http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article4603380.ece
Even the AA think it’s bad news. There’s nothing safe about that skirt either.

People were warned what would happen when the Tories get into their stride..
Anyone Disabled, unemployed, low earning families, students from poorer backgrounds, the NHS etc etc.

All screwed over, sold and privatised or just now ****.

Cyclists are probably considered the under class plebs too…

who the hell voted for these asterisks

Hardly a shock TBH…

But I feel sorry for Georgy Porgey in all this, who should He be trying to please more?

“cycling infrastructure” is becoming an increasingly important issue for the tier 2 tory voters, those middleaged, middle class, middle management, white male are one’s to keep on side if you can… Potential swing voters…

Just not by alienating those mail reading OAPs who are inherently suspicious of foreigners, benefit claimants and men on bicycles, those are the election winning core tory voters, and if they want more motorways, fewer cycle lanes and to put the boot into the poor and sick… Then that’s what you gotta do George…

who the hell voted for these asterisks

Indeed. 🙁

Tory voter getting shat on.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwfoP0DshgQ[/video]

It’s not about to get caught up in the wheels though

Is there a way of getting a government out of power before a general election?

Is there a way of getting a government out of power before a general election?

What’s the date today 😉

who the hell voted for these asterisks

When the alternative was Milliband with his strings being pulled by Sturgeon I’d say the Tory win was a good result. 11 million other voters agreed. You lost get over it.

Is there a way of getting a government out of power before a general election?

What’s the date today

Say hi to mi5 when they come calling… 😉

When the alternative was Milliband with his strings being pulled by Sturgeon I’d say the Tory win was a good result.

Well done for proving that the voting public really are stupid and believe what the agenda led press tell them. It’s much easier to go along with a load of tosh that’s fed to you rather than actually think about what’s going on and base a decision on that.

Put down the Daily Mail irc – it’s bad for your mental health.

who the hell voted for these asterisks

Scared old people on unfunded benefits with £300k houses and bad DM habits. But only because everyone else was on twatter being ****.

TBH I am past caring, it’s not that I wouldn’t like better cycling infrastructure in the UK, just that I never really, truly believed that the tories would deliver some sort of “cycling revolution” (did anyone?).

It’s all talk plus persuading banks into funding hire schemes and “superhighways” in that there Laaahndarnfor a bit of cheap, green-washed advertising .

Cycling is a smoke and mirrors issue for most parties, double policy points for addressing “environmental and health concerns”, and stick to the golden rule for all chancellor’s: the best spending commitments are ones that can be reported at least three times as “new funding” and then quietly dropped when nobody’s really looking, Gordon was just as bad for that sort of thing…

The only party who i believe would be properly committed to cycle infrastructure are the greens. Neither of labour or the conservatives has imo any real focus on sustainable transport.

The level of investment needed to make a proper difference is a number so large that you would either be accused of borrowing mega amounts to do it (labour) or it won’t fit your austerity model (conservative).

At a time of economic flatlining its no wonder stuff all is done. The problem is t that the car and lorry roads infrastructure is insufficient and so is the rail network so politically you keep spending on that because thats what more people want and you do need it for business and moving goods around.

Every year we spend £90 billion more than we get in tax. So our debt is still going up and up. With the economy still flat lining we need to do something. Where do people think we borrow all this money from? Why were the government and the royal family playing nicey-nicey with Xi? If the Chinese suddenly want a higher rate of return on the bonds we sell them we will all be ****ed because interest rates will go up and there will sweet fa the Bank of England will be able to do about it. We’ve do actually have to cut spending.

Or increase revenue.

so where is that revenue going to come from? Putting up tax for high earners will make almost no difference as the number of high earners is small. To increase revenue you will have to tax the vast majority of people on modest incomes that are already struggling to makes ends meet.

garthmerenghi – Member

Every year we spend £90 billion more than we get in tax. So our debt is still going up and up. With the economy still flat lining we need to do something.

Yep, that’s why we need the government that increased the national debt more in the last 5 years than the previous government spent in 13. This is the mad thing- they aren’t saving money. Tory “austerity” hasn’t led to savings, it’s actually cost the country money, because the point was never to save- it was to attack the welfare state and put more public assets and spending into private hands, while cutting taxes for those better off and maintaining the housing bubble.

This is what Tory savings look like:

????NW???? What have you been reading.

Anyway back on topic, great idea but not for the Tory reasons (not that I have read them). Cycle lanes etc and pointless panaceas designed to avoid solving the real problem is, stupid road users. I would rather have normal roads where people drove and rode sensibly. Why anyone wants to ride in a cycle lane where all the shit gathers anyway is beyond me too?

Get rid of lights too – make people drive properly!

So what’s the answer then? I don’t actually see that we have much choice. If we don’t balance the books we are risking loosing too much sovereignty to a foreign country that doesn’t exactly have the best record.

Say hi to mi5 when they come calling…

He can’t hear you.

He’s with Jesus now….

Why anyone wants to ride in a cycle lane where all the shit gathers anyway is beyond me too?

I wonder if we spent more on them they would be better 💡

I wouldn’t take it personally. They are pulling the plug on all sorts of things,

Why anyone wants to ride in a cycle lane where all the shit gathers anyway is beyond me too?

I wonder if we spent more on them they would be better

Dutch model? Yes please. Where my 3 year old can cycle 10k under his own steam on smooth wide tracks.

Why, other than awful facilities, anyone would want to mix with traffic (at least any where urban) where there’s a good alternative choice is beyond me.

Garth, the tories Only appear interested in ‘balancing the books’ when it means they can attack something they don’t like.

So what’s the answer then? I don’t actually see that we have much choice. If we don’t balance the books we are risking loosing too much sovereignty to a foreign country that doesn’t exactly have the best record.

The good thing about bonds is they’re bonds, the rate won’t go up or down. Makes very little difference who owns them (unless you default on them), that’s why they’re called bonds.

TBH the Chinese’s inability to operate a Petrochemical plant worries me more than their politics when it comes to engineering and investment in it.

The alternative is spend more, keynesian economics, rather than cut investment and wait for private sector jobs to magically appear, build a bridge or a cyclepath, or a school, and you create a lot of jobs in an area for a couple of years, and get some new infrastructure.

The irony is the Tories seem to be hell bent on this around here, Wokingham Borough council (which is such an achingly middle class area it hurts) has somehow found the money to re-do the town center, build a bypass round a village and a new bridge over the M4. Yet council apparently have no money to spend on those that actually need it, no just a 2 min quicker commute for drivers and less traffic past some middle class houses.

Garth, the tories Only appear interested in ‘balancing the books’ when it means they can attack something they don’t like.

This, they also said they wanted to streamline government to reduce costs. So far they’ve given a 10% pay rise and threatened to create a load more Tory Peers after losing a vote.

My thoughts
1. No surprise. Tories have not been honest about how close we are to going bust – there’s more cuts due in this parliament than the last – this is only the start. MattOutAndAbout is right on this one… cuts are everywhere. It’s going to be a shock as we realise how much is being covered up about how wealthy we’re not…
2. Gideon is a politician first and a human second so his policies are short-term, aiming to win the next election, so the fact that avoiding investment in cycling means and ever-larger long-term NHS bill as we eat ourselves to chronic illness is irrelevant – he’ll be long out of politics by the time that bill comes through
3. Cycle lanes don’t always solve the problem, which is lousy driving. I got a tirade of sweary abuse from a young ‘lady’ this morning for not being in the cycle lane. The fact it was a 30 limit and I was 20+ and the lane was full of wet leaves was not apparent to her. That wasn’t safe for me – the infra was not fit for purpose. Of course I could blame her parents but mainly, she was just ignorant – something a little bit of training would resolve in the matter of an hour or so…

You’d have to define “more” and “better” to get an answer.

To get anything that is actually worth using (not like the blue routes in London, more like the routes in the Netherlands) you are talking (international) telephone number budgets, and years of work, and ripping up existing roads/infrastructure.

At which point the whole thing falls over, as no one will vote for someone who makes their commute longer, and tries to stop them using their car. Well, at least the voter swing will be significant.

The UK is too far down the route of car is king to make significant inroads into an alternative within one parliamentary term anyway.

You’d have to define “more” and “better” to get an answer.

I hope your boss does not offer you more money and a better car 😉

I suspect if cycling it to take off Dutch style it’ll be Councils not Westminster that do it, it’d just take one (probably safe seat) council to go all in on cycle infrastructure and prove some economic benefit for other councils to follow suit.

To go back to Wokingham, imagine how many miles of cycle paths you could build (not just paint the edges of Reading Road green) for the cost of one bridge over the M4…….

Is there a way of getting a government out of power before a general election?

Well, their majority is a slim one so a few by election losses between now and 2020 will mean they are in a minority.

This Tory government is a colossal unflushed turd. They have to go, very soon.

Why anyone wants to ride in a cycle lane where all the shit gathers anyway is beyond me too?

Because when they are built properly, the look like this (new lanes in London). Why would you choose the road?

I’ve not ridden the new LOndon stuff yet. Seen it in construction. It does look ace 🙂

Gideon is a politician first and a human second so his policies are short-term, aiming to win the next election, so the fact that avoiding investment in cycling means and ever-larger long-term NHS bill as we eat ourselves to chronic illness is irrelevant – he’ll be long out of politics by the time that bill comes through

I don’t think they’re interested in another term, Cameron has said he won’t stand again, I think they’re just trying to make as much money/investment for themselves and their old boy cronies as they can in the next few years out of the country before laying low until we’ve all forgotten what a bunch of asterisks they are.

I suspect if cycling it to take off Dutch style it’ll be Councils not Westminster that do it, it’d just take one (probably safe seat) council to go all in on cycle infrastructure and prove some economic benefit for other councils to follow suit.

One of the advantages of the, often seemingly absurd, style of localism in the states is that it allows for moves like this: http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/on-modern-urban-transportation-seattle-is-making-it-happen

Because:

Every year we spend £90 billion more than we get in tax. So our debt is still going up and up. With the economy still flat lining we need to do something.

Investment in cycling infrastructure is a net economic benefit.

Every year we spend £90 billion more than we get in tax. So our debt is still going up and up. With the economy still flat lining we need to do something.

Oooh ooh I know – let’s cut corporation tax and cut tax for the richest people in society, while demonising the poor and making their lives a misery to save insignificant amounts of money, I’m pretty sure that will sort it.

or cutting inheritance tax.

or etc.

etc.

tax cuts for those with money – scared of paying some tax

dry-bumming for those without – scared of being homeless/hungry.