Friday 30 March 2007

Idiotic, unreasoned, and unreasonable.

I'd like to just touch briefly on the subject of motorcycling, motorcyclist safety, and our beloved Labour government.

If anyone's actually reading this, they may or may not be aware of the idiotic suggestion that motorcycles should be restricted in power and top speed to prevent deaths and injury of bikers on British roads. Let me just quote (as originally written, so excuse the grammatical errors).

"I have never heard such arrogant drivel, in defence of bikers, as spouted by Steve berry on today’s programme.Sure there are bad drivers but it seems to me that nearly bikers can't or won’t obey the laws of the road.I live in rural North Wales aleast a quarter of a mile across fields from the main road. Every week-end it's the same.Loud bikes going at least 90 mph overtaking on blind crests, blind bends & even double white lines as if they don't need to take any care.They frighten motorists by coming behind then roaring past, in a cacophony of noise, out of nowhere.In the summer months hardly a week goes by without some biker being killed or injured on the roads of North Wales.If it were up to me I would ban the lot of them.Or throttle the power back to 80mph.One biker was clocked by the North Wales police at speeds of upto 130 mph on narrow country rods with other road users."

As written by 'Stuart P' on the Radio 4 PM programme blog yesterday evening. Now, Stuart P obviously is very much anti-bike, and anti-biker, and I for one, as a responsible motorcyclist, take issue with his points of view.

There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of riders like me. We don't fit into the categories in which Stuart wishes us to reside. Yes, I own a fast bike. It's capable of 160mph, and it will accelerate to 60mph in less time than it takes you to say 'Stuart P is a bigoted cretin'. Both of these facts combined, however, do not add up to me being some psychotic speed-freak with a desire to die, or to kill.

I ride for the freedom, and the pleasure. I ride all year round, in all weather if I have to, and any day of the week. Now, I'm not going to lie and say that on occasion I don't break the speed limit. I'm sure even the saintly Stuart has found himself creeping over 30mph in residential areas. Show me a driver who claims not to break any laws, and I'll find you a liar - but my point is, the majority of the 'Loud bikes going at least 90 mph overtaking on blind crests, blind bends & even double white lines as if they don't need to take any care' are ridden by what we in the biking community know as 'weekend warriors'. They own a big bike. They ride it fast, and often recklessly - and they do it for four or five sunny months of the year. The rest of the year, they drive cars.

Saint Stuart even alludes to this - 'In the summer months hardly a week goes by without some biker being killed or injured on the roads of North Wales'. Absolutely right, in the summer months many of the fair weather bikers will be killed or injured, as they out-ride their skills, dulled by six months of winter off their machine.

These are not 'the lot of them'. These are a minority, very much like the minority of car drivers who choose to race around in souped-up Vauxhall Corsas or Citroën Saxos, causing similar mayhem on our roads. The major difference is that these drivers often do their disruption in towns, late at night, and when they do crash, they survive - not through enhanced skills, but enhanced safety inherent in sitting in a metal box.

As a car driver, and biker, I can categorically state that bikers in general have a far greater awareness of traffic, hazards, and other vehicles than car drivers. Daily I witness countless drivers chatting happily on handheld mobile phones whilst driving, changing lanes without indicating, sitting for mile upon mile in the outside or middle lane of motorways, even reading papers spread over the steering wheel or eating toast and drinking tea. In fact, I work with someone who admits to the latter two very readily.

These are the people frightened by motorcyclists 'coming behind then roaring past, in a cacophony of noise, out of nowhere'. Out of nowhere? Maybe if they used their mirrors for observation of the world around them, they would have a greater awareness of the existence of other road users.

So Saint Stuart - Don't tar us all with the same brush. I'm sure your bigotry doesen't extend as far as asserting that all Muslims are terrorists, or that all Afro-Caribbeans are murderous gang-members - but it doesn't stop far short.

Good night, and sleep well.

Angry Dan

What is going on in the world?

Listening to the radio this morning, there was much being made of the Britain-Iran situation. Now, in many ways, this is understandable, as it's a big issue at the moment - but what's struck my mind is that everyone seems to have missed how convenient this whole situation is.

Iran takes a few of our sailors hostage, just when the US are banging on about Iran being next on 'the list', and touting for international support. Surely, an escalation of diplomatic tension between the UK and Iran gives Tony 'Warhammer' Blair the perfect reason to back up George Bush and his band of Washington hicks when they start lobbing missiles in the general direction of the Middle East.

Now, excuse me for being cynical, but what evidence have we got to prove that the original incident did NOT take place in Iranian waters? Oh, that's right. Some GPS records. Now, remind me once again, who is it who owns and runs the Global Positioning Satellites? How hard can it really be to fake/adjust a few numbers? It's hardly the Roswell conspiracy, is it?

Helpfully enough, you don't have to convince the GPS computers to lie for their country, they just do whatever the hell they're told. Which is nice, if you want to cover up a deliberate (or even accidental) incursion into foreign territory, or if you want to make shipping believe it's off course. Jeez, they even did that in one of the Bond films, and if Pierce Brosnan can work out what's going on, I'm pretty sure that I can't be the only member of the British public to notice what might be going on here.

Now, I may come across as just another lunatic fringe conspiracist, but let me just tell you that:

1) I don't believe in the Grassy Knoll gunman.
2) I don't believe Aliens walk the earth amongst us, although Gordon Brown does do a reasonable impression.
3) I don't believe the moon landing was faked.
4) I don't believe Diana was assassinated.
5) I don't believe 9/11 was actually an American plot to support the 'war on terror'.
6) I don't believe that Microsoft are secretly building an intelligent OS to take over the world.
7) I don't believe in the Da Vinci Code.
8) I don't believe the Nazis landed on the moon in 1942 and built a secret base there.
9) I don't believe that Dinosaur-like reptiles rule the earth.
10) Elvis is dead. Get over it.

Thanks for reading!

Angry Dan

Thursday 29 March 2007

Welcome! About Me, and my Blog...

Hi, and welcome to my blog. In case you haven't guessed, I'm Dan, and I'm angry. Very, very angry. I'm often told I'm 29 going on 59, but that's not true really. I'm much closer to 30 now, and so I reckon in attitude terms, I'm about 62 and a half.

So what's it all about then, this blogging thing? Initially I thought 'I don't really know, and quite frankly, I'm not sure I really care' - but then something struck me. Maybe, just maybe, I could find some solace, maybe some therapy, writing about the stuff I spend too much time thinking about.

I spend a frightening proportion of my time awake getting angry about things. Not just the big stuff, like someone eating my dog, or nicking my car - but about some of the really small things, like when the ketchup top flips closed too fast and sprays sauce on your face. Now normal people would just shrug and wipe it off. Not Angry Dan, oh no - in my mind, that tiny speck of sauce is tantamount to dropping a nuke on Tehran - christ, who'd be surprised if THAT started a war?

Anyway, before I go off on one about ketchup, Iran, Iraq, Tony sodding Blair and the rest of them with their 'safety cameras' and 'school reform' and... no... calm down... back on track - before I go off on one, let me get back to the point. As I was saying, I spend a lot of time angry, so what better way to spend the rest of my time than telling the world what I'm angry about on any given day? Or probably more likely, sometimes several times a day.

So why now? Well, I realised that I probably expend way too much of my available energy raging on at friends, colleagues, the radio, the television - in fact anyone who will (or, to be honest, won't) listen, and for what effect? None. That's what. No effect at all.

Hopefully, if I've got this blogging thing right, it'll be a great way not only to get it all off my chest, but hopefully to spread the misery wider than just among my close acquaintances. And maybe I'll meet a few like minded people along the way.

There'll no doubt be some recurring themes - As a keen motorist on both two and four wheels, I'll doubtless return to the subjects of 'Safety' Cameras, driving standards, the attitude of cars towards bikes, traffic, congestion, global warming... and others.

I'll also tell you about my work - but that's for another day, and another time - and if I run out of things to tell you about that, I might just tell you about myself.

Anyway, for now that's enough. I can feel my heart racing, and I'd like to live to blog again. It helps.

Thanks for listening!
Angry Dan