Shocking footage shows cyclist deliberately knocked off bike by laughing driver

Exactly that. My position is that as far as I am concerned, certain users established they were never going to have a good faith argument.

A buzz in the background can be lived with. I disengaged from the majority of the dreaded duos posts some time ago, and after they seemed to be increasing their efforts and there was a lack of moderation I thought a bit of poking the bear might be a way of expressing my frustration as my alternative was simply to stop using a site whose community I generally appreciate.

Remember also, that you have had people like Ashley Neal come here with his agenda to sort out cyclists, albeit with good intent if, in my opinion, misguided and ill-informed (which I think he is addressing), and as soon as he arrived, these two were poking him to ignore the consensus view and he rapidly dismissed people intending to have a reasoned discussion because he heard the anti-cycling dog whistles. They undermined reasonable debate.

Most of the community here, and I think I'd include Martin73 in that, would appreciate the wry humour of my original post, the intent of which was to humourously undermine the extremist points of view they espouse. I'm sure Martin73 knows full well what the point of the joke was. Nigel going off the deep end about some unintended Irish association was bizarre and unexpected, yet telling.

There is a wider point about free speech. With freedom of speech there is a responsibility to realise what you say does have an impact and spreading disinformation and distortion is not cost free. Musk subscribes to radical free speech (while banning those he disagrees with or who are critical of him) but does not understand that many do not have the critical faculties to properly assess what they are being told, most fall for "That sounds like what I would like to hear so I will assume it's true - and won't listen to counter-arguments." Most people, and I'll include myself, find it really hard to change their minds after an initial assumption is made. A few years in IT troubleshooting has given me practical experience of the cost of that mistaken thinking.

I think unfettered free speech is a fantasy and we see the problem all around the world. I'm more a "Say what you like, but accept the consequences." person. After all, one of the biggest problems we have today in the UK is dealing with known liars misrepresenting Brexit, and knowingly lying yet taking no consequences for that. If knowingly lying in an election or referendum campaign was an offence would we be worse off than losing the fake holy grail of free speech which depends on a fully informed and thoughtful electorate? We live in a world where people want to value an uninformed opinion as worth more than reasoned expertise. And given that freedom of speech is being used in America to impose extremist ideas, I'm not inclined to see the lack of free speech as an issue.

.

Reminds me of that Randy Newman song.

.

How did it go? Something like 'It's hard to be humble, when you are so perfect in every way, etc, etc.'

.

.

think you'll

.

find it was 

.

Mac Davis

..

You're welcome

So is the consensus that Martin and Rakia are different people? I had always read them as alternate personas of the same poster. 

quiff wrote:

So is the consensus that Martin and Rakia are different people? I had always read them as alternate personas of the same poster. 

I'm not sold they are separate... but also don't care enough about the drivel either PBU account posts to forensically investigate.

It is my belief, others may disagree. Of course you can never tell, but the Nigels give themselves away by having a fairly consistent repetoir of arguments and a level of stupidity in his postings which have little crossover with Martin's.

Listen, you can call me a racist, call me a f***** c***, call me whatever and I don't care.

But don't you dare ever, even for a second, think about calling me Irish.

Time for a ban again I think mods?

Haha, it was a skit on all the abuse I have to take on here... And then Ian the cyberbully (and originator of many of the insults) claimed Martin and I lived in Ireland, as if it was some kind of extra harsh insult.

If you want to take someone to task for insulting Ireland, talk to Ian the cyberbully.

Rakia wrote:

Haha, it was a skit on all the abuse I have to take on here... And then Ian the cyberbully (and originator of many of the insults) claimed Martin and I lived in Ireland, as if it was some kind of extra harsh insult. If you want to take someone to task for insulting Ireland, talk to Ian the cyberbully.

I read nothing of Ian's post as an insult to the Irish.  This gave you no grounds to create a defence as you did. In short. It was a backhanded insult to anyone who is Irish on this forum. You have shown us all your true colours. Apologise. 

Why don't you want to be called Irish Nigel?

Where did I call him Irish? What a nasty little man, revealing just how low he will sink.

Do you know who is Irish on here?

Me? (According to you)

Ooh tough insult Ian, actually some of my family ancestry does go back to Ireland and - no - they didn't make this video.

You aren't very bright, are you Nigel? Is a Frenchman living in London English? But then again, you said you weren't an English speaker so perhaps Gaelic is your first language, as good a guess as any.

Ancestors? Then no doubt you got your passport application in when Brexit went tits up, then?

Mind you, think I've found her. Younger than I expected: https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/student-rakia-get...

I'm puzzling why you consider being Irish "a tough insult". Did Riverdance upset you that much?

Anyway, once again confirming you are banned account Nigel Garage - along with TT bikes pushing your buttons elsewhere.

Hi Rakia

It looks like you are obviously still struggling. 

I hope you will have time to check out the links I sent previously; I really do think you would benefit from  talking to people face to face. 

This page also have some useful information and links  

https://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/frequently-asked-questions/gende...

VBW

I'm informed that he has left the building (not of his own volition), so maybe he'll have time to reflect on your kind suggestions now.

Rendel Harris wrote:

I'm informed that he has left the building (not of his own volition), so maybe he'll have time to reflect on your kind suggestions now.

Please, please, please let this be true.  What a nasty piece of work.

Rakia wrote:

Listen, you can call me a racist, call me a f***** c***, call me whatever and I don't care. But don't you dare ever, even for a second, think about calling me Irish.

Definately racist there. Please apologise to all the Irish on this forum. Though we are all probably pretty grateful that someone like you isn't Irish. 

But Rakia I don't think they were talking about you..
Where they?
🧐🧐🧐

mitsky wrote:

Might I suggest an appropriate punishment (alongside lifelong removal of driving priviledges) is permanent removal of the idiot's taste buds and application of whatever the opposite of viagra is (for life)?

castration. 

It is important that journalists report these things as they do for libel reasons. In this case it is pretty obvious to anyone what happened but there are a lot of stories with more grey areas, and in those cases saying "X person did Y thing" only for that to be proved wrong in a court of law is damaging to an innocent person's reputation. 

I would rather have it this way round than have the gutter press able to claim anything they want as if it were fact because they can claim it looked that way to them and then have the injured party have no recourse when that is proven to be made up. 

You will notice on articles about court cases where guilt has been proven the language is a lot less ambiguous.