Bombs not bicycles? MP uses defence spending debate to “make strange equivalence” blasting latest cycle investment plan + more on the live blog
Bombs and bicycles...
In the cycling media, you can never rely upon just covering the ‘set-piece’ events – a Budget or a King’s Speech. Not least because slightly mad MPs could jump into any debate with a swipe at two-wheeled journeys at any time.
Just last week, abortive Labour leadership candidate Wes Streeting had some harsh words for the government’s latest Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy. All the more bizarre considering that, as a former Health Secretary, he should know the benefits of cycling more than most.
And, Streeting’s prioritisation of immediate defence spending is shared across the political aisle, based on the interventions this week of Conservative MP Andrew Murrison.
Taking part in Tuesday’s debate on Defence Spending and Readiness, South West Wiltshire MP, and Navy veteran Murrison compared the Polish government’s pledge of 4.8 percent of its GDP on Defence with the government’s £4.5 billion investment on “cycle tracks”. Those figures are misleading though, as the £4.5 billion will be spent over five years, and when equalised out over five years, amounts to 0.66 percent of GDP a year – based on OBR figures.
The Minister at the dispatch box, James Cartlidge, duly ducked the comparison but Murrison was undeterred, later returning to his theme, when he intervened during the speech of Liberal Democrat MP Al Pinkerton.
“The Liberal Democrats are famously known for their love of bicycling. Does he agree that it would be a good idea for the Government to drop their plan to spend £4.5 billion over five years on creating cycleways and rededicate that money to defence?”
But Pinkerton, himself a veteran, wasn’t buying it…
“The right hon. Gentleman makes a curious argument. The United Kingdom is a modern 21st-century European nation. I had a very pleasant cycle to and from Fulham this morning on a Lime bike using our cycleways. Frankly, I do not think it is a choice between one and the other—I am perfectly happy for the Government to spend money on both cycleways and defence. It is a very strange equivalence that the right hon. Gentleman seeks to make.”
A strange equivalence indeed…
How to survive cycling in the sun...
Seems like a good time to re-up this…
> Cycling survival — how to avoid sunburn and stay comfortable
Cool in one sense...
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Green wave in action
This is a nice explanatory video on the ‘green wave’ a policy proposal that Lime recently pitched in an editorial to be introduced in London. However, it didn’t quite receive the response hoped for…
If you are interested in cities or transportation and haven’t familiarized yourself with GREEN WAVES yet you really need to do yourself a favor. This is THE magic bullet.
— Miser (@misernyc.bsky.social) 24 June 2026 at 19:46
I will say though that I’m not sure the sped up video is beneficial to the cause, so many hazards, vehicles turning blind, it’s all rather nervy…
Visma join anti-doping trial that Pogačar's agent says will "only create problems"
I’m not sure turning down an anti-doping initiative is a great look, but hey what do we know?
Maybe cycling would be better off in its ‘wild west’ days…
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@mdavidford Oh what's £3.25 billion between friends?
@Rendel Harris Well sir, the tax gap is currently £47 billion, how about we go after the evaders and avoiders, if we could just get a quarter of that back we could pay for everything we need When Cat Smith MP wrote to DVLA about BF64 TGE over a year ago, pointing out that I first reported it along with the address in 2022, the company is at Companies House, the vehicle itself is proudly pictured on the company Facebook page etc., Lilian Greenwood wrote back stating Dodge 1 (we can't comment on individual cases due to GDPR) and 'we make VED easy to pay and difficult to avoid'. DVLA is absolutely determined to NOT KNOW about VED evaders, and make it really difficult to avoid them. They refuse to accept photographic evidence and the website makes it impossible to report anybody if you don't know the address. Sadly for us, We Do Nothing Greenwood declared herself in the House to be in charge of implementation of the January 2026 Government Road Safety Strategy, so that's long been on that shelf with the big red Bin sign.
On the plus will you be better able to charge the battery when you've been blown / knocked off and the bike is flat?
Well, people have done versions of this kind of thing... (see World Solar Challenge) ... but I note the solar panels are at a different angle. And it's in Australia.
One quarter of £47bn to fund at least £15bn? - you'll never get a job at the treasury with maths like tha... actually, on second thoughts, never mind...
"What's that buzzing noise Vladimir? Is it the drones again? " "No, worse: Deliverossiyskoi riders on ebikes. We'll never get through the congestion in the Donbass in time now..."
Try it on top of the Itchen Bridge and tell me it copes with the wind.
RE: green waves for lights. This is of course revolutionary for car-sick places like much of the UK and US. When we've got our heads round this though we might spot this is still "thinking like a motorist" and "treating cyclists like they're driving mini cars/motorbikes". At that point it's time to learn about "separation at network level", "unbundling / unravelling routes". And cycle paths (where necessary) and junctions where traffic lights don't always apply to cyclists. Or even smarter traffic lights with advanced detection of approaching cyclists and more (variable) phases, or things like default green for active travel / default red for motor traffic. Perhaps we could skip ahead to some of that immediately?
- Right then Carruthers, we need a really substantial rise in defence spending to put those pesky Ruskis in their place, at least £15 billion a year more. Suggestions? - Well sir, the tax gap is currently £47 billion, how about we go after the evaders and avoiders, if we could just get a quarter of that back we could pay for everything we need. – Oh Carruthers, I'm disappointed in you. Why on earth would you advocate such drop in the ocean pie in the sky schemes when there's £900 million a year of cycle lane funding to be diverted?
Acceleration/speeds that don’t match the power profile, especially uphill (e.g no change in crank power but a change in speed out of line with other riders). It wouldn’t be foolproof but would provide an indication. I agree that I don’t think anyone is doing it, but it would give extra confidence that it’s not going on!
9 thoughts on “Bombs not bicycles? MP uses defence spending debate to “make strange equivalence” blasting latest cycle investment plan + more on the live blog”
A strange [false] dichotomy, surely?
A strange equivalence would be to suggest that we can fight off invasion (or possibly bomb random civilians in faraway countries) with cycle lanes.
Didn’t former Tory Chancellor Lord Lawson say that cycle lanes did more damage than the Luftwaffe to London? Surely we should spend £4.5 billion installing cycle lanes in hostile nations? More effective than bombing them.
“What’s that buzzing noise Vladimir? Is it the drones again? ”
“No, worse: Deliverossiyskoi riders on ebikes. We’ll never get through the congestion in the Donbass in time now…”
Imagine anyone from the party that gave us HS2 lecturing on infrastructure investment.
– Right then Carruthers, we need a really substantial rise in defence spending to put those pesky Ruskis in their place, at least £15 billion a year more. Suggestions?
– Well sir, the tax gap is currently £47 billion, how about we go after the evaders and avoiders, if we could just get a quarter of that back we could pay for everything we need.
– Oh Carruthers, I’m disappointed in you. Why on earth would you advocate such drop in the ocean pie in the sky schemes when there’s £900 million a year of cycle lane funding to be diverted?
One quarter of £47bn to fund at least £15bn? – you’ll never get a job at the treasury with maths like tha… actually, on second thoughts, never mind…
@mdavidford Oh what’s £3.25 billion between friends?
@Rendel Harris Well sir, the tax gap is currently £47 billion, how about we go after the evaders and avoiders, if we could just get a quarter of that back we could pay for everything we need
When Cat Smith MP wrote to DVLA about BF64 TGE over a year ago, pointing out that I first reported it along with the address in 2022, the company is at Companies House, the vehicle itself is proudly pictured on the company Facebook page etc., Lilian Greenwood wrote back stating Dodge 1 (we can’t comment on individual cases due to GDPR) and ‘we make VED easy to pay and difficult to avoid’. DVLA is absolutely determined to NOT KNOW about VED evaders, and make it really difficult to avoid them. They refuse to accept photographic evidence and the website makes it impossible to report anybody if you don’t know the address.
Sadly for us, We Do Nothing Greenwood declared herself in the House to be in charge of implementation of the January 2026 Government Road Safety Strategy, so that’s long been on that shelf with the big red Bin sign.
RE: green waves for lights. This is of course revolutionary for car-sick places like much of the UK and US.
When we’ve got our heads round this though we might spot this is still “thinking like a motorist” and “treating cyclists like they’re driving mini cars/motorbikes”.
At that point it’s time to learn about “separation at network level”, “unbundling / unravelling routes”. And cycle paths (where necessary) and junctions where traffic lights don’t always apply to cyclists. Or even smarter traffic lights with advanced detection of approaching cyclists and more (variable) phases, or things like default green for active travel / default red for motor traffic.
Perhaps we could skip ahead to some of that immediately?