MP who called cyclists "law-breaking Lycra Louts" fined for driving through red light

Kate Hoey representing part of Lambeth (an entirely urban area with a significant level of gun crime, no fox hunting, and a somewhat higher-than-average proportion of utility-cyclists) has to be one of the most mismatched MP-constituency pairings ever.

Her pet causes seem to be: Northern Irish Protestants, supporting farmers and country people generally, supporting fox-hunting, supporting the right to own guns, banging on about sport, and expressing pig-ignorant bigotry towards cyclists.

Regardless of whether one agrees with any of those (I range from strongly disagreeing to just not caring either way), who decided she was a good match for this particular parliamentary seat?

Poor old kate must be doubly pissed off because not only did she earn a traffic conviction and the ridicule of the cycling world but the fox she was speeding to run over at the time got away when the police stopped her as well

So funny. I lived in London during the height of the Blair years (97 - 05) and always found Hoey to be a vacuous piece of detritus. Strangely enough I kind of liked Blair . . . moving right along . . .

From the article
"How many times have you seen a cyclist deliberately riding in the middle of the road, preventing any car passing and then screaming abuse at the poor driver who dares to try?"

I have to say I have seen this in the UK and people riding in a group of 5 or 6 strung across the road filling the lane on a busy route.

It is madness people, remember the laws of:-

1 The road.
and
2 Gross tonnage

1 The road, I know we are allowed to cycle two abreast but just to wind somebody up on a narrow road get a life or more aptly applying rule 2 gross tonnage, keep the one you have.
We are all road users.
I know, I know, a lot of car users (cannot say drivers cause a lot of people cannot drive their cars adeptly) are septic ar$eholes but does that mean we have to be as well?
Mind you I'm lucky I do most (well all) of my cycling in France and have had no problems to date except from one UK driver and he may just have not appreciated the insane priority to the right rule over here (see no where's perfect). As in this article what goes around comes around or more succinctly Karma

Why we need stronger sentences for 'minor motoring offences: http://sickandtiredtothebackteeth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/why-we-need-str...

Er, no....more often they're Denim-Louts. But Hoey, full of vitriol, sees only what she wants to see....as do all bigots.
P.R.

Just goes to show that when you point your finger at somebody there are three (Norfolk excepting) pointing back at yourself.

As said earlier KARMA

Funny another example of claiming another group is the issue when it is actually the person pointing the finger.

RLJing combines two things most people hate...arrogance ('the law doesn't apply to me') and queue jumping.

"How many times have you seen a cyclist deliberately riding in the middle of the road, preventing any car passing and then screaming abuse at the poor driver who dares to try?"

Let's see now, erm....oh yes, NEVER. Not once in my long life. I wouldn't be surprised if she hasn't either.

And while I'm at it, 'Lycra louts' is just another silly, catchy sound bite, designed to grab attention and sound like it actually means something. Typical Daily or Sunday Mail sound-bite-sneering, devoid of any thought whatsoever. The people you do see jumping lights and doing other daft things are rarely, in my experience, 'lycra-clad', i.e. serious proper cyclists like you and me.

Driving last night on a very busy road in South Glos I was amazed at the number of cyclists - assumed commuting at that time of night - without lights on parts of the road with poor street lighting, do they have a death wish?

You can buy perfectly good lights for £1 at the pound shop.

Theobald's Road WC1 this morning: police pulled over a RLJ cyclist. Good - quite right too. While giving him a ticket, they ignored the bus taking up the entire ASL box.

The only surprise about this story is that the Police actually enforced road traffic laws against the driver of a motor vehicle instead of a cyclist.

As Oscar Wilde allegedly said about the death of Little Nell: it would take a heart of stone not to laugh

Wow...so this article has been eating away at the cycling community for 10 years and now she has a transgression it's triumphantly dug up and used as ammunition.

Karma is a bitch.

She should be sacked and her pension withdrawn.

Kate Hoey in Lycra, what a horrible thought. You really need some therapy to think that!!

To be fair, she might have been wearing lyrcra at the same time, and certainly as an MP is infuriatingly smug. Red light jumping is agressive and selfish so it ticks all the boxes...

240 pounds isn't a very large fine given the likelihood of someone being the killed or badly hurt.

I also can't bear cyclists going through red lights either. The problem is one of too few traffic traffic police, no one expects to get caught, solve that and there would be a whole lot less us and them attitude.

Pot.......Kettle?

That's because anti-cycling nonsense is written into UKIP's manifestos. It is what passes for policy with them. That's not the case with Labour. UKIP are an institutionally anti-cyclist party (with the occasional pro-cyclist rebel) whislt Labour are largely neutral with substantial pro and anti cyclist sections.

Funny, last time there was an article about some UKIP politician saying anti cyclist things, everyone was lining up to slag off UKIP. Yet when a Labour politician says similar things, the focus is on the individual rather than the party she stands for.

Just love imagining that 'egg on face perplexed look'.

Using her logic, all Mini drivers are wanton and selfish red light jumpers, who pay far less road tax than law abiding Jaguar drivers.

The origonal Mail on Sunday article is at the bottom of this blog http://jasontimothyjones.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/labour-mp-who-called-c...

I would love to see more red light cameras in this country (are there any?).

TBH I see more cars running red lights than cyclists.

How about getting some cameras up to charge stupid tax at every junction?