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There is no secret about the fact that the Rust observes the world from the perspective of those who are just slightly beyond the first flush of youth, arguably a viewpoint that is seriously under-valued (not to say ignored in many respects) in the 21st Century.
Which is a tangential way of approaching today the vexed subject of three of the great scourges of modern pedestrian existence – i.e. bicycles, electric scooters … and the self-centred, anti-social hooligan hordes that use them.
Most readers will be aware of the old saying “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings …” and today I’d add for good measure that sometimes, in the modern world, straightforward, (old-fashioned in some quarters), sheer bloody common sense can get right to the heart of a complicated issue and provide the obvious solution to a particular blight upon the human condition – even if our politicians and some of the vast army of know-it-all supposedly PC “woke” warriors cannot see it because of their fundamental inability to take the beam out of their own eyes before taking the mote out of everyone else’s.
Several Rust columnists have supported the contention that all road-users – including cyclists and owners of e-scooters – should have to take a formal Government test and pay for an annually renewable licence before being allowed on the roads of Great Britain.
Note above that I have used the phrase “before being allowed on the roads of Great Britain”.
It clearly stands to reason that – under pain of losing their licence, having their means of self-conveyance automatically confiscated and scrapped, having to pay a mandatory fine of £1,000 on each occasion – if not also (as would be my preference) being subjected to capital punishment via a method decided by a daily “smartphone-registered” poll voted for by UK pedestrians conducted every day at 6.00pm on a special Government website – no owner or user of a bicycle or e-scooter should ever be allowed to their “device” on any public UK pavement and/or ignore any red light at any set of road traffic lights.
This proposal would do no more than enhance “the greater benefit of the greatest number”.
Why should not these vermin – as happens with all other “road users” including motor cyclists – have to take their chances on the roads of Great Britain, rather than riding them unhindered and uncontrolled upon our pavements, which are by definition specifically designed for pedestrians, at the very real risk of harming the quiet enjoyment of life and safety of the ordinary citizen going about his or her business on foot?
There is still time for readers of this mighty organ to add their signature to the Rust-backed petition now before the Westminster Government demanding immediate legislation to deal once and for all with these innumerable and unabashed “outlaws” now reducing the UK’s “rules of the road” to a national joke.
What’s more, it is not just our pavements that we need to regain “control” of.
Overnight I spotted a report by Sam Baker upon the latest absurd suggestion from one of the “woke” brigade – no less than former BBC journalist and news anchor Jeremy Vine, who should know better – that cyclists should be encouraged to “spread out” across the road when riding in groups – see here, on the website of the – DAILY MAIL
