In Kevin McKenna‘s piece yesterday in the Herald:
In Scotland, in recent years, the Scottish Government, egged on by the Greens, has conferred sacred status on cycling lanes, turning them into a sort of luxury Caledonian camino for the middle-classes.
‘I’ve got nothing against cycle travel, but how many middle-aged, working-class women have you seen riding a bicycle into the city? The answer is none. The priority for Glasgow has to be buses.’
WTF’s a ‘camino’ Kev. Middle-Class or whit?
Kevin, back in 2012, before he had to pretend being pro-independence as cover for slagging the SNP every day:
So having done the hill-walking gig, this year me and a couple of chums are seriously thinking about doing a wee bit of cycling instead. In that way, we get to see a little more of the countryside and, at the same time, we do our bit to help Scotland reach its 2020 carbon emission reduction target. Everybody wins; no one loses and there are a few more rosy cheeks. Yet it isn’t simply for reasons of health and a desire to be environmentally responsible that we are planning our trip to Halfords. There are sentimental reasons too. For it is almost 30 years ago that three of us embarked on an apocalyptic two-week cycling tour of the Trossachs. It was a touching bid by three young urban dwellers to see a bit more of our beautiful country and to try and get served alcohol in rural boozers where we had heard that the landlords had a more laissez-swallez attitude to under-age drinking. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/06/kevin-mckenna-sinister-cycle-trip
So, drink-cycling is it now? Cycling after several pints of heavy. Pure working-class Kev.
What happened to the love of cycling? After a wee stroke, my balance is gone on foot but it strangely seems better on a bike and at 74 I can still go a bit.
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The Herald piece was a puff for ‘Scottish’ Labour’s plans for buses.
Now, why, after all these years is Labour interested in buses?
Cast your mind back a few months to recall a very substantial donation – allegedly £500k – from the owners of McGill’s buses.
And, why are McGill’s becoming involved in politics?
Because towards the end of 2024 a law was passed at Holyrood to bring bus services back under public control – something which McGill’s opposed and threatened, Trump-like, to use the billionaire wealth to defeat Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive in the courts, and prevent SPTE to franchise services and require companies like McGill’s to run socially useful services, and at agreed frequencies rather than allowing bus companies to choose the most profitable routes and run services as they see fit to enable them to ‘maximise shareholder return’.
That is the context of the Herald article. They are conspiring with the Labour Party and private bus owners to stop the public getting the bus services we need and, pre deregulation, used to have.
The attack on cycling is a nod to potential Reform voters because Farage has said that a Reform Government would ‘rip out all cycle lanes’.
This is another example of Labour betraying its history.
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He is obviously a lying grifter, that’s putting it nicely.
Well LabCons grifting money wastinf coalition council in Edinburgh, have once again plonked those hire bikes everywhere that folks can ride for a fee. Problem is it’s put some bike repairs folks out of business, and when you see the folks riding these electric bikes they have no idea how to use the road, no helmets of course, no visor gear…it’s not like Amsterdam where there are fully dedicated cycle lanes. I used to cycle as amode of transport, and no matter in the city or not, you really have to be on your guard and know the code etc, otherwise it’s incredibly unsafe.
As for ‘middle aged working class women’..eh how can you tell (?!) and when did ‘working class women’ ever ride bikes much anyway except to and from factories when they were slaves of the big industrial rich mans system.
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More of the same (bus-story) on the front page of The Herald on Sunday today.
Makes a change from “fairy stories”
(not mine, millsjames1949).
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