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Lord James of BlackheathCyclists are “longing” to be run down, says peer
A Conservative peer has said that cyclists are “longing” to be run down and that campaigns to protect cyclists are “creating a new and separate society” that will lead to “catastrophic accidents”.
Lord James of Blackheath was speaking in a House of Lords debate on a bill to tackle littering from cars. He said that the bill did not go far enough in dealing with anti-social behaviour on the roads and suggested it be extended to deal with cyclists taking photographs of traffic.
The 75-year-old said: “The Times is pursuing, to a ludicrous degree, the cause of cyclists to the point where they are creating a new and separate society in London, in which cyclists think they have a superior law and control over everybody in a motor car.
“This is going to lead to some catastrophic accidents very soon.”
The particular manifestation of this that concerns Lord James seems to be cyclists taking photographs of drivers.
He said: “On three mornings, driving up the A3 in the Balham and Clapham area, I have seen cyclists put their cycles up against the central reservation — not the line where the bus lane is — stand in the middle of the road with a camera and defy you to run them down while they photograph you doing it.
“That is what they are longing for.
“We need to have that sort of behaviour excluded because it is going to lead to their demise and our prosecution: it is ridiculous.”
Lord James, a City businessman, has something of a reputation for bringing unusual subjects to the attention of the House of Lords. In 2010 he claimed that a mysterious ultrarich organisation known as Foundation X was willing to back the UK's recovery with huge interest-free loans, and in 2012 he claimed to have uncovered a massive $15 trillion money-laundering fraud from the United States Federal Reserve.
Another scourge of our times is also close to Lord James’ heart: the behaviour of schoolchildren in buses.
He had persuaded his wife to accompany him to Twickenham to watch the rugby and she had been “horrified” to see “school buses coming down the road full of children indulging in a pastime which is, I believe, called mooning.”
“The sight of some 40 children mooning simultaneously is not a pretty one.”
While Lord James did not say how he would punish cyclists taking photos or children displaying their bare bottoms, he said that his wife, a youth justice officer, watched motorbike police driving past the kids and said: “We have a law against this sort of thing. Why are they not being brought into court? I would put them away for a year if I got them.”
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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62 comments
There speaks a peer who's never had several inches of skin removed thanks to a car assisted slide along the tarmac, eh.
Longing to be run down? The man is a fool.
Sounds like lord James is longing for some conflict on th road. Typical conservative scum, hasn't got a clue about real life
He so looks like Penrose. But like most, nay ALL, Tory peers he is a @~#%ing Arse!
He should be apologising for the 6 deaths in 2 weeks, for which his mob are responsible. Why are his ilk responsible? Well, way back in the 80's Thatcher decided Cars were the aspirational form of transport for the new middle class and public transport was a waste of money and faintly socialist.
So now most UK families have 2 or more cars, the roads are crammed full with traffic all eager to get from A to B as fast as possible, the streets are no more than car parks and are unsafe for Kids to play in and drivers have become ever more selfish with no desire to relinquish their freedom to drive.
I don't wish to make this too political as all governments often fail to predict the consequences of their decisions but the Tory governments of the 80's & 90's set us on the road to disaster (no pun intended). That's where we are right now. It will take something as radical as Thatchers idea of promoting the car to redress the imbalance but I'm not sure Lib, Lab or Con are that interested.
Care in the community .... does not work! The evidence is clear! I think he needs locking up where he can ramble on to himself in peace
Its a shame Fat Pat is no longer running the UCI - I'm sure he could have found the noble Lord a senior position!
Poor choice of adjective.
Longing to be run down, or dying to be?
History has shown that there is an inevitable progression in society to address inequalities that exist in how different groups are treated - gender, race, sexuality.
Given enough time, the steps that need to be taken to address the clear inequality that exists on the road to make cycling safe will be taken. This is inevitable.
"Flat earthers" like this chap and their comments and attitudes just make this process take longer.
We have 5 billion years until the sun swallows the earth so I am confident we will make cycling safe and accessible for all in the long run, but with people like this around it might be a closer run thing than I hoped.
75 years old.. He possibly hasn't got long working as a peer. Out spoken out of touch and inappropriate. "Cyclist have a superior law and control" wow what a tosser. Sorry but get real Lord twit get out your Jag in live with the tax payers supporting your lavish spoilt lifestyle.
"We have a law against this sort of thing. Why are they not being brought into court?"
And we have laws to sort out poor driving. Perhaps next time I go to a local major junction with traffic lights I'll take me camera and take an hours worth of red light jumpers.....say no more.
“This is going to lead to some catastrophic accidents very soon.”
Oh and it hasn't yet.
My thoughts are with the 13 cyclist virtually murdered in the last fortnight.
He's clearly spent too long in the company of taxi drivers as it seems that's where he gets his opinions...
There really needs to be some sort of legislative proficiency test that people need to pass before being allowed to run amok in the Lords. Being able to speak coherently, knowing what year it is and what planet you are on, distinguishing arse from elbow, that sort of thing.
Just to be clear that this debate/bill wasn't even needed in the first place:
https://twitter.com/roadpoliceBCH/status/404191477548724224
Though doing more research, it was an amendment aiming to replace a criminal offence where it must be proven who it was littered to a civil one where the registered keeper can be prosecuted regardless.
The most beautiful bit though is the total dismissal of Lord James' intervention. Read here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/131120-0...
Translated: Lord James is spouting insane nonsense, but we're going to be polite and not call him out on his lunacy. Moving on...
[[[ "75 year old Lord James"---that's a misprint. He is in fact 7 years old, i.e. in his second childhood.
P.R.
From the look of him, I would suggest that if he continues his own lifestyle it could be considered that he is 'longing' for a massive heart failure...
I wouldn't bother getting too irate about this old buffoon. I heard him on the radio the other day and he was practically a parody - i don't think even he was taking himself seriously!
london - yawn.
there are bike riders outside of hipster central and most of us are decent folk.
yawn, predictable ignorant comment.
This is why we have a House of Lords.
I wonder if he is longing for a good slap...
Hmm. There really isn't a need for the Monty Python reunion, is there?
Anyone know where you get these Foundation X interest-free loans from? Need one to buy a helmet cam...
Didn't Foundation X have a massive re branding exercise and now calls itself Wonga ?
I was in tears again when I arrived at work this morning, having yet again FAILED to get myself run down.
Oh I do long to be run down, and either leave my family without a father/husband, or spend a long period of time in pain and potentially life-long disability. Lord James it is all I dream of.
When I was a kid and got my first bike, I wrote to Jim'll Fix It and asked to be run down. Luckily he didn't reply eh, as I might have been dealing with another type of trauma all together!
I do expose myself to maximum danger by sometimes taking pictures of drivers who are using their phones or jumping red lights, all from the extremely dangerous position of the pavement.
Bless him eh - daft old bugger!
just goes to show what all that "society" in-breeding can do
doesn't it !! What acomplete and utter twat !
When you see the house of lords live, the occupants look as if they have already been run down and no one has picked up the bodies!
What a prize tw4t!
Mad as a box of frogs.
And these people have a say in the country's legislation ?
What has this man been snorting!
I think this is the right time to quote another policitian, Abraham Lincoln...
"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt."
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