Friday, March 21, 2008

Cameron in Bike Shame

In an astonishing admission today, Conservative leader David Cameron apologised to his fellow cyclists for obeying the Highway Code.

"I would like to make clear that it will never happen again," he said, carefully extracting an onion from his pocket. "I know I will have brought shame on all my fellow cyclists who don't believe the laws of the road apply to them and I am deeply sorry."

Mr Cameron vowed to mend his ways in future, and continued: "I am very glad that 'Cyclists' Monthly' is watching over me to ensure that I do not transgress again.

Tim Montgomerie
is 94.

UPDATE: A few days ago I was about to cross the road from Parliament Square to Birdcage Walk, when a cyclist came flying round the corner totally ignoring the red light. I shouted out to her (see, it wasn't Dave!) that the law applied to her too. She turned round and gave me the finger!

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

That tosser Steven Pound MP (available Bank holidays and any other time when people with lives aren't available) was spouting forth on BBC News - i had to turn it off. What a bunch of tossers!

Paul Burgin said...

Referred to it on my blog and resisted the temptation to wallow in shadenfreuder, just because the leader of a rival political party was in an embarrassing position. After all that is the sort of thing Tories do ;)

Anonymous said...

Saw this in the mirror and one o'clock news, just knew you'd have it on here.

My brother got booked by a peeler for going through a red light on a bicycle, and got fined!! That wasn't so funny, at least Dave didn't get caught ;-)

Anonymous said...

Come on, back off and give us cyclists some slack. It's hard enough having to save the planet without having to obey the highway code too!

Anonymous said...

Iain, why would you apologise for obeying the highway code?

As Boris said earlier "Show me the evidence!"

:)

Anonymous said...

so what!

Anonymous said...

Does anyone take any notice of that prat Pound? Seems he'll do anything to get his daft face on TV.

Anonymous said...

But surely we Tories should be applauding Dave, and campaigning to remove Traffic Lights and One Way streets, and letting people look after themselves on the streets ??

It would speed up the traffic, and people would soon learn to look after themselves knowing that the statist traffic lights weren't going to do it for them !!

Ralph said...

Amazingly the Mirror has managed to get worse than it was under Piers (Pughe-)Morgan.

Anonymous said...

Same old Tory Toffs attiude: 'we make the laws, we don't hve to obey them'!

You might decry the Mirror and say the story's petty, but some of us don't think it is.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Iain, but this post really should be at DK.

All cyclists are fecking berks. I would like to ram a red hot poker up their lycra-clad bottoms. They stink of stale sweat and think that they can get away with running everyone else off the pavement and the road.

I really hope that cyclists should FOAD.

Feck them, and feck them with a rusty dildo.

Kill a cyclist today and do us all a favour.

Anonymous said...

Took your time putting this up Iain, presumably you struggled to put a spin on it! I think Dave is guilty of appalling judgement coupled with just plain contempt and arrogance. As I have said before on here the sooner the party ditches this pretty rich boy (sorry not you Iain) the greater the chance there is of the Tories winning the election. He is out of touch with the greater public. If he thinks he is above these laws what about the more serious ones??

Anonymous said...

PRISON. Build more prisons for these biking maniacs.

Lock them all up and throw away the key.

Our streets will be safer when these one man crime waves are jailed for a very long time.

BIRCHING. Flog them - flog them in their silly shorts and bizarre helmets. Flogging is too good for this evil menace.

HANGING. Hanging is too good for the likes of these evil criminal law breakers. Hang em - hang em all!

...now where are my pills...

Anonymous said...

WW - I, for one, can follow your logic.

Anonymous said...

I'm fed up with us law-abiding cyclists getting tarred with the "red light jumping, riding on pavements" brush. Most of us never do this. And David Cameron was only crossing a white line to get a head start and avoid being crushed by a bus or similar -- which all London cyclists ought to do in my opinion.

Anyway, one Saturday morning about 18 months ago, I saw Steven Pound in sitting on a petrol station forecourt in his constituency which was roughly equidistant between the BBC and Sky HQs. He was looking at his mobile, waiting for it to ring....

Newmania said...

Au contraire wrinkled weasel cyclists are contemporary angels saving road space saving the lives of wee children and bathing in the numinous holiness of all who save the world in small ways . Additionally regular cycling endows you with large muscles and cardiovascular fitness enabling to jump off and beat the crap out of any smart arse who sees to fit to comment in any way on your angelic progress through any red-light you see fit

I find that stopping smartly is usually enough to send the podgy suit waddling off into the undergrowth.Miserable vermin I hope I die before I am so empty and pointles as to need to

1 Shout at cyclists
2 Confront people about mobiles on the train
3 Tut at someones IPOD
4 Berate anyone for dropping litter
5 Imagine children whose language you criticise are going to be impressed


Mind your own business. An old motto and a good one

Anonymous said...

Shock! Horror! Tory politician found doing the same thing as thousands of other people across the same city let alone the country as a whole! Schadenfreuders should note that no cash changed hands, he didn't get a peerage or a well paid EU appointment out of it, nor did it involve denigrating the Proms or hypocrisy over the Post Office closures. Iain, there could yet be a role for you as a Private Eye writer!

Anonymous said...

"she gave me the finger"

Iain, is this blog the right sort of media to post boasts like this?

Mostly Ordinary said...

When are the Mirror going to follow MPs around in their cars? Hope they don't take then easy route and follow speedy Harriet.

Dave's security isn't very good at spotting tails are they :)

Anonymous said...

The Daily Mirror appears to be taken from another bicycle. At times the image tilts up to show Cameron better and appears to zoom into him. Was this done by editing the film or were they using a tandem.

If the Daily Mirror cyclist was operating the camera whilst riding his bike then he should be prosecuted and his employer also prosecuted by the HSE for allowing one of their employees carry out such a dangerous operation.

Anonymous said...

cyclist goes wrong way up one way street and jumps lights.....For Gods sake...Does anybody really care?...Next thing you know we will be told that inflation is 2.2%
Martin

Anonymous said...

Mostly ordinary -- I don't think he had any security with him, did he? Just Desmond Swayne.

Johnny Norfolk said...

Whilst I find the whole thing quite silly. It just proves Camerons naivety in doing this, It is reflected in his policies in leading with 2nd row issues and avoiding the main issues on tax, spending and wealth creation.

He comes over like a spoilt silly boy and he needs to grow up. it is difficult for him as he has never had a proper job.

Twig said...

The problem is that the roads are not designed to accomodate cyclists and much more needs to be done.
Can Mr.Cameron tell us what he would do to encourage cycling if he were at no.10?
Would he ask the EU for their kind permission to zero rate the vat on bicycles?
Would he direct all railway stations to provide enclosed secure bicycle storage facilities?
Would he develop more segregated cycleways, so that cyclists wouldn't need to ride in the roadside gutters?

Anonymous said...

I fail to get excited by this post as I never pedal anything with less than 6 cylinders.

I'm with Verity...when someone can explain climate warming on Mars, I'll start to get guilty over my choice of cars.

Anonymous said...

Is their any truth in the rumour that he is not really called Mr Pound?

Apparently he changed his name just to get negotiations straight onto the subject of money whenever he was called by the media.

Is that Mr Pound?

Yes but with inflation it's £50 for a quote...

Now, what do you want me to say?

Anonymous said...

Steven EUro mp was the man that always went on air to say that Tony Bliar never said that the War was over at 2000hrs outside Belfast City hall when it was time and dated on the screen.
Now this week Jonathan Powell doing the round's keeps referring to the (troubles) as a War.
Anyway back to the point, looking at the width of the street, has anyone ever thought of a by directional cycle lane.
The Railways use them all the time , espeacily over bank holidays?

Anonymous said...

A law against bicycles having any form of saddle would be of some advantage in bringing these two-wheeled twits to their senses.
It's not a class thing; it's an arse thing.

Tory Dipper said...

If David Cameron does anything wrong, probably the best tactic is just to pretend nothing happened. That way he looks a jerk, and you look like one too!

Anonymous said...

Steven EUro mp did the rounds around the radio to defend Tony Bliar when he denied the fact that on the night of the good Friday agreement (TB out side Belfast city hall @2000hrs said the War is over[as backed up by Jonathan Powell in his memoirs on TV this week])
As to cycle lanes make them by directional in one way street where sensible.

Anonymous said...

That Cameron has gone up in my estimation. He actually is a man after all. Good for him. And it will upset all the Femnazis and other elth'n'safety fascists. Ha ha ha ha.

Apparently he is to be lectured about it by the police. Hope they remember that when he puts the over-paid worse than useless police under local democratic control.

Anonymous said...

What a fool. The press will go for this again and again. Still, if the activists elect boys for a man's job we can expect this...

Richard Williams said...

I'm a pretty law abiding citizen - until I get on my bike. I ride across town everyday and go over amber (ok sometimes red) lights because Ken's gap on traffic light phasing makes it safer than getting engulfed by bendy buses and dodgy minicabs (now made legal by Ken).

I also ride the wrong side of bollards because it's safer than getting squeezed by someone on their telephone (another law nobody seems able to enforce).

I've always opposed it, but do now believe that cyclists should be law unto themselves.

Anonymous said...

Interesting to see so many contributors posting along the tone of 'so what?' and 'evil newspapers' for pointing out that Dave is a typical bloody law-breaking, life-endangering cyclist. I bet he hurtles along the pavement as well, sending pedestrians flying like the rest of the bastards.

Oscar Miller said...

The broadcast media are giving this (non) story an incredible amount of coverage. Compare and contrast C4s reporting of Cameron's bike and the Gateshead conference. Gateshead conference last Saturday - nothing - nada - no mention at all on their main evening bulletin (as compared with Nick Clegg the week before who actually was given the top headline). But when it comes to the kind of biking misdemeanour C4 journos would normally applaud - suddenly David Cameron makes it to the headlines as A VILLAIN. Snidely rounded off with a comment about how his shoes are following in a car behind. (not true). BBC also gave the story extraordinary prominence, including many mentions and a discussion on the Today programme. Surely they could not be out to GET CAMERON after his surge in the polls? Perish the thought.

Anonymous said...

One thing that intrigues me is that the car from "The Mirror" following Cameron got footage of him driving up a one way street the wrong way but it appeared from the footage that they followed him too(unless it was just the effect of the zoom in).

Anyway some Cyclists appear to think that the Highway Code doesn't apply to them and are an absolute menace and seem to think that because -"I'm going 'green' and thinking of the environment" I am exempt from all traffic laws; shooting red lights;weaving in and out of rush hour traffic;using pedestrian crossings and pavements;cycling without lights;the classic "Dave approach" of one ways don't apply to bikes;riding through parks where it clearly states "No Cycles" - the list is endless.

Legislation should be passed to make every Cyclist pass a Cycling Proficiency Test before being allowed on the roads and pay an annual Road Tax Fee even if only a nominal £10

Anonymous said...

What a load of hot air this non story is.Yawn,yawn.

Steve Horgan said...

Christ, the Labour Party and its cronies are getting desperate. With their support at the lowest level in recent history they don't try and address the genuine concerns of the British people, instead they come up with this pathetic rubbish. A non-story by political hacks and toadies to a bankrupt government. To think that the Mirror used to be on the side of working people against the establishment. Now it is a reactionary rag running favours for the those in power.

Anonymous said...

Let's get this into perspective the only thing he did that was a danger to himself and possibly others was to cycle the wrong way down a one way street. Not knowing the street I have no idea of its width or how busy it is, so even that may not be as bad as it seems.

The first red light was just a pelican crossing for cyclists and walkers, if the way is clear then it is perfecly OK to proceed.

Taking the bollard on the right is just trivial if road conditons permit.

He did not Jump the red light at parliament square, he merely positioned himself infront of the traffic, which is a very sensible and safe piece of road positioning.

Anonymous said...

"he merely positioned himself infront of the traffic, which is a very sensible and safe piece of road positioning"

Yeah, positioning yourself in front of several tonnes of metal, which when the light changes will be wanting to accelerate a darn side faster than you, while you wobble around, careering across the highway like a headless chicken... very sensible.

It should be legal to mow the sods down - indeed, take some ideas from Death Race 2000 and give rewards.

Anonymous said...

I really can't stand that man's fat, empty, self-congratulatory face.

Anonymous said...

Well Done Dave, you have gone up in my estimation.

Good to see that you are capable of thinking and acting for yourself and not bogged down by the New Labour Totalitarian STATE.

How did we get to be a society where cyclists are secretly followed and filmed taking minor liberties?

FFS 10 year ago this would not have made an eyelid bat. Time to get out of this tedious and petty, yet once great land methinks.

Anonymous said...

I see this is still running in the Sundays. What a stupid, stupid man. Very poor judgement to encourage negative publicity in this way. Just arrogance to assume the law doesn't apply to him. Twat!

Anonymous said...

Get a cricket stump and shove it through her spokes next time.