tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3805138158441245701.post6237353146864478298..comments2023-11-16T10:44:22.206+00:00Comments on The Mind of a Helmet Camera Cyclist: Who I Won't be Voting Formagnatomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14920774671676488322noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3805138158441245701.post-1578579539870932072014-11-12T23:30:50.457+00:002014-11-12T23:30:50.457+00:00David, I admire your persistence. If Fiona Mcleod ...David, I admire your persistence. If Fiona Mcleod really thinks she has answered your questions then it seriously calls into question the calibre of our MSPs. She has totally missed the main points of your letter.<br /><br />I think however that your first letter to her, well written as it was, did not ask specific enough questions to generate specific responses. I think you should try again, sticking to the main points of your first letter.<br /><br />I will be writing to my own MSP to raise the following points, with a bit more background and with links to this blog.<br /><br />1. Justice system – inadequate charges and sentencing : does she agree that in the example you provided the charge was correct and the sentence adequately reflected the severity of the offence? Will she lobby Kenny MacAskill to investigate this issue and take steps to improve the protection provided by the justice system to vulnerable road users?<br />2. Funding for active travel is actually declining (out of a transport budget of several billions) in spite of recent research demonstrating a return to the economy of between 2 and 5 times on spending on active travel. Does she understand the case for increasing spending on active travel and will she follow this up with colleagues responsible for transport spending?BJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05199831399932570034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3805138158441245701.post-39527285270663333412014-11-11T20:46:52.448+00:002014-11-11T20:46:52.448+00:00There's two issues I see here: money and democ...There's two issues I see here: money and democracy.<br /><br />1) At the moment, Scotland pays for all of its own roads, because the roads are devolved. <br /><br />However, at the same time we have to pay for roads in England that qualify as 'national importance', even though we see no benefit to Scotland from them (as well as other infrastructure like HS2, Crossrail and London's new sewer system, your Scottish taxes are literally being flushed own Westminster toilets).<br /><br />England doesn't pay a penny for roads that may be of national importance to Scotland, like the A9. (Just like Scotland had to pay for the London Olympics but England didn't pay for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.)<br /><br />So that's a huge big pile of money we send south every year to pay for England's roads which we should be spending on improving our own crumbling infrastructure (not to mention money that we could save by getting rid of Trident and not being involved in illegal foreign wars). That's a problem that can only be solved by independence.<br /><br />2) Since we're only a small percentage of the population, English opinions will outweigh Scottish ones every time. Even if every member of the Scottish electorate and every political party were determined to spend hundreds of pounds per head every year on cycling, to make things even better that the Netherlands and put private motorised traffic into museums, as long as we remain part of the UK, our opinions on every subject, including cycling, will be ignored.<br /><br />The Dept of Transport covers all reserved road transport, as well as marine and air (that's killing off Scottish airports for the benefit of those in the north of England), so we can't come up with our own standardised quality bike infrastructure regulations, and we can't delete the crap that doesn't work from the regulations. Even councils like Edinburgh that do want to spend more on cycling are doing it all wrong because there's no proper standardisation of quality, like in Holland. The Road Traffic Act also covers the whole of Scotland despite our separate law system, so no matter how much Scotland wants it, we can't have our own laws to protect cyclists if England doesn't.<br /><br />Our democratic deficit can only be solved by independence.<br /><br />The SNP is the only party that puts Scotland anywhere into the equation at Westminster which is only interested in what focus-groups from marginal seats in the south-east of England wants, hence the crackdown on immigration which specifically goes against Scotland's interests. <br /><br />I believe the SNP are the party that gives us the best chance for independence, hence I'll be voting SNP until we get it. Only once we've got control over our own finances, regulations and laws can we seriously expect to get a cycling revolution in Scotland.<br /><br />It's also worth mentioning that the Scottish Police Federation in their submission to the Smith Commission mentions that increased devolution could give us the option for "greater legislative protection for cyclists". http://www.spf.org.uk/2014/10/new-spf-response-tothe-smith-commission/ (Of course, no one expects the Smith Commission to propose anything that could be actually useful in making our country a better place, not while all the unionist parties in Westminster want to put the Jocks back in their place.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3805138158441245701.post-77431318541353066122014-11-11T08:03:52.281+00:002014-11-11T08:03:52.281+00:00Keep up the good work David.Keep up the good work David.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15067331499636093962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3805138158441245701.post-5809498989588908102014-11-10T21:09:10.605+00:002014-11-10T21:09:10.605+00:00Cambridge Cycle Campaign runs a useful survey in t...Cambridge Cycle Campaign runs a useful survey in the run up to elections. A set of questions are created the each politician is invited to answer. They can be quite revealing. From no answer; don't care; to the completely open UKIP anti-cycling stance. Have a dig round at this link for inspiration: <a href="http://www.camcycle.org.uk/elections/" rel="nofollow">http://www.camcycle.org.uk/elections/</a><br />Cottenham Cyclisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04341822746581357047noreply@blogger.com