I was glancing through the Yorkshire Evening Post, as I waited in a Cafe Nero in Leeds to be served. Unfortunately, the only article I had time to read was a good old Yorkshire columnist who basically advocated throwing eggs at cyclists. He painted the usual picture of irresponsible cyclists going through red lights e.t.c. He said the solution was to keep a store of eggs so that we could throw them at misbehaving cyclists. I guess it’s better than the old string wire proposed by Matthew Parris.
Well, he has a fair point – it is very irresponsible and inconsiderate to cycle through red lights. But, it leaves you begging the question:
- What do you throw at drivers who break speed limits or drive with mobile phones or pass too close to cyclists / pedestrians? An egg is satisfactory at a lycra clad cyclist, but, what is satisfactory for someone protected by persplex? Perhaps mashed potato?
- What do you throw at journalists, who regurgitate the same story with a slight twist? perhaps a copy of George Orwells’ guide to creative writing?
I’m sure at journalistic school, there is a list of popular topics to write about, should a journalist run out of things to say. The top 5 are probably
- House prices
- The weather
- benefit cheats
- Bad Bankers
- Bad cyclists
It’s funny how so many journalists write similar articles along the formula of:
- Many cyclists are bad.
- We should take law into our own hands and teach those pesky cyclists a lesson.
- We don’t really mean it it when we say cyclists should be strung up. After all this is all light-hearted and a bit of fun. But, it would teach them a lesson, what ho!
Fortunately, the article isn’t online so you don’t need to waste your time looking for it. I always make a resolution not to read newspapers, especially regional ones. But, alas I always fail to listen to my own resolution.
In unrelated news, police report they are looking for white van driver who shot at a cyclist with an air-rifle.
Related
Given that I’ve had a pint glass hefted at me from across the High St early in the evening (a couple of years ago) and that a snowball nearly unseated me on a corner last year, I’m anti- even humorous encouragement of chucking things at cyclists (or motorists come to it).
The only thing you can possibly say in defence of such articles is that they might provoke debate. A few letters published in the paper might give a couple of people pause for thought. Unfortunately, the letters page is unlikely to be read by as many people as the original piece.
Newspaper columnists are paid to court controversy and don’t necessarily hold the positions they express quite as firmly as their articles would have you believe. That’s fine up to a point, but even the stupidest opinions have influence. This is why writers should think carefully about everything they say. Many don’t.
A poor little journo who finds themselves depised in society trying to deflect some of the disdain onto others, in this case cyclists.
Yawn……………………………………………..next!!!