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news
Jacob Rees-Mogg and Penny farthing (original photo licensed CC BY-SA 2.0 on Flickr by Bob Walker).jpgBrexit Party hopeful candidate begs Nigel Farage for penny-farthing spokesman job
A penny-farthing rider from Battersea who hopes to be a candidate for the Brexit Party has begged its leader, Nigel Farage, to be given a job as the party’s spokesman to represent the views of fellow enthusiasts – as well as cyclists and motorbikers more generally.
65-year-old Alan Price – a past Conservative voter who describes his political views as “slightly to the right of Genghis Khan” – arrived at a press conference for the party on his penny-farthing, reports The New European.
Farage founded the party earlier this month after the continued postponement of the date the UK is due to leave the EU meant that the country will go to the polls next month for the European parliamentary elections.
Candidates confirmed as standing for the party include Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the sister of the Conservative MP and leader of the Tory backbencher pro-Brexit European Research Group, Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured above).
Price, evidently, has done his own research – although perhaps surprisingly, it doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny.
He claimed that the EU had “harassed and excessively regulated” the “35 million” people in the UK who choose to get around on two wheels.
Analysis of government statistics by Cycling UK suggests that figure may be a slight exaggeration. In 2017, 6.1 million people in Great Britain cycled once a week or more, a further 3.1 million at least once a month, and 5.3 million less than once a month.
That gives a grand total of 14.5 million – equivalent to 28 per cent of the population – and it’s highly unlikely most would consider themselves “cyclists.” Meanwhile, more than two thirds of the population never cycle.
As for motorcycles, only 2 per cent of households nationally have access to one.
Besides that slight quibble over statistics, Price claims to speak for everyone who gets around on two wheels, powered or otherwise. “We as a group are massively in support of Brexit,” he trumpeted.
Hoping to be approved as a candidate for the Brexit Party in the forthcoming elections, he said: “Democracy has failed to work because we voted out and we want out.
“I have a personal interest in excessive taxation and bicycle tyres but there are also plenty of other laws about kettles and everything else.”
Including bendy bananas, at a guess.
“I'm excited now that democracy may rule in the UK because it clearly has not been ruling in recent times,” he added.
Touching as his plea to represent cyclists and motorbikers – and, yes, penny-farthing riders – is, he may wish to check the cycling policies of UKIP, the party Farage previously led.
In its manifesto for the 2010 general election, the party claimed that it “supports pedal cycles as a healthy means of personal transport.”
But while it said that “there needs to be a better balance of rights and responsibilities for pedal cyclists,” the focus was very much on the latter – it insisted there was “too much aggressive abuse of red lights, pedestrian crossings and a lack of basic safety and road courtesy.”
One solution it suggested was for cyclists to be required to have third party insurance combined with compulsory bike licensing in the form of a “Cycledisc.”
It also said it supported “provision of cycle parking at reasonable charges,” as well as compulsory training for cyclists, and for riders to be forced to dismount at “busy roundabouts, junctions or bus lanes, or where the road would be too narrowed by cycle lanes and cause unacceptable delays to traffic.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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70 comments
Frank - would you still vote leave now that banana regulations have been explained to you ?
Of course he would, he just can't say what the real reason is.
Frank - would you still vote leave now that banana regulations have been explained to you ?
Frank - would you still vote leave now that banana regulations have been explained to you ?
Hopefully to wrap up the banana debate and bring the thread back on track.
The real reason for EU banana standards is because if they are too small and thin they will fall out of your Biken Banana Holder.
bananaholder3.jpg.860x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg
I'll see your Biken Banana Holder and raise you a BaNanaBotCage: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:678170
85ff88021a6fa3dd88f8593000d43114_preview_featured.jpg
I see that you found the double banana version. Imagine what would happen if your bananas were not of a standard curvature?
It'd be disaster if you're in the middle of a peeloton.
Brexit is bad for business.
There, I said it. Leaving the customs union means that just in time manufacturing operations that rely on speedy deliveries across borders will be crippled. Manufacturing accounts for 10% of the UK's GDP. Forget about 'alternative arrrangements' using technology or any of that crap. The technology wouldn't be available for at least 10 years, and given the goverment's record on introducing new systems, probably wouldn't work properly for the first couple of years anyway. By that time, the UK's manufacturing sector would've departed for other shores.
And it wouldn't just be the manufacturing sector either as most (if not all) of our other UK businesses rely on quick (cheap) frictionless trading across EU borders. A lot of our industry and trade (and our NHS) relies heavily on EU personnel. These EU citizens are not willing to be second class citizens in the UK and are already leaving. The NHS was struggling to fill posts before the Brexit vote and that is getting worse. Ther eis plenty of information available on this, look it up. And no, don't read that hate-filled rag The Daily Mail, which lest we forget is owned by a tax avoider and until recently, was edited by one as well. The same applies to the Murdoch stable.
Brexit will deliver a low wage economy with no worker protection that will favour the rich.
It'll also result in an independent Scotland and over 400 years of successful partnership will be gone.
This isn't project fear, it's reality.
Brexit delivers no economic benefits to the UK, none at all. It'll make the UK poorer, weaker and smaller and result in the NHS being privatised. US firms are already rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of Brexit.
It will only benefit the multi millionaire/billionaire tax avoiders like Jacob Rees Mogg. Bear in mind that his firm made £103 million in profits in the last five years. However it is based in the Cayman Islands so paid not a penny in corporate taxes to HMRC, so how he can claim to be a patriot when he dodges supporting his country escapes me. He claims to be a Christian but clearly hasn't read the bible, as Jesus was pretty clear on what he thought of tax avoidance, "And Jesus answering said to them, Pay what is Caesar's to Caesar, and what is God's to God. And they wondered at him."
Please let me know when we find the Leave Manifesto we were supposed to be voting on. I seem to remember there was a clear choice in the IndyRef, the status quo, or SNP Manifesto. The people made a simple choice based on clear information (I feel sorry for the Scots because we really didn't deliver what we promised, they deserve another go if Brexit happens.) Meanwhile we had a Leave campaign based on fear of the other, undeliverable promises of cash and 'easy' negotiation.
Why am I not surprised that BTBS is an ardent Leave voter who seems to completely ignorant of reality, or the absolute clusterfuck the last three years have been.
'Baby boomers share nearly 7 times as many 'fake news' articles on Facebook as adults under 30, new study finds.' Meanwhile 1.5 million Leave voters have died since the ref, more then enough to swing the vote. Thanks old people.
And unicorns, don't forget the red, white and blue unicorns.
Don, I very much like your use of "NF". Nice.
It's his initials and he does frequently put himself at the front of the nation, beyond that I'm not sure what you mean...
I'm sure, given the passion expressed in some of the above posts, you'll all be compelled to read about how the government ignored the code it had adopted for referendums.
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/eu-referendum-ignored-code-...
"What most politicians have failed to point out is that since 2006 the UK has been one of 60 signatories to the 'Code of Good Practice on Referendums' (part of the Venice Commission).
This advocates a referendum as a two-part process, starting with an advisory vote and proceeding to a detailed proposal, with a second vote by either parliament or the people. This, you will note, is more or less where we are.
They also advise that a vote below 55% in favour should be ignored. Hmmm."
You can add to that, how Farage stated unequivocally before the referendum that if it was really close - say, a 52/48% split - then that was unfair and meaningless and he intended to take court action to dispute it.
The question of a second referendum was raised by Mr Farage in an interview with the Mirror in which he said: "In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way. If the Remain campaign win two-thirds to one-third that ends it."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36306681
One truth from BTBSs polemic though. Staying in the EU is a better deal than the one on offer, which by the way was negotiated by ardent Leave supporters (Davis, Raab & Barclay). Mrs May has nothing else to offer unless it is softer than the deal currently being offered to Parliament. Which presumably the hard right, ERG etc will continue to reject.
This is why we need a second public vote; Leave with no deal and all that entails with dire warnings of economic hardship from most industries, most analysts and most economists, accept the negotiated offer on the table which pretty much ticks no-ones boxes or remain in the EU warts and all. Without that confirmation the divisions and bitterness will last for decades with each "side" blaming the other for every lost job and every economic setback.
Personally I would hope that we decided to stay as an influential part of our largest, closest, friendliest economic trading block. But if the arguments for leave (the credible ones this time please) still stack up for enough people to vote out then out we must go and us Remainers need to "Lead, follow or get out of the way".
...because if we Leave the EU and the customs union completely, we lose the heft of twenty-seven other countries - and we will get utterly f**ked over by China and the US...
Rees-Mogg (the Honourable Member for 1887), Fox ("it'll be the easiest trade deals ever"), Davies (who he?
), Raab ("who knew that the English Channel was made of water?") all forgot that we really aren't a big player on the world stage any more.
Face it, people, we are a small archipelago on the edge of Europe, which was a big player with an Empire once upon a time.
We sold off our manufacturing base a long time ago, we don't produce enough of our own goods and even food so we are dependent on imports (prove me wrong on that, I dare you!), and over the last two years we have thoroughly pi$$ed away any semblance of being a respectable and Grand Old Democracy and made ourselves a laughing stock
Oh jeezus bit somebody mention Brexit again..
I feel uttery conned by all sides on this, the only winners of this will be big businesses and investor types, the rich poor divide will widen.
Government has been inept and inadequte and should be scrapped. Let the civil service take over for a bit while politics sorts itself out and let them make the decisions, they are the ones with the real knowledge of how to run a country after all. If they need guidance, they can ask a panel made up of leaders, from industry, morality and of the environment.
Unfortunately, the civil service stopped being impartial and practical quite some time ago...
(The politicians didn't like having non-partisan civil servants second-guessing their stupidity...).
I'm just glad that I'm a Specialized S-Works in a world full of Carerra's...
Some of us left the UK because of the attitudes becoming prevelant there. I now live in a country that welcomes people and will soon become a citizen of this country.
I couldn't give a toss about the Europeon union but anyone who thought leaving will make things any better or much different is highly disolusioned. You will still have the same self serving hippocrytes ruling over you just with less rules to stop them shitting on you. The only people who will do well out of it are the wealthy who will have had their financial advisors and such working far harder on this than your government has.
As for "intellegent" people who voted leave changing their minds........ um......I don't consider myself particularly intellegent and I could see the lies quite clearly.
Anyone who voted for 360 million for the NHS, getting their border controll back while enjoying a better place in the economic world is pretty "thick" in my book and are living in dreamland.
You live in a capitalist (so called) democracy. It is run by money and most politicians are there to facilitate this.
British arrogance at it's worst.
Still no sane, positive reasons for pursuing Brexit, I see. Instead, another classic of the genre: the rambling, paranoid rant full of false equivalences and buck-passing.
Exaggerating future economic risks is not on the same level as blatant lying about known facts. Even if it were, how does both sides being dishonest make the referendum more legitimate? The Swiss re-run referenda on account of a fraction of the impropriety we witnessed in 2016.
And when Theresa May said "Brexit means Brexit", remainers said that it was meaningless twaddle to cover doing whatever she wanted, but leavers cheered her on to "crush the saboteurs". Now you blame us for her intransigence?
The problem we have had is that your lot have been causing such a massive ruck/throwing tantrums and ridiculous levels of personal bile/insults because you didn't get your way, that that's what is causing the majority of the issues over the last couple of years with the uncertainty of it all. It's your lot that is deliberately fucking things up so its become a shitshow on a grand scale, it's your lots fault that we haven't got this done and dusted with hard brexit, in 'your lot' I include the lying and frankly treasonous viper May and her cohorts, she's an utter disgrace to the title Prime Minister.
Remind who is throwing tantrums?
If you had any rational, honest arguments for why Brexit is a good idea, despite 34 months proof that it is a shitshow, you'd be posting them. Instead we get this oft-used pretence of taking personal offence when people point out that, while you may well not be racist or stupid, your side only won by a narrow margin through targeted lying to people who were.
Ah right, so the lies that the remain campagin sold and are still selling to people don't count? The amount of bullshit that has being spewn forth regarding the economy would be laughable if it wasn't so damaging (and it has been massively damaging thus far!) and indeed making people think they had to vote remain. Your side was only so close to the leave vote because of the bullshit lies/fear factor that were spun so you can jog right on with your 'well you only just won because of xx/yy/zz', it works both ways and you know it, you can't be that simple can you to not know this?
The problem we have had is that your lot have been causing such a massive ruck/throwing tantrums and ridiculous levels of personal bile/insults because you didn't get your way, that that's what is causing the majority of the issues over the last couple of years with the uncertainty of it all. It's your lot that is deliberately fucking things up so its become a shitshow on a grand scale, it's your lots fault that we haven't got this done and dusted with hard brexit, in 'your lot' I include the lying and frankly treasonous viper May and her cohorts, she's an utter disgrace to the title Prime Minister.
Right now, I'd rather stay in the EU than go with leave under the terms she is offering to MPs to accept, it's weak as fuck, it's selling the nation to the dogs and would kill us every which way ... and she knows this, that is why she continues to press for this unworkable/unacceptable pile of steaming turd. This is deliberate to weaken the whole leave position and it's working.
Blow fucking parliament up, at least save us the billions in repairs to the crack den and we can rebuild in the midlands somewhere that would ave countless billions more in the long run.
This is in part why we need this revolution, staying in an even more corrupt cabal is not working and has not worked in the UKs favour, it's been going to shit for decades and getting ever worse.
Say what you like in response, I don't care, it'll be more of the same old pony that's been chucked up since day one ... blah blah blah blah blah blah. When it all comes crashing down and things carry on being a pile of shit, it's on you and your lot, not those that wanted change for the better!
Nice rant.
Back to the referendum, stay or leave?
Choose a door. Any door, I'll tell you what's behind them after you've chosen and committed yourself. I'm not interested in perceived problems within the room as most of them are bullshit. You have decided to choose a door and must tell me which one it is to be.
LEAVE MEANS LEAVE!
"Local corrupt cabals, for local people!"
What a LOL-fest. Except for the comments on May which I can agree with.
Behind the bike sheds. Could you please tell me what you actually expect to get from leaving the EU as I can not see how things would be any better for normal people and can't understand why you think it would be much different. Please explain to me how this would work. I'm being serious as I just can't understand it.
Three bicycles, three votes, that's what I say. That would sort this country out straight away.
This country has become an absolute farce.
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