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Raleigh Criterium.JPGCrowdfunders raise £2k+ for Jeremy Corbyn's dream bike
A crowdfunding campaign to buy Jeremy Corbyn his £475 dream bike has raised more than two thousand pounds in less than 24 hours.
Impish Corbyn supporters launched the project in response to a snarky piece on Telegraph.co.uk published yesterday under the headline “Socialist Jeremy Corbyn reveals he covets a £475 bicycle” after the Labour leader revealed to Stylist magazine a red Raleigh Criterium was his ultimate object of desire.
The crowdfunder, titled Let’s get Jez his dream bike! was set up, founders say, “to annoy the right wing press”. At the time of writing the campaign had achieved around £2,300; the extra money raised will go to charity.
Jeremy Corbyn reveals his dream bike – but is it too expensive for a socialist?
The person behind the campaign, calling themselves J-Dawg, says: “On the 13th of January Helena Horton of the Telegraph attempted the rags most pathetic smear of Jeremy Corbyn to date, suggesting the Labour leader was being frivolous in his desire to one day own a Raleigh Criterium bicycle, valued at £475.”
It goes on to say that compared with the £500,000 former Communities and Local Government secretary, Eric Pickles, spent on limos over three years, “Jezza's desire for eco-friendly transport at 1000th of that cost is not unreasonable.
It says: “I propose we make his dreams come true, by crowd funding his bicycle in time for his birthday in May. I will stick a quid in and all we need is 474 other people to do the same, in order to put a smile on Jez's face, but primarily it will really annoy the Telegraph, the Mail, the Sun, the Tories, UKIP ect. It will definitely be funny!”
In Horton’s article for the Telegraph, she wrote: “What does everyone's favourite bearded MP travel on to pick up his croissants in the morning? Apparently, it's a Raleigh bicycle, retailing at £475.”
She said: “It's unclear whether his own bicycle cost £475 - but the socialist MP did reveal that his bike is 'like' the one he recommended, and is also a red Raleigh, so it is likely it cost a similar amount.”
As we at road.cc pointed out, however, all red Raleighs are not created equal. Of the 26 road bikes listed on the Raleigh website the Criterium sits at the very bottom of the price scale, and as we reported on Monday the Raleigh range now tops out with the £6,000 limited edition Militis Team SRAM Red eTap model, which is also red.
In his piece for Stylist, Corbyn wrote: “I use my bike less frequently now that I’m leader of the Labour Party, but I still prefer to cycle whenever I can.
"Not only is it free, environmentally friendly and often the fastest way to travel, but it also gives the snappers outside my house a bit of variety.
"This aluminium-framed Raleigh Criterium, like my own trusty red Raleigh, is light and therefore fast, but comfortable for longer rides too – I recently rode mine with Olympic gold medallist Sir Bradley Wiggins (shameless namedrop) and it ensured I kept up with him.
"This unisex model is a great all-rounder whether you’re a beginner or looking for a new ride, although as I’m a big believer in repairing rather than replacing, I suspect I will have my own long after my leadership.”
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
Latest Comments
- andystow 1 hour 19 min ago
They really should put up a sign like the sign that they put up.
- Blackthorne 7 hours 21 min ago
I disagree, the lucky few who get to wear one of these will certainly produce more mass.
- Dnnnnnn 7 hours 55 min ago
That wasn't what my original post was about - it was about the NHS as it is now. If you're going to be run over by an ambulance tomorrow, there are...
- imajez 8 hours 20 min ago
I prefer the not haveing to faff with brakes in first place, which is the typical reality for hydraulic systems.
- Backladder 11 hours 24 min ago
I'm sure the met are merely waiting for it to build up to a critical mass and then they'll swoop in and confiscate and crush them all then there...
- qwerty360 13 hours 16 min ago
Reality - I expect most first year lectures have more than 80 students at them; So 80 bicycle spaces is a rounding error on potential demand....
- whosatthewheel 14 hours 55 min ago
Especially that it is a traffic light controlled junction so he must have been completely blinded not to see the red on his left hand side and a...
- biking59boomer 15 hours 26 min ago
Send the details to UK network rail and Transport for Wales as well!
- KDee 16 hours 15 min ago
So that Pulsium from Lapierre has a 415mm wheelbase? I assume it's on 20 inch wheels then!
- ktache 17 hours 11 min ago
It's been one hell of a ride Cav, thanks for letting us share some of it. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/nov/09/mark-cavendish-final-race-...
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32 comments
They think £475 is a lot to spend on a bike, that's cute.
I pledged a quid for this. As it says, anything to get up the noses of the nasty, vicious right-wing press, and their insistence that being even vaguely left is some how radical. And hasn't it worked well. Just have to read some of the comments in this forum to see that.
Jezza didn't ask for it, so not sure I understand the 'he can buy it himself' comment. Do you command your family to buy their own christmas presents becaue they can, or do you get them presents becasue you want to get them a present?
And clearly, quite clearly, this is not paid for out of taxes. That's just wilful ignorance on the part of the idiot-right.
My in-London bike was a Fuji Classic, purchased for under £300 and ridden every day north to west. My out-of-London bike is a BTwin Triban red, purchased for under £300 and ridden every day from Farnham to Guildford. There is something very satisfying about refurbing hubs and the like... I think what I am trying to say is I could half run the Labour Party.
Nearly 500 quid FOR a bike. clearly insane.
What normal folk do is to spend 50K on a huge 4x4 wankenpanzer to leave on the street or work car park 99% of it's life.
(sarcasm btw, my latest ride was the bottom spec so I could scrape under the cycle2work limit)
What I liked best about Lord Sugar opening the Pinarello showroom is that he was driven there in his Rolls and bitched about the traffic due to the Cycle SuperHighway being built ! FFS....
Politics don't work so pushing that aside I love the idea, however why didn't the extra cash go at least partially towards a higher spec model?!
As for £475 catching attention I'm still reeling over Pickles' £500,000 chauffeur bill.
Now, that's the real story. What a disgrace!
The chauffeur bill is a cover - I think Pickles wants some of those anti-grav armbands like the Baron Harkonnen has in the film of Dune, and that half million is actually kickstarter payments...
In all fairness, Corbyn never asked for the Crowdfunder to be set up so it's not as if he's expecting anybody to buy him anything. He's even said he can buy his own bike and won't accept the offer. What will happen to the cash raised? I think it's going to charity.
Also, if you have absolutely no interest in or about cycling then nearly £500 for "just a bike" IS expensive!
"I recently rode mine with Olympic gold medallist Sir Bradley Wiggins (shameless namedrop) and it ensured I kept up with him." did make me laugh though - I'm sure it was the bike, Jeremy!! Haha!
If you have no interest in or knowledge of cycling then you probably shouldn't be taking a man to task for his choice of bike.
Several years ago when I was looking to buy a commuter, I was pricing things up in the sub-£500 range. My wife said to me "why are you spending so much?". It's actually quite hard to explain if you don't already get it....
In the interests of full disclosure, my commuter is a hybrid which cost me £350. At the time - as it was my first bike - I thought that was a lot of money. I now know that it really isn't, but since the bike is still going strong five years later then I'm not going to invoke n+1 any time soon ("This is my bike; there are many like it but this one is mine...").
You seem to foget that the press do this continually. For anything they don't seem to agree with, knowledge on the subject or not.
On that basis, given that I could buy a perfectly functional car for a few hundred quid, the newspapers should be full of articles mocking almost every MP as a free spending eejit for their car buying habits.
As leader of the opposition he earns £130,000. I think he can buy his own 500 quid Raleigh and not let kids earning a fraction of that crowd fund buying one for him. I hope he gives the money to charity.
I'm torn. Is it more ridiculous to:
I'm hoping they take however much they collect and either donate the bikes to Qhubeka or buy Corbyn an actual ti-framed brit-built dream bike.
I can't condone this, as this new bike will be a second bike, funded by us, the taxpayers. He'll probably charge us to have Halfords clean his chain.
Mmmmmmm..... 475 quid ! You could probably buy a bog roll holder for a Trident submarine for this amount !
Each boris bike costs £1400 per year to run, so he if he were to use his raleigh instead of a publicly available bike, he would actually be saving the taxpayer £925 in the first year and £1400 per year thereafter.
how about the maintenance costs though ? Surely he would a PM to monitor that as he rides from Islington to Westminsiter ?
...and Hey presto true to his socialist ideals he has got someone else to pay for his new bike.
HAHAHAHA. You should write for Private Eye 'cause that is some WORLD CLASS SATIRE.
A novel way to 'support' Jeremy Corbyn!
You would at least expect him to covert a bike made in Britain.
I wonder if Sir Alan Sugar paid for the custom Pinarello Dogma he was given at that expensive "public" show evening in London a few weeks ago?
Just saying.
Oh and I like the criticism that he can't even dream of owning a more expensive bike. Sadly states a lot about what some folks attitude to cycling is these days.
"He is paid enough money to buy his own bike."
As a birthday gift to himself? Good idea...
This woman is obviously clueless. Only a fcukwit could think that 475 quid is a lot of money to spend on a bike! Also, it shows that Jez has a very limited imagination if this is really his dream bike.
To be fair his dream bike is
2013-12-25T210615Z_1_CBRE9BO1MML00_RTROPTP_2_CNEWS-US-CHINA-MAO.jpg
He is paid enough money to buy his own bike.
ah he is a pure socialist who gives all his money to the defence committee of Stop the War and then relies on others funding him
And from the article, it's pretty obvious he has already used his own money to buy one some time ago.
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