"Simon Brooke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:in message
<[email hidden]>, Just zis
Guy said:It's official: any of us who are against compulsion are
irrational, obsessive and offensive, and rely on
soundbytes taken out of context. Whereas BeHIT,
presumably, are a model of decorum, and the claim of
28,000 serious injuries which later turned out to be
under 500 was just a slip. Like the doubling of the
fatality figures. And so on.
<url:http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk/web/public.nsf/Documen-
ts/Evening_Post>
Quoted message said:
Guy, if you have not already sent your draft reply, do not
send it. Wait, cool down, and try again. Using sarcasm is
not going to work to your benefit - the passage about the
cyclesense website will only antagonise most readers.
Also, if James Annan's analysis of the Sheikh and Beihk
paper's statistical howler is online anywhere, it would be
good to refer to it (isn't it on the 'letters page' of the
same site the paper is on?). That makes you less like a
lone monomaniac.
Also, you should redraft your last sentence. For readers
who believe (as I suspect most uninformed people do) that
a bicycle helmet does offer protection in collision with a
car, the point which you need to get across there (and
which you fail even to allude to) is that a helmet would
have made no difference at all.
Finally, is there anyone else here from the Reading area
who could supplement Guy's reply with a cool but well
informed response? It would help enormously if there were
two replies, again making Guy look less like a single-
issue nutter. I'd write myself, but I don't think a letter
from an address in Scotland would really help the case.
--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke)
jasmine.org.uk~simonOpen ↗
The Conservative Party now has the support of a smaller
proportion of the electorate in Scotland than Sinn Fein
have in Northern Ireland.
The trick with all letters to newspapers is to keep them
short. Keep them simple. And keep them snappy. Period.
Ideally much shorter than the letter you're replying to. The
original is fairly long and yet it seems to have benefitted
from careful editing. Basically its telling a massage the
readers want to hear, and which reinforces their unthinking
prejudices and assumptions. So you've got your work cut out
before you even begin.
Finally your claim "What killed Troy Parker was not failure
to wear a helmet, but riding a bicycle with broken brakes
off the pavement into the path of a car. As a parent I know
what lessons I draw from this incident."
Has as much chance of getting printed, as do claims that
Tony Blair is a transvstite. And luckily for you!
"Grieving parents continue their month long vigil outside
house of Looney Cycling Campaigner"
"He accused of us killing our own son, says grieving Mum of
Three...."
Police were again called to clear crowds from around the
house of....
Curious
..
