BHIT Bill - Tactics with Tories

[-Lsqnot Respond]

I've been doing a bit of low key lobbying on this over the past couple of weeks. Those of you
who have connections with Conservative MPs might like to try a slightly different tack. Rather
than masses of statistical detail and technical argument, point them back to their Conservative
core values.

As Conservatives we want small, non-inteferering government with a minimum of legislation. We
believe in personal responsibility and individual freedoms. A law banning cycling without a certain
type of hat is counter to these beliefs.

I've had some very positive responses using this tack.

 

[Just Zis Guy]

On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 19:45:30 +0000, "[Not Responding]"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>As Conservatives we want small, non-inteferering government with a minimum of legislation. We
>believe in personal responsibility and individual freedoms. A law banning cycling without a certain
>type of hat is counter to these beliefs.

Boris's comment was more or less along those lines, but not quite as coherent.

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://chapmancentral.demon.co.uk

 

[Zog The Undenia]

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

> Boris's comment was more or less along those lines, but not quite as coherent.

Stephen Norris's comments on helmets are the funniest by far.

 

[Just Zis Guy]

On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 07:52:14 +0000, Zog The Undeniable <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
>
>> Boris's comment was more or less along those lines, but not quite as coherent.
>
>Stephen Norris's comments on helmets are the funniest by far.

Where can I read same?

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://chapmancentral.demon.co.uk

 

[-Lsqnot Respond]

On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 07:52:14 +0000, Zog The Undeniable <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
>
>> Boris's comment was more or less along those lines, but not quite as coherent.
>
>Stephen Norris's comments on helmets are the funniest by far.

Which comment? If you mean the statement a couple of years ago that he didn't think it is necessary
to look like an alien in order to ride a bike; he was spot on.

As long as cycling is perceived as a sport, indeed a *dangerous* sport, it won't be possible to see
bikes adopted as an everyday mode of transport.

 

[W K]

"[Not Responding]" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've been doing a bit of low key lobbying on this over the past couple of weeks. Those of you
> who have connections with Conservative MPs might like to try a slightly different tack. Rather
> than masses of statistical detail and technical argument, point them back to their Conservative
> core values.

"masses of detail" unlikely to do much good anyway.

> As Conservatives we want small, non-inteferering government with a minimum of legislation. We
> believe in personal responsibility and individual freedoms. A law banning cycling without a
> certain type of hat is counter to these beliefs.

( Not that tories don't mind laws that ban other people from doing things - ie raves and pitbulls)

It should be a fairly useful tack also for Labour MPs. We don't want too many laws, and a law should
be useful. When tories invoke the dreadful "nanny state" cliche, some of the stuff has some sort of
minor utility. Trouble is - "common sense" says hats are useful. BUT "common sense" would also say
that children riding bikes without helmets is not so horrendous as to need laws and fines.

Note: ferry brochures to france often have images of children riding without helmets - a selling
point for france?

 

[Zog The Undenia]

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

> On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 07:52:14 +0000, Zog The Undeniable <[email protected]> wrote:

>>Stephen Norris's comments on helmets are the funniest by far.
>
>
> Where can I read same?

From Cambridge Cycling Campaign's newsletter:

Life on Mars

* From Newsletter 43 (August/September 2002)

The rest of what Steven Norris (Chair of the National Cycling Strategy Board) had to say in York
recently was rather overshadowed by his remarks on cycle helmets.

Asked why he wasn't wearing a helmet, he is reported to have said: 'I think the idea that you have
got to dress up like a bloody spaceman in order to ride a bike is just completely potty. You should
be looking at cycling as something that normal, fat, middle-aged men like me do.

'If you are a young child you wear a helmet. My little four-year-old does. I don't. I am big enough
and ugly enough to know what I am doing and I am not going to treat myself as some kind of Martian
in order to do something which I have got every right to do.'