Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Prig Alert 2: Cyclists
I have been sitting here looking for prigs and, suddenly, I have realised they are all around me. In July 2002, I wrote an attack on the behaviour of cyclists - see Selected Articles. It was greeted with howls of outrage, in spite of the fact that every non-cyclist I knew regarded cyclists in London with fear and loathing. I like to think that article turned the tide. Now the criminal behaviour of cyclists is a national joke and even Ken Livingstone has suggested bikes should have to carry number plates - see here. I say 'even' because Mayor Foxy-Woxy is in the habit of supporting any politically correct minority at any cost and cyclists are definitely PC. In fact, that is what makes them prigs. Cycling is environmentally sound - a truism - and cyclists ride around bathed in easy virtue. (I like to think that it is Coldplay on their iPods, dull music intended to make self-regarding people feel good.) This is why they are so full of righteous anger at any hint of criticism, they think they have God on their side so they can do anything they want. They continue to make driving in London a nervy hell because of their refusal to obey traffic laws. They are major prigs - and dangerous ones too.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Coldplay really do wear The Emperor's New Clothes; suggest to anyone that their music is bland, or that Chris Martin's singing voice is atrocious, and you'll be greeted with looks of surprise and astonishment. And Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow definitely deserve each other; they're bound together like an insidious binary black hole.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for Muse and Morrissey!
I'd like to be featured on your web site as an outstandingly careful and indeed skilled cyclist, who generally despises the idiocy of other cyclists - and resents being made to feel foolish for waiting at red lights and so on, while hordes of be-helmeted, lycra clad morons speed past into the wheels of trucks.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, the Germans have got it right: superb autobahns with high speed limits, severely restricted speeds in urban areas, and punitive responses to transgressions - and --- magnificent, genuine bicycle lanes which have been constructed throughout most cities. I suggest a weekend in, say, Munich to savour the glorious urbanity of city cycling - done properly.
Re London cyclists, from the increasingly hazardous perspective of the pedestrian. I am one of the few people who enjoys using my own volition to get around, and, living near the Thames, this is becoming dangerous in the extreme. Most days I take my life in my hands just leaving the house, as it's more than likely that, unbeknown to me, a cyclist will be thundering silently towards me at a preposterously high speed. They of course, are clad in protective helmet etc. I am not. Nor am I anticipating their approach. Now I hear that people are up in arms about the suggestion that cyclists should have bells to warn us that they are there - a certain Mr R Littlejohn wrote that this was taking nannying to ludicrous extremes. All I can say is that he obviously has never walked anywhere, particularly near the Thames, or he'd know the shocking obliviousness of cyclists to those of use attempting to use the pavement for what it was actually designed for.
ReplyDeleteYours,
J Cheever Loophole