Today Programme

In article <[email hidden]>,

Tony W said:

Some sense from the Minister (amazing). Generally his comments would not be
out of place on this NG. (Though some standard b*llsh*t about cycle paths).

Actually the minister seemed to me to veer on the side of unduly-lenient
towards cycling offences - more so than this newsgroup. He said (rightly)
that police enforcement should concentrate on those offences that kill
people[1]. But the suggestion of "this really doesn't matter much" is not
helpful, as it will tend to alienate the 'neutral' majority.

The cyclepaths bit just said they're improving. That may be true, in the
sense that the ubiquitous "cyclists dismount" signs and other showstoppers
are more commonly associated with older cycle lanes than new ones - and
signposting is better than 20 years ago. That of course sets aside the
fact there are still plenty of new nonstarters.

Quoted message said:

Why no cycling representative? (Other than initial vox pop).

If a cycling representative had been there, the minister would perhaps
have felt obliged to take the opposite side ... as he did towards the
petrolhead. Not that that's an answer.

[1] including speeding - which the petrolhead very sensibly allowed to pass.

--
Nick Kew

Do we know what initial incident sparked off this piece?

I've seen no reference to it on the BBC's website or on a quick Google search.

Paul Knapman is the Coroner for Westminster.

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Tony W said:

"07:32 Why are cyclists allowed to break the law? Tony Vickers, spokesman
from the Association of British Drivers and David Jamieson, the Road Safety
minister."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/

Much standard b*llsh*t from the petrol head (including registration &
compulsory insurance).

Some sense from the Minister (amazing). Generally his comments would not be
out of place on this NG. (Though some standard b*llsh*t about cycle paths).

Why no cycling representative? (Other than initial vox pop).

T

I thought the comment about not being able to police such behaviour was
quite a valid one. Maybe this could be a good reason for putting police
on bikes?

Although the number of people who do cycle dangerously is quite small,
any measures to stop them are almost certain to affect the rest of us. I
do not want to be forced into using the cycle paths which have been
provided for me in response to a need which I personally don't have.

Finally, I don't think it is necessary to cycle 'aggressively' in town,
'assertively' is a friendlier word and assertive riding is more
effective than aggressive riding in my opinion.

--
Terry Duckmanton.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/terry.duckmanton
A website mostly dedicated to cycling
http://tduckmanton.bravejournal.com
A daily log of my cycling exploits

Most impractical suggestion was for registration and 'lightweight vests
with numbers'.

Would *anyone* take any extra clobber out when cycling???

--
Helen D. Vecht: [email hidden]
Edgware.

Quoted message said:

Do we know what initial incident sparked off this piece?

If you go to www.bbc.co.uk/today this takes you to the Today prog web site. On
there you can do the "listen again" thing with the particular article.

Apparently a coroner criticised police in a case were a pedestrian was killed
by a cyclist in a "cycle rage" incident.

Cheers, helen s

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Quoted message said:

Most impractical suggestion was for registration and 'lightweight vests
with numbers'.

Would *anyone* take any extra clobber out when cycling???

I fell about laughing at that suggestion that we should all be wearing numbers.
I didn't like the suggestion that we should be on cycle paths and not roads.
The BBC really has no excuse for not understanding the necessity for getting a
spokesperson from the CTC on when it's doing such an article, but then again,
the BBC hasn't a clue when it comes to cycling and I don't think it actually
wants a clue.

Cheers, helen s

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"Terry D" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

snip

Quoted message said:

Finally, I don't think it is necessary to cycle 'aggressively' in town,
'assertively' is a friendlier word and assertive riding is more
effective than aggressive riding in my opinion.

Aggressively in/on any vehicle is the fast way to death.

Assertively/defensively is definitely the way to go.

Tell'em what you are going to do, do it and get out of their way again works
well for me.

T

Helen Deborah Vecht said:

Most impractical suggestion was for registration and 'lightweight vests
with numbers'.

Would *anyone* take any extra clobber out when cycling???

But the Government could make lots of money auctioning off "PBP 1" and
"TDF 1" to Fabrizio Mazzoleni (where is he these days?) ;-)

Tony

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Most impractical suggestion was for registration and 'lightweight vests
with numbers'.

If this ever comes to pass in Tony's Britain I will rejoice, for it
presents, I suspect, the perfect opportunity for the claiming of political
asylum in France. Then maybe I'll get a nice place somewhere in Normandy,
with a bit of land and that. Aye, nice. FFS, what ON EARTH is becoming of
us???? Meanwhile, thousands of people die needlessly by our Govt. hands.
Good grief.

bfn,

Tony B

Tony Raven said:

But the Government could make lots of money auctioning off "PBP 1" and
"TDF 1" to Fabrizio Mazzoleni (where is he these days?) ;-)

Tony

His "fan club", or president thereof, is still visible on RBM.

Quoted message said:

If this ever comes to pass in Tony's Britain I will rejoice, for it
presents, I suspect, the perfect opportunity for the claiming of political
asylum in France. Then maybe I'll get a nice place somewhere in Normandy,
with a bit of land and that. Aye, nice. FFS, what ON EARTH is becoming of
us???? Meanwhile, thousands of people die needlessly by our Govt. hands.
Good grief.

bfn,

Tony B

You aren't the only one who'll be claiming asylum on mainland Europe. As my
German is better than my French, I suspect I may be claiming asylum in Germany
;-)

On a more serious note, the offspring has done GCSE German, and is starting an
adult education German class in the autumn, so he can keep up and improve his
German so he can have a better chance of getting a job over in mainland Europe
as and when he becomes an adult. Sensible boy.

Cheers, helen s

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Quoted message said:

Apparently a coroner criticised police in a case were a pedestrian was killed
by a cyclist in a "cycle rage" incident.

http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=546110&host=3&dir=60

Not a collision with a bike. Scriptwiter Ted Rhodes was assaulted on
14th December 2003 after shouting at a cyclist going up a one way
street the wrong way and died two days later.
Iain

dirtylitterboxofferingstospammers said:

On a more serious note, the offspring has done GCSE German, and is starting an
adult education German class in the autumn, so he can keep up and improve his
German so he can have a better chance of getting a job over in mainland Europe
as and when he becomes an adult. Sensible boy.

That'll be useful in the 1 in 100 chance that he ends up in a
German-speaking country;-) I did French. In theory that might have been
useful, too, but learning to speak slowly and clearly in plain english
is a hell of a lot more use in the remaining 99% of the world!

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/

Quoted message said:

That'll be useful in the 1 in 100 chance that he ends up in a
German-speaking country;-)

Hey, don't knock it. Germany would be a great place to live+work in -
Europe's biggest economy, nice climate, high wages, good employment laws[1]
and they share many cultural traits with us, such as drinking beer and
going to war with the French.

[1] Well, unless you're the employer

Quoted message said:

Hey, don't knock it. Germany would be a great place to live+work in -

Quite. We like Germany & Austria. But we don't fancy going to war with the
French ;-)

Cheers, helen s

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"iarocu" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Apparently a coroner criticised police in a case were a pedestrian was

killed

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

by a cyclist in a "cycle rage" incident.

http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=546110&host=3&dir=60

Not a collision with a bike. Scriptwiter Ted Rhodes was assaulted on
14th December 2003 after shouting at a cyclist going up a one way
street the wrong way and died two days later.

Hardly counts as death due to cycling. Wouldn't it have been better to rail
against the police for not enforcing the laws against GBH and violence
against the person.

T

Mark Thompson said:

Quoted message said:

That'll be useful in the 1 in 100 chance that he ends up in a
German-speaking country;-)

Hey, don't knock it. Germany would be a great place to live+work in -

I'm sure it would be, I was just commenting on the improbability of it
actually coming to pass that the language lessons are genuinely useful.
Of course one has to learn something at school, and German is probably
not much worse than anything else ;-)

James
--
my other signature is wittier

Mark Thompson <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Hey, don't knock it. Germany would be a great place to live+work in -

I almost moved to Munich for worka couple of years back. I was really
disappointed when it didn't come off - bloody company mergers :-(

Graeme

Quoted message said:

She is presently
looking to be an actuary (whatever that might be)

Very highly paid people in insurance companies, working out risk and what
premiums should be (very simplistically put). They end up running insurance
companies, get paid a load of dosh & then put everyone else out of a job by
transferring operations to India.

Quoted message said:

That said, I wouldn't put German as one of the most useful languages -
French, Spanish and Chinese IMO would rate higher.

Depends what a school offers to do to GCSE.Free choice of languages to study is
a wonderful thing, but curriculums are limited. Nathan's done German GCSE, he's
good at it (better than his French), so he's carrying it on. That way he can at
least have choice of working in UK, Germany and Austria instead of just UK due
to being typical English person unable to speak a second language.

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