EU Directives on motorcycling and a new UK ad about tax, what ever next? A time to laugh or spit a few rivets…

As you may know, the prospects for people to continue or start riding a bike or scooter in the UK – as a jolly good and green way to tackle such scourges as congestion – have come in for a bit of a battering lately. And if you didn’t and/or would like to know more, there is a fulsome feature outlining what is going on in the latest issue of Motorcycle Sport & Leisure magazine. The article looks best in hard copy. But if you’re too tight or skint to buy one – you can read a web version here.

Anyway, having had quite a bit to do with trying to encourage a re-think about plans for a new motorbike parking tax in the centre of London and in the midst of a financial crisis, I have met some interesting new sources of support for bikers’ concerns.

Not least of these is a bunch of bright eyed girls and boys at an outfit called the Tax Payers Alliance (TPA). And, by the cringe, the TPA have hatched a mischievous plan to release a big screen advert suggesting that a result of us being in the EU is that it costs us many billions of pounds. Now some say this lot are just a bunch of Tory Poodles making mischief, while other say they that they are an independent pack of Rottweilers tearing down the shrouds around chronic waste through barmy tax measures. All I can say is that when I first talked to them about a plan for pay-by-mobile-phone M/C parking charges, across the whole of central London in the City of Westminster, they instantly recognised that it was really nothing more than a new tax scheme – aimed just at congestion busting bikers and scooter riders.

So without further ado I suggest you take a look for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Go here for a computer screen preview. Lastly for now, I will admit that watching the ad prompted a chortle. But that has prompted yet another puzzle for me to ponder. I am turning into one of those Euro sceptisists that a are highly disparaged in many a politically correct circle? And, who knows or cares? Well one thing’s for sure as ever, stuff happens as they say.

The sun has got its hat on in London…

The sun has got its hat on again in my beloved London Town. This is a yet another welcome end to a few days of torrential rain and wind – in what I suspect will be an ongoing series of sun & rain episodes that will continue long after I am around to ride through them.

Anyway, I am also delighted by two bits of news from Stephen Fry.  First, he has passed a landmark in the strange man & woman-made world of the world wide web. To be clear, this is landmark is actually only ‘in’ one of the techno networks to have evolved in the electronic ether. And, this virtual but effective space for chat is just one of the generally positive outcomes from the fine addiction that many humans have to try new ways to communicate and share experiences with each other.

He now has over a million followers on Twitter. Having only joined in with this medium for communication last week I am still very much at novice stage. Nevertheless, I have already found some new common ground between me and one or two of the people I engage with in the real world. Now though, as stephenfry ‘follower’ number 999,123, I am pleased to have made my own tiny contribution to his achievement –one millionth to be reasonably precise.

The second bit of good news relates to my recent suggestion that trousers are far more important than we may currently think. If you have the inclination and strength of mind to listen to nearly all of Stephen’s 3 minute Tweetz Back from the Future you will see and hear what I mean – albeit in an appropriately virtual kind of way of course. So I hope this all brings a bit of light into the darkness for all who are burdened by ongoing fears and concerns about the weather.

Sadly, I think that this group of particular burden-carriers includes my fellow Groucho Club member Stephen, who is not only far more illustrious than me but he also wrote the club rules. I also imagine that the likelihood of him reading any of this potential source of cheer is rather less than a million to one. But Hey Ho! It is a sunshiny day where I am and I hope it is, or will, be where you are too.