peddling ideas

the head of john hayes - photo by Ludo

I admit that sartorial awareness has never been a very strong feature of mine but I felt quite comfortable in the garb of the executioner pictured above. I think that is a bit of a disturbing thought but there you go. One has to try to get ahead ( aaaargh! SORRY )The pic is not a still from the film – The Head of John Hayes,  but is an off set photo.

Back when the 2012 Olympics was in its infancy Stella McCartney was pilloried by some for her Team GB strip designs. Actually I like the resulting uniform and its variations. Surely any one who didn’t like our Stella’s design loves it now after seeing the Russian strip. They do have the knack of making a vomit provoking pigs ear out of a silk purse don’t they?

The wonderful GB Cycling Team has reached its peak with performances that none of us who have followed cycling all our lives could have expected in this Olympics. I recently tweeted the question – Is Cycling now the new national sport? The logical answer is yes though I guess football fans everywhere will shake their heads in disagreement. The Team GB footballers should remain silent in the debate though. Their performance was awful. The extremely inarticulate Stuart Pearce should hang his head in shame. (" Until the games get underway we can't realise the magnitude of how its going to be") Lets not bother to enter a team next time if that is the best they can do.

Great English football is slowly becoming a thing of the past and is being strangled by the big money on offer to foreign players. Surely most of us think the fees for modern day footballers have got way out of line. Of course in a free market every one wants to get what they can. This applies to any one who generates money in this busted system.  For example any artiste/band wants a fair share of the gate, the record sales and merchandise. It doesn’t matter how ridiculously astronomical the amount is, most folk would want their share. How ever there is usually a simple arithmetic that this follows. Logically the share is based on the profit made but a footballer who is past his sell by date can still command silly money for doing nothing much at all at a club where there is no profit only debt. It is amazing that more clubs have not gone to the wall in the past season and it will not be surprising if more go next season. The money is not there. Even with TV money and overpriced merchandise most clubs in the Premier League are skint. If they were a small Engineering works in the north of England they would have already had their last meeting with their bank manager and their first with the liquidators.

So I suggest that when a club goes bust they should not be able to worm their way out of the reality of their situation by devious means that would not be tolerated anywhere else.

Perhaps we should turn those failing clubs into Velodromes so that the cycling renaissance can continue to flourish. Bikes are green so get on one and see what you have been missing. You don’t have to race or even go quickly. Getting from A to B by your own efforts is reward enough.

There has been a big debate about whether or not helmets should be compulsory for a long time. I’m with Bradley Wiggins on this one and think they should be a legal requirement for all cyclists. People say that people who wear helmets often take risks because they feel safe. I disagree. Any one that rides a bike in this country will be constantly reminded that they are not safe at all, even with a helmet, because many motorists take the view that we should not be on the roads at all. One has to learn to ride defensively especially in the urban environment. Are we in the way?

Mostly half assed attempts to build cycling networks has resulted in cycle paths that disappear frequently and make it necessary for a rider to join busy roads in the most extraordinary places. I am convinced that part of the plan was to create a way to force cyclists off the roads so I won’t ride on them. Fortunately the failure of the cycle path is such that I don’t have to ride off road ever. I have seen a motorist dumping the broken remnants of a front light from his car onto the cycle path adjacent to the road he was stationary on. When I pointed out that this was a hazard to cyclists and could cause punctures severe enough to leave a cyclist stranded his answer was “ Well it’s done now”.

I have also seen appalling riding by cyclists. No lights, dark clothes and no helmet often marks out the cyclist who always rides through a red light. So have a test for cyclists by all means and tax us like any other road user. Perhaps then the total disregard shown to cyclist by some motorists would abate. The cycling renaissance will bring about a better awareness for all road users and we cyclists will be safer and might be seen as making a necessary contribution to the Green movement instead of simply being in the way. After all it is the petrol fuelled combustion engine and those manufacturers with a vested interest in its continued use, that have stood in the way of progress to greener forms of propulsion not us.

Get pedalling folks. Cars are unnecessary for a lot of journeys and you don’t want to be left out of an important phase of THE NEW REALITY, do you?

peace