"Grant Shapps should be congratulated": Frothing talk shows and Mr Loophole discuss number plates for cyclists

If I only ride on cycle paths, shared pedestrian
paths and cycle lanes, why should I have to have a registration plate?
After all ... I'm not on the road, I'm on the area reserved for cyclists and pedestrian traffic (I'm including murder stips in this as we get moaned at for not using them).

Isn't this hate crime? Police should be all over it.

Interestingly, North Korea is the only country in the world to currently have a cyclist registration scheme. 
It definitely works.
They have zero problems with reckless Cycling. 
They've all been shot!
Good to know the government is taking us in the right direction.

Whilst riding my bike I experience dangerously close punishment passes, verbal abuse, threats, and objects being thrown at me from moving cars. The mainstream media encourages this by dismissing as funny the comments by their journalists to 'string piano wire across the road for these cyclists'. When a cyclist is killed, the perpetrator is often given a very lenient sentence if they killed them whilst driving a car or simply because the victim was riding a bike. I'm expected by the misinformed and stirred up public, to ride in the gutter on the most unsafe part of the road and to yield to any motorist regardless of the priority that I have according to the law for all road users. And now Grant Shapps supports the idea of oppressing cyclists further and putting them 'in their place' despite the overwhelming evidence that cyclists are the least dangerous road users and it would be better to concentrate effort on stronger policing of the most dangerous road users.

On social media whenever a cyclist has been beaten up or hit by a car, there are many abusive comments that support and encourage that abuse simply because the victim is a cyclist. 

All of the above because I am a cyclist. Not because I personally have done something that warranted that abuse (no abuse should ever be warranted), but simply because I am part of a group that can be categorised by my mode of transport. 

Yet none of the above is considered a hate crime, even though it is so similar to the legal definition of a hate crime. I don't want to dilute the policing of hate crime, but I do think the definition should be expanded to include crimes where the victim is simply a victim because they are considered a member of a stereotype. That is the only way to reduce it.   

GMB. What an utter disgrace this programme is. Full of disingenuous, cretinous vanity project wannabees.

That lawyer. He ain't no Jimmy McGill!

Wait, what:  "Cycle lanes have destroyed most of the infrastructure of many cities in this country" ?

Is that the same as how I'm constantly destroying cars when I (deliberately apparently) cycle into them?

I'm trying to find a positive spin in all of this. I'm going with - now that all the gammons believe that Shapps has their backs and will sort out the "cyclist problem" they can go back to concentrating on their own driving and not being triggered everytime they see a cyclist 

Talk TV's Mike

"They're not an elite group."

Depends who you compare them to Mike; people like Talk TV presenters for instance.

(Sorry - was finishing my lunch and trying not to punch the monitor)

Mr Loophole wrote:

"Just imagine taking number plates off cars. It would be mayhem [...] because we're suddenly saying 'we can't trace you' so we are relying on your integrity. 

Cough-cough-Captain Sunroof...

The Guardian has a good take on the suggestion by Grant Shapps:

Grant Shapps’ bike licence plates proposal ‘a strange and pointless idea’ | Grant Shapps | The Guardian

And reminds us that North Korea is the only country with licencing for bicycles:

North Korea – a model for Grant Shapps’ bicycle licence plate proposal? | North Korea | The Guardian

All I can add is that you've read The Trial by Franz Kafka, you'll know why Shapps just made a Kafkaesque proposal.

Mike Graham wrote:

Cycle lanes have destroyed most of the infrastructure of many cities in this country and it's getting worse. So why not make it possible for an even playing field for everyone who uses the road?"

I'm not sure that he entirely understands what he's saying...

Does Mike Graham not understand that most cyclists don't actually like the idea of crashing into anyone?

Just imagine the outcry from society if these so called journalists and lawyers made such generalised comments and hate about any other group in society whether that a religious group or race etc. They'd be cancelled before they had a chance to publish an insincere apology. 
 

The hate for cyclists needs to be stamped out in this country. People will soon feel emboldened to actually aim for us in the near future. 
 

I think we also need to distinguish between cyclists and people who ride bikes. It's usually those who just ride bikes that break the law (sorry for generalising after moaning about generalising🤣).