EU bike proposals - e-petition

Marta Andeasen, MEP for South-East England, has started an e-petition calling for the scrapping of the EU anti-biker proposals. I would urge everyone to consider getting over there and signing it. Here's the link:

E-petition

here's the text:

The EU is proposing the Regulation on approval and market surveillance of two- or three-wheel vehicles and quadricycles : COM(2010)0542 We call on the Government at European Council, Ministerial, at Commons and at Lord's level, as well as British MEPs and MPs to oppose, in the strongest terms, this proposed legislation.

and here's the rationale from her website:

Brussels 25 March 2011. Motorcyclists across Britain are facing misery after the European Commission published plans to regulate 2, 3 and 4 wheel quad bikes. UKIP MEP Marta Andreasen is working closely with Motorcycle groups and wants to see the regulation shelved.

The plans, which will go to the Internal Market Committee of the European Parliament in late May, include:

1. Compulsory Advanced Braking Systems (ABS). ABS does not work well on loose surfaces. The costs of fitting, maintenance and repair have not been properly assessed. The Commission’s internal Impact Assessment admits that the data on the effectiveness and costs of compulsory ABS is weak. Where riders choose bikes with ABS the rider must be able to turn the system off when riding on loose surfaces such as gravel.

2. ‘Anti-Tampering’ measures (this restricts riders’ choice of air filters, engine management systems, internal parts, exhausts,
sprockets, tyres, etc.). The riders’ ability to make modifications to suit their own situation should not be regulated. The ability of qualified riders to de-restrict or otherwise tune their vehicle should not be removed.

3. Road-side Spot-checks targeting riders. Riders are to be detained for random checks of emissions and modifications. It is unacceptable to deny freedom of movement in this way. If this was applied to cars and other forms of road transport, there would be uproar.

In a statement from Brussels Mrs Andreasen said,

“Yet again we are forced to witness the EU sticking its nose in where it is not needed. What is worse is that the proposals show a distinct lack of understanding of how motorbikes work and, if implemented, could ironically make bikes less safe. Typically the European Commission has decided to blunder in and create a problem where none exists.

“I am starting a campaign with bikers across the UK to lobby their local MEP and ensure that this needless legislation is thrown on the scrap heap. Forcing expensive braking systems that don’t work well on motorcycles, preventing bikers choice on what tyres or exhausts they want on their bikes and randomly stop-checking them goes far beyond nanny-stateism at its worst. It is actually a form of victimisation.”

Looks like UKIP is the only one on the side of bikers at the moment.

Who came second?

I was going to do a post on the Barnsley by-election result, but Snowolf got there first, with a similar line to the one I was planning to take.

Remind me again ... who came second?

We know best

Via Sue, news that there is to be a public rally on 2 April on 'Leaving the European Union'.

2 April 2011
14:30 to 17:00
Friends Meeting House
173 Euston Road
London NW1 2BJ

Every poll ever taken in the UK shows a clear majority in favour or leaving the EU. We have been promised a referendum on our continued membership, first by Gordon Brown, then by Nick Clegg, and finally by 'Cast Iron' Dave Cameron. None of these have come to pass. Until now, denial of a voice to the British people has been a matter of dither and obfuscation rather than outright refusal. There has always been a good reason for 'not yet'.

Today, that has changed. From today's Daily Express:

But Downing Street insisted that the issue of EU membership was not on the
table. A spokesman said: “The Government believes that membership of the EU is
in the national interest, and for this reason there will not be a referendum on
whether we remain a member state.

So that's quite clear, then. In black and white.

We know best.
We know what you are going to say.
So we won't ask you.

Counterproductive to treat children like this. Illegal to treat employees like this. Government policy to treat a nation of 60m like this.

I'm not a halfwit. Tipping point reached. It's UKIP from now on.

UKIP if you want to ...

I see than the grinning Nigel Farage has been re-elected as UKIP leader. In a way, I don't trust Farage. He reminds me of the hail-fellow-well-met type you meet at social functions who clap you on the back and say things like "so tell me, Richard, what's your poison old boy, eh?" He is definitely of the blazer-wearing tendency, and I bet he secretly hankers after a Jaguar if he doesn't already own one. And drives it in a car coat and string-back gloves.

However, accidents and near-misses have a habit of endearing people to you, despite your reservations. I can never see Norman Tebbit without remembering the awful image of him being lifted out of the rubble of the Grand Hotel, Brighton in his pyjamas, caked in dust and with a look of anguish on his face. He was never Vlad the Impaler after that. And Farage's plane crash on election day has had the same effect. I feel rather fond of the old boy.

This comes at rather a good time. I had the strong feeling that the country I grew up in and loved had gone in a different and very wrong direction, and away from me, in the last 13 years of Labour. I had high hopes for the coalition, after their promises to roll back the database state and have a bonfire of unnecessary laws. And of course there was the 'cast-iron' guarantee of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Heh.

I do not have unrealistic expectations about what can be achieved and how quickly. I don't expect the coalition to bring back the Golden Age in the first 12 months of office. But there are depressing signs that things are perhaps not going to be done quite as I had hoped. A lot of quangos are to be axed, but an awful lot will be spared too. There is no sign of the Government tackling the spiteful bias of the BBC's news and current affairs output. Nothing was done before the announcement of the Spending Review, which allowed the BBC to colour the whole affair as 'the terrible cuts', and any action taken now won't repair the damage that the coverage did to the public's view of the events. Maybe they won't do anything. Call Me Dave seems to have kowtowed to the EU just as much as Blair and Brown, although with less visible enthusiasm.

I have always voted for the party that stands a realistic chance of effecting the kind of politics that I want, which is why I haven't ever voted for minority parties. Last May, the Conservatives seemed to be the party that was offering something close to what I wanted, and they had a good chance of forming a government and being able actually to do something. I'm not writing them off yet - for all their faults, they are a million miles better then the last lot of hucksters and criminals - but I am starting to feel a lot of disappointment at their lack of activity on certain things that I regard as vitally important, specifically

• cutting the BBC down to size and making it politically neutral once more
• standing up for British interests abroad, and especially with the EU
• starting to reform the law in favour of the law-abiding majority and not the terrorist and the criminal
• "That government is best which governs least".

Of course, many of the reforms that I would like to see are impossible while we are full members of the EU. So tackling that relationship - and being brave enough to take some bold and far-reaching steps - has to come at the top of the list. And I no longer have much confidence that Cameron is about to do anything remotely radical about it. He's looking more and more like Blair in a blue tie.

Farage talks a good talk, and isn't afraid to say what ordinary people are thinking, without the self-censorship that most politicians indulge in. I still hold out hope that the coalition will do some good things, and maybe even start working towards a Britain that I will recognise as my own. But their time is running out for me, and if they lose my confidence and support, UKIP is likely to be the beneficiary.

It's easy to look at small, single-issue parties and see the lack of proportion and paucity of talent. You may agree with everything the BNP says, for example, but would you want them in charge of the economy? Really? Of all the minor parties, UKIP seem the most coherent and competent. And, if Cameron can't or won't deliver what the country needs, how much worse would they be? At least we know what they stand for.

I haven't changed my voting intentions yet, but I can now see a time when I might.