So what was there before the cycle lanes besides parked cars?
I’m starting a gofundme to
I’m starting a gofundme to charter a SpaceX to send Nigel Farage to Mars.
Who’s in?
PRSboy wrote:
What’s Mars done to deserve that?
Captain Badger wrote:
mdavidford wrote:
I think I’d react like that in their shoes – or whatever Martians wear on their feet/claws/apendages
Captain Badger wrote:
“Ack-ack… Ack-ack-ack-ack!”
Not saying you don’t have a
Not saying you don’t have a decent chance of raising enough money to be rid of the duck faced pillock, but wouldn’t a decent shovel be all that is really needed?
Please stop sharing Farage’s
Please stop sharing Farage’s rants. It sucks me in every time and I have work to do!
How about an article about
How about an article about this video of a cyclist helping a man whose mobility scooter had toppled in a pothole, which is a nice positive story for a change?
https://twitter.com/ladbible/status/1388931294696988672
Some interesting comments in the thread: “the drivers didn’t see him”, “cars had no place to stop” – well, that’s the point, isn’t it, that cyclists are better for social safety because we see things and we can stop…
And “Who was filming it. They could have helped” (reply: “do let us know when you’ve figured it out”…).
Perhaps some are looking a little bit too much at their English flag in the profile.
Slightly OT, but is that
Slightly OT, but is that because cyclists (or pedestrians) are more ‘engaged’ with what’s going on around them? Motorists are just seeing it all passing by somewhere beyond their glass box…
Yes, that’s also my
Yes, that’s also my experience that cyclists and pedestrians are more “engaged” with the surroundings. From my experience when I cycle and drive, I guess there are probably several factors.
Firstly, as cyclist I’m generally slower so I simply have more time to spot things.
Secondly, it’s hard to look out of a car because of all the metal; especially in this situation where the footpath is below the level of the road and to the side, so it’s probably in the blind spot; as cyclist you are higher up with free sight.
Also, as driver one tends to look mostly at the road in front (and the mirrors, which not every driver seems to do…), but as cyclist I constantly look around in all directions, partly because there can always be trouble from any directions for a cyclist.
Perhaps the cyclist also heard the man cry for help (the video doesn’t say, but it might be a possibility), inside a car you simply wouldn’t hear that. Even if the man just made any kind of sound the cyclist is more likely to hear it.
I think this is all relevant
I think this is all relevant in the context of low traffic neighbourhoods etc. where some opponents say that people will be less safe if there are no passing cars that can stop and help.
It’s not so much about arguing how these specific drivers in this video behaved, but the general observation that car drivers are simply much less likely to notice any problem than cyclists or pedestrians.
Stephan Matthiesen wrote:
I think this is probably the key factor. Particularly with the view from the approach partially obscured by trees, at the speed a car would be going there wouldn’t be much time to spot that there was something out of the ordinary there, still less take in exactly what it was.
Unless you’re a police officer under the thumb of an OGC, of course.
mdavidford wrote:
Mother of God! It’s OCG, fella…
I missed there were trees in
I missed there were trees in the middle of the carriageway.
That road was really wide. No
That road was really wide. No excuse for a driver not to stop.
Cyclist has been sent a NIP for riding on the pavement !
hirsute wrote:
True, but remember that drivers are also conditioned not to stop suddenly as long as the road is clear to keep the traffic flowing; seeing something off the road just doesn’t necessarily register as a valid reason to stop.
hirsute wrote:
I hope that’s a joke???
Yes and No !
Yes and No !
Ever since that cyclist got sent a NIP in London after submitting a close pass, I can’t rule it out. As it was, the london cyclist was using a shared pathway that led to a Satander central cycle point !
Ever since, then, I make sure if I am on the pavement, I point out in my submission it is shared and where any signage is.
He did so well until he
He did so well until he cycled off on the pavement. Joke
Love some of those comments:
Love some of those comments:
“Khan needs to be held to account” What like holding a Mayoral election for example?
“Cyclists’s are sad people who cant afford cars” which is strange because I thought I read that “anti car” policies like congestion charges, increased fuel duty, LTNs were supposed to hit the poorest the hardest?
A few comments in the twitter
A few comments in the twitter thread saying the space has been barriered off for roadworks, not for a cycle lane (which is the least part of the width restriction). Does anyone have local knowledge?
The one.network site should
The one.network site should have any roadworks details online about it,if we could identify the road
Looks like the Euston Road
Looks like the Euston Road with University College London on the left – Euston station over behind on the right….The Euston Road has a temporary segregated cycle lane which for much of the way takes up the previous bus lane – there is still a bus lane now and the two other lanes have become a single lane in some stretches. In the video clip you can still see the bus lane that the Ambulance is trying to get into but the cars have not moved forward enough to allow it…For a long time cars have been more worried about getting a fine if they make an infraction to allow an emergency vehicle through i.e going into bus lanes or edging forward at red lights…these days they wait until the lights turn green to move out of the way….
Yep, Euston Road. You can use
Yep, Euston Road. You can use the time bits from Apr 2019 and nov 2020 to see the differences. Traffic levels still stupidly high but bus lane would have been free either time, just people deciding to block the lanes for the Ambulance which probably would have happened either time.
In what way is bike marking a
In what way is bike marking a ‘useful deterrent’ ? A bike thief if they spot it and consider it a problem selling a bike on anyway,will just break the bike down into components, which due to the shortage of bike bits now are arguably more valuable, IMO treating bike theft as something more than mere paperwork would be a more useful deterrent.
Imagine being Nigel Farage.
Imagine being Nigel Farage. How do you follow up a pointless campaign that ends up with the whole country hoist with a pointless petard? With more jingoism, but on a smaller scale.
My only fear is that his ideas are so stupid and so Faragian, they might just happen.
According to The Express he’s
According to The Express he’s “on a mission to save the planet”: http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/1418258/Green-Britain-Nigel-Farage-save-planet-plant-trees
Nigel Garrage wrote:
If only it was the same planet we’re all on.
No, I’d prefer a physically
No, I’d prefer a physically different planet.
It might be… You only have
It might be… You only have the Express to go on. Could be any planet, or none at all, frankly.
To give him his due, I think Mr F is keen on at least 2 types of plants – hops and tobacco. So that’s a bit green.
It is good that most of the
It is good that most of the mayoral candidates are making the pledge, however there is nothing holding them to the pledge. I would love to have more dedicated, useful cycling infrastructure.
We all know politicians will agree with just about anything to get elected, then bugger all afterwards.
Arguably the Lib Dems show
Arguably the Lib Dems show the opposite – from “I agree with Nick” and lots of MPs to the Parliamentary party all fitting into a cab – surely driven by their failure to stick with the student funding pledge they signed when in no danger of having to be in government.
I understand that it’s not always right to promise something in current conditions that future events might kibosh, but hopefully this set of pledges will be useful in post-truth politics (which is as polite as I can be).
Actually the reason the
Actually the reason the entire lib dems can fit in the back of a cab was because of their pledge to undemocratically reverse the Brexit referendum result.
In inconvenient fact for most here, but nonetheless true.
Yep – it’s totally
Yep – it’s totally undemocratic to do something if you’ve won a majority on the basis of saying that that’s what you’ll do if you win a majority. That’s not the foundation of electoral democracy at all…
Nope, they went from 57 in
Nope, they went from 57 in 2010 to eight in 2015. They actually have more now then they did then. So it was the “betrayal” the Ex Labour voters and Students felt with teaming up with the Tories in 2010 that meant that could fit in the back of two cabs.
AlsoSomniloquism wrote:
You’ve (conveniently) forgotten the Theresa May election in 2017 – the Lib Dems actually went into the 2019 election with 20 MPs and with Jo Swinson declaring she was going to be “Britain’s next prime minister”!
So 56 to 8 is actually better
So 56 to 8 is actually better results then 20 to 11? Also they went up to the mighty level of 11 in the TM 2017 election where traditionally they always used to be between 50-60 in the past 20 years or so. And they only had 20 in 2019 because the change uk lot teamed up with them going into it as they were repping the same thing.
Nigel Garrage wrote:
And you’ve (conveniently) forgotten that a good chunk of those MPs going in to the election were defections from other parties, who then had to stand against a candidate from their original party. They were down 1 seat on a much increased vote share between the 2017 and 2019 results – hardly a massive collapse due to their position on the EU.
It’s a “fact” in the sense
It’s a “fact” in the sense that you’ve made it up and would like it to be true.
Better make that 2 cabs as
Better make that 2 cabs as there are 11 LD MP’s.
As mdavidford points out – by definition if the lib dems had won the election it wouldnt have been undemocratic to halt Brexit proceedings, in fact quite the opposite as you have conveniently forgotten that the Referendum was not legally binding. No UK parliament can enact legistation that cannot be undone by a following one – that applies to matter of states and treaties too.
52% of me wants to see a whopping supermajority for the SNP on Thursday, the other 48% wants a very narrow win so we can watch Brexiteer hypocrisy flow like rivers of sh*t again. Just like it did over the ministerial code recently – contrast Tory attacks on Sturgeon vs their defence of Boris, Priti and others.
BTW hows the slow motion demise of the Union working out for you? Ready to raise the flag of “Little England” yet?
Your time will come….
Secret_squirrel wrote:
I think people would have stood for the Lib Dems standing on a platform of a second referendum, but just telling people they were going to cancel it wasn’t acceptable, except possibly to the most extreme – that was borne out by the gigantic defeat and complete irrevelance they now see themselves in.
They’d be better scrapping the party in its entirety tbh and forming some new Blairite vehicle.
As for the union, I think you have to be pragmatic – you just have to look at the birth /migration figures for protestants vs catholics in Northern Ireland for example to see the direction of travel, regardless of Brexit. That politicians are hypocrites shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Anyway we seem to have diverged somewhat from talking about cycling! Funny enough I saw your post on losing energy and I’ve had a similar cough/cold over the last couple of weeks and have been taking it pretty easy – hope you’re feeling better. Hoping for warmer weather coming through soon – I seem to feel the cold much more these days!
Nigel Garrage wrote:
Thanks for the kind thoughts. Hopefully yours will have less impact than mine. My boss had similar and was below par for weeks. Sample of 2 but the paranoid in me suggests something low level viral is doing the rounds. Possibly because COVID has out-competed the nastier stuff.
Revisionist history there.
Revisionist history there. After the coallition government, it transpired that Lib Dem voters were not happy with the coallition and many deserted the lib dems.
either
they expected the junior party in the coalltion to deliver their entire manifesto at the epxense of the larger party.
Or
they were labout voters who didnt want to admit it
OR
they voted lib dem as a protest vote, and didn’t want them to actually gain power in any way.
The consequence of this was the next government was an unconstrained tory government able to deliver all the things they couldn’t in the coallation. Lib dem voters punishing th party for forming a coallation with the tories only made things worse, getting more fo what they were unhappy with.
2010 22% of vote 62 seats
2015 8% votes 8 seats
2017 8% votes 8 seats
2019 7.4% votes 12 seats
No significant decline in the brexit shakeout, but no significant improvement either
Or
Or
they expected them to at least restrain the tories from the sort of savage cuts even Thatcher would have baulked at.
I don’t think anyone would have expected them to deliver their entire manifesto, but they propped up a minority government without getting anything in exchange. And every backing of austerity came with the same we’ve ‘come together in the national interest’ nonsense that was as embarrasing as it was insulting.
They got a referendum on
They got a referendum on changing the UK electoral system.
That was a pretty huge concession.
Unfortunately they couldn’t win the vote (FWIW I voted in favour of it).
The Lib Dems policy for years
The Lib Dems policy for years and years had been to adopt proportional representation but the referendum was on changing to the alternative vote system.
It’s a stretch to call this a pretty huge concession. Even a yes vote would have changed our electoral system to something the Lib Dems were not really in favour of. And in exchange they backed austerity – it was unforgiveable for many people.
FWIW I also voted in favour too.
Given that the two largest
Given that the two largest parties would likely be the main losers from the change to ‘Alternative Vote’ I’d argue it was a pretty huge concession for one of them to back the referendum in the first place.
Had the referendum result been different British politics would have changed significantly. We’d likely have far more MPs from smaller parties and a more representative parliament.
You are probably right about
You are probably right about what might have resulted from a change to alternative voting. But AV wasn’t a Lib Dem policy, PR was. Maybe if they had managed to get PR on the ballot we’d have a different electorial system now but we’ll never. Like we’ll never know the results of them getting any of their headline policies though. However we all know the results of austerity and cuts to public services which they backed.
I suppose we can discuss whether getting the tories to allow a vote to change something they didn’t want to change, to a system not called for by the electorate nor even supported by the Lib Dems, that ultimately failed was a pretty huge concession or not. Really, my point was that among the reasons many people abandoned the Lib Dems after the coalition government was that they seemingly did not get any of their policies through yet propped up a minority government allowing them to carry out extreme austerity. It was omitted from the reasons listed above and for many people it’s their reason not to vote for the Lib Dems.
Bizarrely I actually voted
Bizarrely I actually voted for the Lib Dems in that election and was pretty pleased with what they managed to do.
The fact that someone on minimum wage now pays no income tax on the first £12,500 they earn, massively reducing their effective tax rate, is a direct result of the coalition. Likewise the large rises in the minimum wage itself were begun during the coalition.
Alistair Darling’s proposed budget would have led to pretty much the same level of cuts as the coalition actually managed, Labour may not have actually have implemented all their proposed cuts of course but unfortunately that leads us into the realms of speculation.
Austerity and cuts would have occurred regardless with both Labour and the Conservatives. I actually credit the Lib Dems with tempering the worst impulses of the Conservatives in that regard.
I agree with this. The Lib
I agree with this. The Lib Dems went into the coalition negotiations with some specific policy aims they wanted – including the increase in the personal allowance and the pupil premium for school funding (on which I had some minor involvement) And they got those. They also got things like free school meals for children in Key Stage 1 and, as you say, they tempered much of what the Tories might have done. But the Tories were happy both to take the credit for the Lib Dem policies and let the Lib Dems take the blame. (Resulting – for example – with my local Lib Dem MP losing his seat in 2015 to the Conservatives…)
But what applied to the Lib
But what applied to the Lib Dems then apparently does not apply to Johnson who promised ‘no border in the Irish Sea’ then promptly signed up to a border in the Irish Sea.
That’s what happens if you
That’s what happens if you set yourself up as the noble, virtuous types that hold to their word. You’re held to those standards. If you come into it as a duplicitous git who’s evidently comfortable with a bit of light homophobia/racism then a good chunk of people just nod along.
Thank you CCB – better than I
Thank you CCB – better than I could have put it.
The supporters of some politicians (not just that one) are not very interested in what they actually do and say.
I’m surprised CyclingUKs
I’m surprised CyclingUKs cycling election pledges havent had more publicity,theyve written to something like 2000 candidates in the elections across the UK, (yes who knew it wasnt just a London mayoral election happening) asking them to sign up to pledges about investment into active travel and developing active travel networks.
Annoyingly they dont share the data they got back so easily so you can just check, you have to give Cycling UK an email address and check by individual postcode. Which just makes the whole process annoying so I’ll simply assume the responses they got back were negative.
Technically the way zebra
Technically the way zebra crossing rules are written, the driver didnt break the rules, however inconsiderate their driving was, which I still think the police could charge for but they rarely bother with
Unless the pedestrian steps
Unless the pedestrian steps onto the crossing, the driver should but doesn’t have to stop. Basically, zebra crossings are a legal form of chicken.
Yep, even the “overtake rule”
Yep, even the “overtake rule” is not illegal when overtaking cyclists in the markings. Which is weird being as they have to give us the same room as a small car so the affect of pedestirans being unseen or not expecting to have to look on the wrong side for the road check is probably still a problem.
i think they are HS2 road
i think they are HS2 road works on Euston Road/Gower Street
It is a futile exercise
It is a futile exercise responding to anything connected to halfwit Farage. The hyper-junk press readers who support him and his views are impervious to logic, sense etc.