“Bizarre planning”: Cyclists annoyed at “car-brained” council after locked gate placed in middle of cycle path; Work to connect Jacob Rees-Mogg’s favourite cycle lane delayed; Mr Loophole returns; Punchy hills await in TdF Femmes + more on the live blog
SUMMARY
Tower Hamlets car-brain strikes again!
Ah Tower Hamlets. It’s been a short while since we last delved into this rather peculiar London Borough. The last time we did, the Mayor of London was rejoicing after winning a court case over the illegal removal of three Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) as ordered by borough mayor Lutfur Rahman.
Rahman himself, has something of a reputation. He was removed from office in 2015 after a court found he was guilty of “corrupt and illegal practices” during his bid for re-election. He has since served a ban from elected office and was returned as mayor in 2022, before being re-elected in 2026.
From a strictly active travel perspective we’ve not been a huge fan ever since he decided he needed a chauffeur-driven Mercedes to drive him around the 7 square miles he represents. It’s unsurprising then that the latest thing we’ve stumbled upon is evidence of more car-brained thinking. You can just imagine the conversation:
“So we want to stop cars going along this path, so we need a massive car-sized obstacle to block the path.”
“Yes boss”
Or something to that effect…
Tower Hamlets council just installed a locked gate in the middle of a marked and popular cycle path
by
u/nutella-filled in
londoncycling
Most people, indeed most boroughs, might decide a bollard will suffice, maybe even a retractable bollard if you would like some variety to your road/path conditions. Not Tower Hamlets. Local cyclists are a mix of confused and annoyed…
“Tower Hamlets council are definitely car brained”
“Almost went straight into this the other night after years of it not being there. Bizarre planning.”
“That is odd as I’d have thought that bollards would be a better way to prevent cars going down the cycle path (definitely looks like a spot where people might mistake it for a road).
“Maybe its for emergency access? I could see it being that the area needs to be closed to normal traffic but you still need to be able to drive and ambulance or fire engine down there.
“Again though, you can get bollards where they have fire brigade padlocks to let you move them out of the way. Perhaps it’s the case that a single bollard won’t do because idiots will still just drive around it?”
Your thoughts, as always, are welcome!
Updated stage results and GC standings
Vollering wins!
Goodness me! With 350m to go, Niewiadoma launched a flyer catching Reusser, who was leading out, off-guard. Reusser called bluff and Vollering was the one who launched off the wheel to chase the Pole. And what a phenomenal acceleration it was, cataching and passing Niewiadoma in the final 50m to take the stage win. Reusser remained glued to Vollering’s wheel, taking second place and meaning she will cede only two seconds of her GC lead to the Dutchwoman.
A fantastic stage and, as for the GC battle, we have a very exciting three-horse race…
🏁 Demi Vollering wins a thrilling three-rider sprint ahead of Marlen Reusser and Katarzyna Niewiadoma!
Demi Vollering remporte le sprint à trois devant Marlen Reusser et Katarzyna Niewiadoma ! 👏#TDFF2026 #WatchTheFemmes pic.twitter.com/X53MdZHhzI
— Le Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (@LeTourFemmes) August 5, 2026
5km
Reusser, Niewiadoma and Vollering are co-operating, they’ve 1’25” on the rest of that front group, 1’40” on Longo Borghini, 2’00” on Blasi and 3’00” on Ferrand-Prevot and Van der Breggen.
The race is in pieces and we’re looking at a sprint a trois incoming…
Vollering screw-turning
Vollering comes to the front and shreds the front group of its hangers on. Still, Niewiadoma, Reusser and Wlodarczyk seems glued to her wheel, whilst Niedermaier and De Vries are hanging on. Niamh Fisher-Black is there, as is her teammate Isabella Holmgren, who’s having a great day.
1km to the top and Vollering pushes again on 13 percent gradients but still she can’t drop her rivals. Is she burning herself out?
600m and Vollering attacks again! This time out of the saddle, grimacing through the woods, she thins the bunch and distances Wlodarczyk, then another acceleration opens a gap. Niewiadoma latches on, Reusser grinds a gear to rejoin.
300m and Vollering goes again and opens a gap to Reusser but Niewiadoma counters. They stall and the yellow jersey rejoins, the front three come together over the top.
Now 10km, and a very technical descent remains, what drama!
Regrouping for bonus seconds
Vollering, Reusser and Niewiadoma made it up to the front of the race, where their satellite riders have proved very useful for keeping Paula Blasi, Elisa Longo Borghini and Kim Le Court off the back. That also meant they could compete for bonus seconds, with Reusser darting out to nab six, with four for Vollering and two for Wlodarczyk. Now they’re on to the final climb.
They have 1’40” on Ferrand-Prevot and Van der Breggen, and less than a minute on Blasi and ELB.
And the attacks are starting again…
Aero bag is... slow
Mildly amusing write-up by Mat…
> “Drag-reducing” cycling backpack actually makes you slower, says AeroCoach wind tunnel test
Attacks!
FDJ-Suez have started shredding the peloton on the day’s penultimate climb, bringing the gap down to a minute. That incentivises Wlodarczyk to attack from the break, whittling the group behind.
600m from the top, after a vicious Celia Gery acceleration Demi Vollering attacks. Kasia Niewiadoma and Marlen Reusser follow whilst Elida Longo Borghini battles to get back on. Anna van der Breggen and Cedrine Kerbaol are dropped as is defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot! And with that, I think we can with some certainty we won’t have a French winner this year.
The break come to the top of the climb, now down to seven riders, with the Vollering group 40 seconds behind and picking up breakaway remnants as they go.
Meanwhile disaster for Noemi Ruegg, who is clipped by a motorbike and falls to the ground! Thankfully she quickly gets back on her bike.
30km to go and the race is on…
National Highways closing cycle paths – because the roads are too polluted
A very honourable mention to our friend Laura Laker for her journalism here…
Racing round-up: Rejoice for the Onley fans
What is in the water in Burgos? Whatever it is is working wonders for the Brits. Yesterday, we had a British Visma one-two on an uphill finish yesterday, today Oscar Onley claimed victory, out-kicking Giulio Ciccone to take his first victory for Netcompany-Ineos and the race lead…
HE’S BACK! Oscar Onley (Netcompany Ineos) wins stage 2 of @VueltaBurgos in Pineda de la Sierra after beating Giulio Ciccone in the uphill sprint, fantastic battle! 👏🇬🇧 Great to see this, it’s Onley’s first victory for Ineos. #VueltaBurgos pic.twitter.com/RMqfr0Ucqb
— Mihai Simion (@faustocoppi60) August 5, 2026
I didn’t include Onley in my list of Vuelta contenders when writing about the Slovenian’s impending appearance, but this is a fantastic, really encouraging result, for both Kelso’s finest and the team.
Elsewhere, in stage three of the Tour of Poland, it’s the same as it ever was…
JUST TOO GOOD 💪💨
Jonathan Milan makes it three from three at the Tour of Poland 💯 pic.twitter.com/mhTGuLilBE
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) August 5, 2026
But a very honourable mention goes to Briton Noah Hobbs who ran Jonathan Milan damn close…
Seriously impressive wooden Canyon progress
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Break point approaching
Inside the final 50km and the break is continuing to hold firm against the peloton. The peloton realise this and Movistar have started co-operating with the FDJ to peg the break back, but it looks like they’ll have to rely on their leaders attacking on the final two climbs if they are to properly close the gap.
Whilst we have a moment it’s worth name-checking a few favourites in the break. We’ve already mentioned Niedermaier, Wlodarczyk, Fisher-Black and Pieterse but also there is Femke De Vries, 10th overall at the start of the day, world champion Vallieres and Noemi Ruegg.
SD-Worx have Nienke Vinke, Movistar have Liane Lippert whilst FDJ have Paris-Roubaix winner Franzi Koch and Juliette Berthet up the road. Could we see any of the leading teams order their riders to drop back and chase their former break companions?
42km, 1’36” the gap, the penultimate climb starts shortly…
A break and a proper gap
What did I say? Not only has Dominka Wlodarczyk made it up the road, but 9th, 10th and 11th on GC have escaped. Antonia Niedermaier is the best of the lot and with the peloton less motivated, is close to taking over the virtual yellow jersey. Lidl-Trek are driving on the pace in the break, with two teammates supporting Niamh Fisher-Black, whilst Puck Pieterse continues to hoover up mountains points having made the group.
65km to go, the 19-strong break have 1’45” on a peloton led – after a long period of teams looking at one another – by Demi Vollering’s FDJ-Suez. The GC ambush is on!
Keynsham not that keen...
‘Whooo remembers Jacob Rees-Mogg? Eh? What was all that about?’
That’s enough Peter Kay parodying for a month at least. Today’s story centres on the town of Keynsham, which the Conservative MP used to represent as part of the North East Somerset constituency until he lost his seat in the last election.
Longer-term readers might be familiar with the town if only for the botched implementation of a cycle lane on the high street that led to injuries and calls to remove it altogether. Thankfully, the local authorities saw sense and resisted their MP’s calls to remove the lane and adjusted the kerbs.
Here are some chapters from the saga, starting with when the authorities learnt that just painting stuff doesn’t work:
> “Optical illusion” cycle lane that caused 59 injuries in a year undergoes maintenance work
Thankfully, all appears to have calmed down in recent years, helped by there no longer being a loud opponent of the scheme in the Commons. In fact, the new Mayor for the West of England has announced plans to join up the infrastructure to connect the cycle route to the A4 Bath Road. The only downside? It’s been delayed.
Keynsham Voice report that the planned extension of the cycle lane along Bath Hill and Bath Road has been delayed due to “a more complex scope of works than expected and a number of services, including drainage and cabling, that will now need to be diverted.” Rather than beginning this month, construction will instead get underway in January.
And, perhaps wary of some of the local opposition, the construction firm carrying out the work say they will aim to carry out road resurfacing in the evenings and employ traffic management measures during school hours.
Fingers crossed the work, when it does go ahead, goes smoother than last time…
95km
Inside the final 100km and still we don’t have a break. Carlotta Cipressi clipped 20 seconds off the front to take maximum points at the intermediate sprint ahead of Lorena Wiebes, although you expect Cipressi was more motivated by the cash prize for her Human Powered Health team.
We’re descending towards the fourth climb of the day, with Pieterse still taking maximum points so far today…
Cargo bike wonders
They're off
It’s rather wonderful to watch the Femmes in full today, and after a few kilometres of stalemate, barring a small crash at the back of the peloton brought down Demi Vollering and Antonia Niedermaier – both quickly remounted – we have our first attacks!
Marie Le Net of FDJ was the first to try but was marked out, then comes Mischa Bredewold, followed immediately by mountains leader Puck Pieterse and quickly didn’t succeed. Even world champion Magdeleine Vallieres tried to launch a move, but it was all together before Pieterse sprinted out of the peloton to take maximum points on the first of eight categorised climbs.
Meanwhile, how’s this for ‘up-close’ footage?
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God bless German punctuality
Or, a German fear of late publication at least…
> Shimano 13-speed leak on retail website suggests a possible new freehub standard
Van driver avoids jail after killing cyclist
Some sentencing stories are unfortunately worthy of standalone coverage…
Tributes paid after cyclist dies a day after completing charity ride across Australia
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A day after completing a 5,300km charity cycle ride with his grandson across Australia, 82-year-old Bob Montgomery has died.
Montgomery had been raising money for motor neurone disease research following the death of a cousin to the condition. He completed the ride from Broome, in Western Australia, to Bowral, south west of Sydney in six weeks.
“Fittingly, and now poignantly, the ride was named One Last Ride,” the family said.
“At 82 years of age, Bob was still passionately sharing his message only hours before his passing.
“This was Bob’s sixth interstate fundraising ride in support of Motor Neurone Disease NSW, raising vital funds and awareness for a cause that was deeply personal to him.
“Rest in peace a beautiful soul.”
Bike Bobbies on the 'illegal e-bike' beat
Or electric motorbikes, as the law says…
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Today at the Tour
For all the criticism thrown towards ASO and TNT for their coverage of women’s cycling, today is one of two stages of the Tour de France Femmes with full coverage from the flag-drop – minus adverts of course.
Climbing from the off, Puck Pieterse will have to get up the road if she’s keen on hanging on to the mountains jersey. Meanwhile, with Marlen Reusser not having as strong a team as other GC favourites, could this be ripe for an ambush territory. Imagine if UAE send Wlodarczyk or Blasi – actually maybe not Blasi – up the road, or anyone in the top-10 manages to sneak into a move!
Even if not, the final 35km have two properly punchy climbs, surely we should see some action there? My money’s on Kim Le Court to try something after falling a little off GC in yesterday’s TT…
Marlen REUSSER (MOVISTAR TEAM) (Image Credit: A.S.O./Gaëtan Flamme)Mr Loophole can't find the loophole
Ah Nick Freeman, in his own words the UK’s leading motoring lawyer, in our words the master of two-tier policing when it comes to letting the rich and famous drive seemingly with impunity…
Yesterday, he appeared on one of the Channel 5 shows that’s not Jeremy Vine but might as well be to ‘discuss’ 20mph speed limits. I would embed the video here but I quite like the fact his own YouTube video only has 9 views, and we wouldn’t want him to accidentally reach double figures.
Freeman also calls himself a road safety campaigner, although the initiatives he campaigns for don’t exactly seem designed with safety in mind.
In addition to scrapping 20mph ‘blanket’ limits, he wants bicycle ‘number plates’ and has criticised the ‘snitch society’ that sees cyclists report instances of bad driving to the police. Mind you, one of his proposals for bicycle speedometers received a rebuke from an unexpected source…
Anyway, the reason we’re talking about him is because he yesterday represented Lynda La Plante, in court after accruing 24 points on her licence for several speeding offences through a 20mph zone.
Sky News report that each speeding offence occurred whilst the crime writer was driving her guard dog to a park for his daily walk. She told the court that a driving ban would likely end her career and put four people out of work. Freeman added that “driving is a vital part of who she is” and that confusing road signs in and around Kingston-upon-Thames were partly responsible.
Ultimately the court wasn’t very sympathetic, imposing a six month driving ban on the 83-year-old and fining La Plante a total of £3,300.
It brings a slither sliver of comfort to know that, for once, Mr Loophole was not so successful.
Liam's latest adventure...
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I'm always in favour of vigorous condemnation of the police, but not when they're doing the right thing. 'E-bike' means nothing to the law, unlike EAPC which is a good term as is 'fully legal, licensed taxed and insured electric motorcycle' which is what the police are using. This must be a good thing and a worry to the little b******s wearing face masks while riding illegal electric motorcycles, unless the Met is running the whole operation from the Charing Cross station
The Velcro tabs on the Pro Discover saddlebag are useless, no wonder it’s only 10 quid.
@jackcycles One should be informed by speed limits, not ignore them. Nevertheless, the limits per se are applied to motorised vehicles, and not to pedestrians, horses, or cyclists, and initially for the most obvious of reasons.
@Ben Graham It is about energy, and to a degree momentum. Kinetic energy is m*vv/2 so yes, a cyclist and bicycle (say 100kg) at 40kph has noticeably more energy than one at 31kph (50 times 40*40 vs 32*32) a driver and car at say 2000kg firstly has vastly more energy than the faster cyclist, and secondly the increase in energy of the car from 32 to 40kph is also a lot more significant. One might think about frontal width and so on as well, but mostly consider the differences in energy involved. Actually, specifying the limit in terms of energy might have a salutary effect on Range Rovers and suchlike.
There is zero moral equivalency between a speeding driver and speeding cyclist. The capacity for harm and the likelihood of causing harm is so much greater for the driver, and this is bourne out in the statistics. 1,700 dead every year and 30,000 seriously injured; a tiny fraction of which can be blamed on cyclists not following rules.
I feel all cyclists need to grow up on this issue. Cyclists cannot claim that 20 limits save lives, and in the same breath they don't apply. Morally they do. The legal position is a little greyer. Speed enforcement doesn't work the same way, and it requires a Police Officer to make a non-endorsable charge where speed may be a factor. Highway Code rule 69 is quite explicit - obey all traffic signs and road markings - all though of course this is simply a statement not the actual law and there are other errors in the Highway Code too (MUST stop at an advanced stop line on amber for example). We need other road users to respect and look out for cyclists and pedestrians, and all following the rule book and looking out for one another is all part of this.
Not only does this seem to be an inadequate amount, it's a one off token gesture that ignores the need for a constant program of updates and improvements that will start to redress the 50 year head-start that the Netherlands have on us.
Those who complain about the cost of these measures should simply Google "cost of road traffic collisions" and work out how long the ROI takes (and then add in the safety benefits)
Wouldn't giving them legitimate arrangements ... legitimise them though? If you're representing a party that holds there's a war on drivers, major "green climate scams", too much petty bureaucracy stopping people going about their lives etc ... then doesn't it stand to reason that encouraging cyclists to get in the way of drivers cannot be part of the solution? Or even encouraging them at all - as if not on the roads won't they endanger pedestrians by going far too fast? Or when their bikes spontaneously combust? (I know there *are* a few Reform councillors who appear to have quietly ignored some of the company's - er, i mean organisation's - core policies).
42 thoughts on ““Bizarre planning”: Cyclists annoyed at “car-brained” council after locked gate placed in middle of cycle path; Work to connect Jacob Rees-Mogg’s favourite cycle lane delayed; Mr Loophole returns; Punchy hills await in TdF Femmes + more on the live blog”
If only.
Perhaps if Lynda La Plante is constantly ‘confused’ by simple road signs, then she needs to hand her licence in, rather than a 6 month ban? Also – pleading Exceptional Hardship (which I thought was the only reason to contest a driving ban after accruing so many points) is taking the piss for a world famous author?
@Kendalred her net worth is about £30 million. Instead of putting four people out of work, this could put a fifth person to work: her chauffeur.
Re the Lynda La Plante case. I read about this in yesterday’s Times.
Definitely a case of Freeman laying the mitigating circumstances on thick in the hope that some of them stick. The comment that “a ban could end her career”, was presumably instrumental in getting a 6 month rather than 12 month plus ban.
La Plante’s sense of entitlement was breathtaking. Unlike many banned motorists, she will not lose her job.
If she writes whilst she drives it could be career ending in more ways than one 😲
One of the stated reasons for her needing to keep her licence was “So that she could continue to meet with criminals…”
🙄
Checks out – where better to meet them than at her next court appearance?
So Lynda La Plante was driving on multiple occasions on the same road and recieving points & speeding fines?
Did she not put 2 and 2 together after the first or second and adjust her speed accordingly?
Or did she feel that, with a so called exceptional hardship/not being able to work plea, she would be allowed to do so indefinitely.
Could this be a case of her expecting two-tier policing to be applied (beneficially) to herself…?
She put 2 and 0 together and made 27.
A rare legal defeat for Mr Freeman, and I find his client’s legal arguments quite frankly ridiculous. However, let’s not forget his work road safety campaigning, especially against dangerous e-scooters.
I have mixed emotions about 20mph zones. They are certainly useful around schools and child-heavy areas and would especially work if dynamically assigned rather than prescribed throughout entire towns and cities.
I and plenty of other cyclists ride above 20mph and it can be annoying stuck behind cars driving at 20mph on a road unnecessarily, it feels like a left-wing power grab to curtail people’s freedoms. Instead, I believe that if the existing 30 limit and existing laws on phone use was rigourously enforced it would have a greater impact on KSIs… unfortunately the police have been dragged away to regulate Twitter and act as social services to incapable people.
.
@jackcycles
Is this now Road.cc Gold? I’m loving reading all the classics from yesteryear yet again.
Ah yes the Twitter police, those donut munching types at Surrey Police’s road safety unit – how could we forget your love for them. A bit like your famous 27mph average speed around leafy Essex and your Mr Poopy-Butthole fanboying Nigel.
And whilst we’re at it – “left-wing power grab”? What exactly have the now disgraced 1970’s punk outfit from Redcar got to do with this?
@Clem Fandango Yes, the Trolls are multiplying like flies on a turd. I’m looking forward to more hilarious claims from them that they have witnessed cyclists fabricating close passing incidents by deliberate doubling-up at crucial moments while the saintly drivers are driving at 10mph, all while ‘shaking fists’. They really are a pathetic bunch of sad gits!
@wtjs well, it is the school holidays after all
@Clem Fandango presumably editing Wikipedia becomes a chore after a while…
@Clem Fandango I think my older punk brother went to one of their gigs in Leeds. Only Vic Reeves’ band could come up with such a name.
@Clem Fandango I’m hoping for a rerun of the classic where we found that bike tyres cause more damage to surfaces than those on a landing commercial passenger jet. Same idea as stilleto heels, apparently.
@Clem Fandango I agree. Didn’t left wing power grab get in trouble by trying to pass themselves off as female morris dancers? I seem to remember they changed their name to fluffy morris for a while which indirectly led to the now infamous morris dancing wars of the early eighties.
“20mph zones. They are certainly useful around schools and child-heavy areas”
But the children also need to get to school. Wider 20mph zones facilitate doing so by active travel.
@quiff Exactly, the comedian George Carlin said in the 2000s, “Having a non-smoking area in a restaurant is like having a no-pissing area in a swimming pool”, the same logic applies when you think about 20 mph school streets, here you are son, the first 1950m of your journey is a dangerous threatening shitshow but the last 50m is just wonderful.”
It is good that at least one motorist has been convicted for excessive speed in 20 mph zones.
Whatever opinions of 20 mph limits might be, given the body of evidence of the reduction in KSIs long may the 20 mph limits continue. Anyone arguing against them is saying that the lives of those who have been spared just don’t matter.
The cycle team are geared up and ready to hit the City streets
Except it looks like they’re having to Google ‘how do we make the bikes go?’ Perhaps it’s a squad they’ve got in from Lancashire?
I know you can’t use the word ‘slither’ too often in an article about Mr. ‘Freeman-on-the-Road’, but you do seem to have misapplied it in this instance.
@pockstone I can see that the article has been corrected so this particular cloud has a slither lining.
@Nigel Garage Is this freewheeling, devil may care, “don’t be all nanny state it’s a leftwing powergrab” Nigel the same Nigel who, under various aliases, has frequently advocated mandatory helmets and registration tabards for cyclists and the banning of cyclists (though of course not cars) from the Royal Parks as a danger to law-abiding Reform-voting courteous pedestrians? Why yes, yes it is.
Lynda La Plante’s (net worth: approx £25million) list of excuses was as long, as imaginative, and imo as fictional as one of her books, and she was also issuing threats to close down her business.
It was interesting that she got a good bashing in the comments of both the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegrunt.
But is it not now the case that all new cars have an “Active Speed Control” system, that is you push a button and it keeps you to the speed limits?
@mattw
Good idea on the active speed control system.
As I’ve said on other topics…
“We have the technology…
We just don’t have the political will to make it happen.”
It could also be tied to the driver’s insurance.
IE, the more it is used, the lower the premium.
My little Renault Zoe has (22 plate), and it is very useful.
On the blog post about the Tower Hamlets mayor, road.cc write “From a strictly active travel perspective we’ve not been a huge fan ever since he decided he needed a chauffeur-driven Mercedes to drive him around the 7 square miles he represents.”
I’m pretty sure that the precedent for this goes back to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Lord Khan was exposed as taking a convoy of chauffeur driven limousines for trips to take his dog for a walk, when there was a field a few metres from his house, under the guise of “security”.
It therefore hardly seems fair to try to impose two-tier security on Mr Luhman to stop him having the same level of amenity. In fact, it sounds like he’s traveling economy class compared to the Lord himself.
Pardon me! Mr Rahman.
@jackcycles You do realise that editing is possible again now? You don’t have to comment on your own post.
As was explained to you at length at the time, Nigel, Khan was forced by his Scotland Yard security detail to use armoured vehicles and take his dog for a walk in Battersea Park rather than his habitual Wandsworth Common because they had been given details by the Secret Service of credible threats against his life. Such threats, of course, are provoked and fermented by an atmosphere in which people like yourself are continually criticising certain individuals with thinly-veiled racial slurs (I remember you and your friend Thisismyusername (aka Left is for Losers, Ledner Sirrah etc) made great play of his short stature (average height for a man of Pakistani descent) and his hooked nose (common feature of Pakistani/Afghani men)) and outright libels; the same people who attempt to stir up hatred against him then sneer when Scotland Yard and the Secret Service (not the Mayor himself) insist on his security being tightened. It’s hard to decide if it’s the hatred or the hypocrisy which is more repellent – six and two threes really.
@Rendel Harris it’s remarkable how this mythical poster, “Nigel Garage”, has been living in your head rent-free for years. I bet if he was sat right next to me now he’d be laughing his head off.
Anyhow, to address your point you seem to be (in a very long-winded, dull fashion) deploying ‘you’re racist’ as a substitute for thought and discussion.
The question isn’t whether credible threats exist but whether there is a precedent for publicly funded chauffeur-driven limousine convoys. As you know (ironically given your obsession with all things ‘Nigel’), Nigel Farage is under far more threat than Lord Khan (given the awful murder of his own party members), yet he’s faced a firestorm of protest at hiring his own security, as the state refuses to provide him with any whatsoever.
So I ask you: would you take issue if Nigel Farage was given a state funded convoy of luxury limousines to take his dog for a walk?
@jackcycles I doubt you own a bicycle.
Minor correction there although I do note some folks prefer a low fact diet:
As eg. Robert Jenrick admitted (he being a Reform chap) the state did indeed offer protection. Jenrick also agreed that what was offered was the same as other opposition leaders like eg. Kemi Badenoch gets.
Of course you’re correct that someone *did* refuse state protection for Nigel Farage. That was … Nigel Farage, by his party’s admission.
See eg. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gyg9452qlo
Presumably that is the same Nigel Farage who can’t decide if the 5 million pounds from one of his very rich … sponsors … are required to fund his protection (given him at a time he claimed he’d left politics, so presumably wouldn’t need it as much…), or are simply a reward for Brexit?
Of course what it is it’s none of anyone’s business! Which is why he didn’t mention that, nor the money from the convicted fraudster, or any other disinterested gifts there might have been but we haven’t found out about yet.
If people like this sort of thing may I recommend the US, where there is less of this ridiculous liberal envy and hypercritical hysteria! And there’s more freedom – they respect the right of very rich people to buy the best government they can (right down to local level).
(Something which Nigel himself noted – he “doesn’t have to do this” and could no doubt head to the US and get involved in some serious money making).
It’s rather the opposite way round Nige, I and many other members of this site who have roundly mocked him, called out his lies and generally made him look like the pathetic little impotent friendless attention seeker that he is obviously live in his head. Why else would he keep coming back year after year under different names to write the same rubbish in the same words only to get banned again?
I wonder what happens when they’re not trolling here. Does that mean life’s going well and they don’t feel the need? I hope so. Or are they doing the same thing in rotation on a cooking / photography / historical re-enactment forum?
Khan!
Sad news coming out near my area of Hertfordshire this afternoon: a cyclist in his 60s has died in a collision with a car and the driver arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving. See https://www.herts.police.uk/news/hertfordshire/news/2026/august-2026/witness-and-dash-cam-appeal-after-fatal-bishops-stortford-collision/ for more.
@jackcycles Thank you for this. Very sad as you say. It will be interesting to see whether the driver is eventually charged with dangerous driving or they accept a guilty plea for careless driving.
Also one for Mitsky.
Surely it should either be Nissan and bicycle or Nissan driver and a cyclist.
Tower Hamlets locked gate: angle grinder.