I belong to a minority sector for whom discrimination is an everyday fact of life. The fact is that that discrimination is so blatant and unapologetic and is institutional discrimination but despite that, the media make little or no comment upon it.
It’s not racial discrimination. It’s not religious discrimination. It’s not sexual discrimination. No, I’m sorry to confess it’s far worse than that. It’s because I ride a motorbike.
The most recent example of this prejudice and discrimination comes from those well known haters of all things motorcycling - a Welsh police force. Their latest anti-motorcycle act is to effectively ban the annual Welsh National Motorcycle Show because:
“Dyfed-Powys Police are of the view that there is a significant risk of violence at this year’s Welsh motorcycle show.”
I see.
Surely on that basis the police should be cancelling all football matches? After all, as we saw with the UEFA Cup Final match in Manchester, there is more than a significant risk of violence with football matches. But amazingly, they are never cancelled. I wonder why? Could it be that the perception - reinforced by the police, Government and the media - that motorcyclists are all troublemakers and lawless?
After all, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee stated that:
“Motorcyclists are particularly liable to evade road tax. Nearly 40% of motorcycles are now unlicensed.
“If the DVLA’s motorcycle enforcement regime is not to be a complete laughing stock, then the agency and the department must make the most of new powers to enforce VED on public roads.”
They must also “strongly consider more severe measures such as impounding unlicensed motorcycles”, he said, adding: “Large parts of the biking community are cocking a snook at the law.”
Of course, that was completely inaccurate, and for once the MPs were forced to apologise when it was revealed that that was complete bollocks.
Is it any wonder we feel like criminals when we are treated like criminals and discriminated against?
I recently received my renewal documents for my car insurance through Norwich Union Direct: £404.17 (with £220 excess), so up a bit on last year.
We had also insured my wife’s car with Norwich Union Direct and after changing the car had had a horrendous time trying to obtain a quote for the new car as that policy too was due for renewal. We eventually received a quote for that of £200.00. Through the Post Office, we’d got insurance for £150-ish with a further £50 cash-back to come after 60 days. The new insurer? Norwich Union…
So I thought I’d do a reality check on my renewal through the Post Office. £304.69 (with an additional £50 cash-back to come) and only £100 excess. The insurer? Yes, you’ve guessed it … Norwich Union!
The Post Office quote had added £24 for legal protection that I don’t want, so I just rang them to take them up on the quote (without the £24) and got re-quoted at £287.64 with £50 still to come back later.
So I’ll be saving £166.53!
Oh and when I rang to cancel the direct debit for my old policy, they asked if there was a way they could look at my renewal quote to get it down. I said no. Too late: “you snooze, you lose”.
Courtesy of Creative Review Blog, comes a link to the new Honda ad which I reckon is pretty interesting and captures the attention. And unlike CR Blog, I don’t find the voiceover patronising.
See for yourself »
As chance would have it, on The Rev Counter today there was a thread about personalised/cherished/vanity numberplates.
I have a couple of them: one for the car and one for the bike. I was lucky enough to get them directly from the DVLA a few years back. It’s interesting to see what similar plates are worth and one way to do this is to visit one of the website runs by sellers/brokers of numberplates.
I have found in the past that the amount some brokers will offer you for your numberplate is way below what they will seek to sell it for, pocketing the difference for themselves rather than taking a flat fee or a percentage of the sale value. One leading company did just that when I approached them: the difference was many thousands of pounds…
Anyway, I’ve since found out about Cape Plates who offer a free valuation service as well as offering to sell your plate for you; they’ve also got a nice selection of Irish number plates for sale if your budget doesn’t stretch to a full-on cherished number. And yes, I will be paid a nominal amount to mention them and no, it doesn’t mean I’m writing this with a positive spin.
I wonder what their valuation would be of my two plates; 2000 RM and 3 RHM?
I’m a tad miffed: a favicon I prepared for The Revcounter han’t been used there. Oh the humanity!
Well, I would if I could.
I realised yesterday that the tax has run out on my bike as of the end of October. Now given the bike’s been in the garage since it was last used in September, it’s hardly surprising that I’d forget.
But as it’s not been used on the road, surely that’s not an issue? Well it never used to be until the irritating idiots running this country decided on another scam called a Statutory Off-Road Notification whereby if you take your vehicle off the road you have to tell them or they come after you for the “lost” tax.
Now they’ve decided to allow you to do this online … or at least you can when it’s actually working:
“I am sorry the service is currently unavailable due to essential maintenance.”
And it’s been down all weekend for me. I wonder how much of my tax went on this useless system?
So after people decided that the “scameras” were being located for maximum revenue potential rather than to actually save lives - pouring scorn on the pathetic “safety camera” doublespeak that our illustrious leaders and the NGOs indulge in to restrict us - regulations were introduced to require speed cameras to be brightly painted, be visible from 60m (200ft), and be sited only where there was a history of road accidents. Of course the scamera vans flouted these guidelines no doubt to be seen to be doing something about this scourge (sarcasm intended).
It was only by chance that I happened upon an article in the Motoring section of today’s Daily Telegraph which reveals an about turn by the Department for Transport and that those regulations are now merely guidelines. So we can now expect these little Hitlers to be concealing scameras all over the place to provide as much justification as possible for these useless wankers to keep their overpaid and unnecessary jobs.
Their true intentions are revealed by this telling quote from Lee Murphy, speed camera manager for Cheshire:
“If the rules weren’t compulsory, we could use cameras to tackle emerging trends rather than waiting for the minimum number of collisions.”
In other words, “forget the justification for speed cameras being that they are positioned to assist road safety, it’s all about the money!”
For many, many years now, I have been a Life Member of the Motorcycle Action Group. They say:
“The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG UK) is a lobbying organisation that exists to protect motorcycling from indifferent legislation that threatens the pleasure of riders.
“Established in 1973 specifically to campaign for the repeal of the mandatory helmet law MAG has dramatically broadened the scope of its activity and has now established itself as the legitimate voice of the road-riding biker in the UK….”
I joined them at the beginning of the 80s - I can’t be more specific than that and MAG’s Central Office don’t have the records going back that far - and went on some of their demonstrations.
Anyway, MAG move with the times - albeit slowly sometimes - and over the years have updated their logo only a couple of times from the frankly quite basic (and almost embarrassing):
In fact, I still have my enamel badge with that logo.
In recent years, they updated the logo to this one:
I quite like that one: an updated version of the original.
But most recently, they’ve revamped the logo once more, apparently to reflect the diversity of the membership:
So what’s wrong with the new logo? Well whilst liking the overall look and feel, I can see why a number of the longer term members in particular are up in arms about it. The two crash helmet styles - reflecting that diversity - almost admit defeat in the battle to remove compulsory crash helmet laws. Where is the naked head to go with them?
What a rebel!
Today, I flagrantly ignored the recently-updated Highway Code. What a radical I am!
How so, you ask?
“The Driver and the Environment. You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road. Generally, if the vehicle is stationary and is likely to remain so for more than a couple of minutes, you should apply the parking brake and switch off the engine to reduce emissions and noise pollution. However it is permissible to leave the engine running if the vehicle is stationary in traffic or for diagnosing faults.”
This morning, I needed to scrape the ice off the car’s windows so I started it up to warm the engine to clear the inside of the windows, turned the heated windscreen and rear window on to de-ice them and then scraped all the ice off the side windows. I then went back indoors to get my passenger. And all the time, I left the engine running.
You see, I reckon that it’s a safer thing to do this and to ensure that when I drive off I have clear windows than to risk driving off peering through little cleared areas of the windscreen and not be able to see other road users and pedestrians approaching from the side or crossing the road.
Maybe it’s just me…
My inital reaction was to laugh out loud at this woman who should have listened more carefully to what was on offer in what was apparently an April Fool’s Day prank.
But this is from America where they have loads of ambulance-chasing lawyers and where the Courts are open to the most bizarre and spurious claims (which only tends to reinforce the ‘only in America’ stereotype). So of course the company has settled out of Court with her…
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