In a bizarre turn of events the Liberal Democrats have turned to an unlikely figure in their search for a proper cycle route along the A556 in Cheshire — Donald Trump.
Jack Price-Harbach, the Parliamentary Spokesperson for the Mid Cheshire Lib Dems, is running a campaign to Make (the) A556 Great Again, by building “smooth widened cycle lanes to make a greener commute more practical”. Told you it was bizarre.
road.cc has contacted President Trump’s press team for comment (mainly because we find the idea of someone on his team potentially having to take 10 seconds out of their day to read our request quite funny).
Mr Price-Harbach, who was the Lib Dem candidate at the election last year, has asked Cheshire West and Chester Council for new paths along the A556 Northwich Bypass between Sandiway and Hartford. He presented a petition to the local authority, arguing a fully upgraded cycle route would be of “huge benefit to Northwich as a whole”.
“Parts of the A556 Northwich Bypass have smooth, widened cycle lanes, to make a greener commute more practical, but in my honest opinion, riding on the eastbound path between Sandiway and Hartford is difficult,” he explained.
“It is narrow, riddled with potholes, placed far too close to the shrubbery and currently has a fallen tree blocking it. As a major commuter route connected to Kingsmead, local businesses like Roberts Bakery & Morrisons Gadbrook, Leftwich High School and to Hartford Station, a fully upgraded cycle route between Sandiway and would be of huge benefit to Northwich as a whole.”
The project would require external funding, Mr Price-Harbach hoping the council would apply for funding from Active Travel England.
Karen Shore, the council’s cabinet member for transport told the local paper, the Northwich Guardian, that the feasibility of the route “will be considered for inclusion in future versions of the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan”.
“There may also be further opportunities for capital schemes such as this through a future devolution deal,” she said.
“We prioritise funding to areas of maintenance along the corridor where we can have a more immediate impact. Active Travel England are specific in the types of schemes they will fund and we expect more clarity when we receive their rural guidance.”
Any chance of chucking some cash Cheshire’s way, Donald?
14 thoughts on “Lib Dems embrace MAGA… by calling for cycle lanes to “Make (the) A556 Great Again””
Quote:
If there’s a drone strike on Bath, or the Cocos Islands get hit with a 150% tariff rate, we’ll know the reason why.
Why on earth would they want
Why on earth would they want to associate themselves with some senile rapist felon? I’m immediately against their proposal just due to the association with the horrible racist.
Poking fun at a well known
Poking fun at a well known slogan is not the same as ‘associating’ with a politician or their views. To claim it’s somehow endorsing his views and actions is, IMO, a bonkers stretch.
It’s the kind of reaction I’d expect from someone who is against the proposal or the person making the suggestion for irrational, knee-jerk reasons, knows they need some excuse, but can’t be bothered to come up with a tenuously rational justification. Being immediately against a scheme because you don’t like the proposer’s their real or imagined politics is a far too pervasive attitude in this country, and one of the biggest stumbling blocks letting us have nice things.
FionaJJ wrote:
I’m not against the proposal in principle, but I refuse to give any support with people who think that Trumpism is anything other than racist, fascist authoritarianism. Anyone using language that can be associated with Trumpism will immediately lose my support, in a similar fashion to people using language that invokes Nazism – it goes far beyond what I consider to be political opinion and is glorifying the very worst of humanity.
I don’t see it as “poking fun”, but instead is suggesting that the MAGA slogan is appropriate for taking a broken thing and fixing it – that’s almost the exact opposite of what is happening to the U.S. and many people’s lives are already being destroyed (e.g. dark skinned people being rounded up in the streets and being disappeared off to some concentration camp without even a sniff of due process).
Why doesn’t Mr Price-Habach “poke fun” by calling this the Final Solution instead?
Hmm… you appear to be
Hmm… you appear to be effectively saying “Trump … is Hitler” – or at least implying that Godwin’s law should apply equally to both – is that right?
I strongly disapprove of almost every policy * I can think of that he’s mooted … but I do think there are some rather significant differences.
Authoritarian, true – and if you’re saying “doesn’t put opposing racism over other goals” then I guess they are in the frame for that. (Seem to be transactional mercantilists (is this the right term?) ). OTOH they certainly tick the “supporter of the Israeli government, apparently whatever they do” box, so there’s that…
* Probably wrong to call them policies, it’s more like brainstorms expressed through the medium of Twitter / X – well, except the ones served up by the more ideological folks in the MAGA movement – they certainly have a policy…
chrisonabike wrote:
Well, it’s clear that he’s pushing the white nationalism agenda as he’s getting ICE agents to round up people with brown skin without any consideration of whether they’ve been convicted of any crime or are legally living in the U.S. and he’s deported them to a Venezuelan “prison” which is more accurately called a “concentration camp” (prison would be for housing criminals). He’s also arranging for white-skinned South Africans to be granted asylum in the U.S. – not a bad thing in isolation, but obviously pandering to false claims of “white genocide”.
A lot of people fought wars and died to prevent exactly this kind of thing, and now there’s politicians associating themselves with these atrocities.
Not even mentioning his aggressive expansionist language of annexing Canada and Greenland.
Ah but south Africans can
Ah but south Africans can assimilate into the culture much easier. I’m sure it’s nothing to do with the colour of their skin.
Hirsute wrote:
Well, they’re used to having black folks doing labouring / menial jobs for them…
They even speak the same language (Afrikaans – is this right?)!
I just think like so many
I just think like so many concerned with “our people” they ought to apply a “time served” criterion. So they should actually be looking to cede power to many of the folks in Greenland and Canada (and probably Mexico also) because their ancestors were in the Americas for a lot longer than Trump’s (and indeed many of the people in his party).
And in fact if they’re worried about “economic injustices” they could start with reparations – but starting with the rather few remaining original inhabitents (some of whom were also enslaved) before they get to those of (more recent) african descent.
Or alternatively perhaps they are willing to admit that they’re basically immigrants themselves, who’ve benefitted by moving to a place depopulated by vicious colonial forces (partly inadvertently via their bugs) and who are simply seeking to pull up the ladder after them.
hawkinspeter wrote:
There’s zero evidence that the cycling infrastructure advocate thinks Trump isn’t racist, fascist or authoritarian, or that a play on words to bring attention to a wish for improved cycling infrastructure is glorifying the very worst in humanity.
Fair enough if you don’t think it’s particularly funny, but the irony is that your hyperbolic, bad faith reaction is the kind of thing that keeps people like Trump in power.
FionaJJ wrote:
What if a cycling campaign asking for extra space used the words “Wir wollen Lebensraum”, would that be OK as long as there was zero evidence that the infrastructure advocates thought Hitler wasn’t racist, fascist or authoritarian? Words matter and using the words of filthy people, even if it’s supposed to be oh so jocular, is a bad misjudgement at best.
FionaJJ wrote:
My bad faith reaction is precisely due to following the events in the U.S.A. and seeing how Trump and his cronies are following fascist playbook that Hitler used to consolidate power.
I mean, how can you see his deployment of marines in L.A. as being anything other than authoritarianism? If you don’t agree with my interpretation of events, then I’d recommend visiting the Holocaust Museum in Berlin – it’s a very instructive and harrowing account of the events leading up to WWII.
Well, the more you look at it
Well, the more you look at it the more authoritarian power-centralising notes they’re hitting (threatening lawyers, trying to muscle universities, picking “law and order” fights … with certain people).
(Stuffing the supreme court / officialdom with “your” candidates of course is not new in the US).
I think this is perhaps more starting down the Hungary “illiberal democracy” path (shading into full-on autocracy now there)? Certainly a personality cult has developed (QAnon anyone)?
However while largely playing to the “white Christian” grouping since the US is a country of immigrants I think this is normally balanced by less of a concern about who you are as long as you are saying the right words e.g. in favour of the “right (Right) side” and “us / US putting the boot in to all the others we feel are taking advantage of us / our hard work”.
We’ll see if there are enough checks and balances in the system in the next year or so I guess.
I live in California. This
I live in California. This isn’t even remotely funny. Shame on whoever thought it was. I don’t care how great the proposal is, this ruins it.