Should I respond to anti cyclist rant letter in our local paper.

[Ming the Merciless]

Theres a really negative anti cyclist rant in a letter to the editor of our local rag.

The letter written by a certain Karl James Langford who claims to be a "Liberal Party Parliamentary Spokesman" contains some very doubtfull statements and out an out inaccuracies .

He claims foul mouthed cyclists tried to force him and his children off a shared path onto a dangerous road.He stood his ground and an argument took place .

I know the path in question , Its about a 4 feet 6 inch wide strip of tarmac with care bikes and peds can pass each other but crucially theres a ten feet wide strip of grass between path and road so in no way would he have been forced onto the "dangerous road"as he claims.

I normally cycle on the road so this morning deliberately cycled the full length of the path and the situation described in his letter could not possibly happen as described.

he then went on to say cyclists were a complete menace and should be banned from main roads and narrow country lanes and were a nuisance on trains. his rant then went on almost laughably to the old they don't pay road tax nonsense and even how horrified he is to see children being carried on bikes.

I was expecting him to be an elderly gent totally out of touch with reality but in fact googling revealed he is a highly educated young man with small children.

I have drafted an email letter to the editor addressing some of his points and saying a Parliamentary spokesman really should know a bit more about the UK tax system but in the back of my mind i know this will just feed the trolls and spark up a load of anti bike crap in future editions .

Dear Sirs,

I was saddened to read the letter by Karl James Langford who claims to be a Liberal Party Parliamentary spokesperson. Call me old fashioned but I thought you needed to be an elected representative of Parliament , an MP, to be such a spokesperson? Garnering less than 1% of the vote in the local elections in 2005 hardly counts, does it?

One cannot take his letter seriously and am I surprised you published it without confirming that any of it is true. Were there any verifiable facts in it? I think not! Cyclist bashing has sadly become an all too common a past time, at a time when we need to be protecting our most vulnerable road users.

I do hope that your readers will continue to share our streets and that unnecessary conflict can be avoided. Let's not pander to what are in essence letters designed to provoke and potentially put daughters, sons, husbands and wives in danger. Purely because they decided to ride a bike. We are all better than this,

Your reasonably

A concerned tax payer.

 

[winjim]

[QUOTE 4872630, member: 259"]Nah, I've got it stored safely in case there's another pizza flare-up![/QUOTE]
Did it kick off in the pizza thread? I missed that.

 

[Banjo]

Dear Sirs,

I was saddened to read the letter by Karl James Langford who claims to be a Liberal Party Parliamentary spokesperson. Call me old fashioned but I thought you needed to be an elected representative of Parliament , an MP, to be such a spokesperson? Garnering less than 1% of the vote in the local elections in 2005 hardly counts, does it?

One cannot take his letter seriously and am I surprised you published it without confirming that any of it is true. Were there any verifiable facts in it? I think not! Cyclist bashing has sadly become an all too common a past time, at a time when we need to be protecting our most vulnerable road users.

I do hope that your readers will continue to share our streets and that unnecessary conflict can be avoided. Let's not pander to what are in essence letters designed to provoke and potentially put daughters, sons, husbands and wives in danger. Purely because they decided to ride a bike. We are all better than this,

Your reasonably

A concerned tax payer.

That is a superb piece of penmanship.

I considered asking you if I could use it but anyone who knows me would know thats not my work.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

That is a superb piece of penmanship.

I considered asking you if I could use it but anyone who knows me would know thats not my work.

Feel free to use , or translate into your own words should you choose.

 

[classic33]

There isn't a Liberal Party registered in the UK.

 

[classic33]

http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/English/Registrations/PP54

Note the last registered name change

 

[jefmcg]

Note the last registered name change
View attachment 361369
View attachment 361370

Last registered description change.

Also,

 

[rugby bloke]

What ? No People's Party of Judea ...

 

[roadrash]

no, its the Judean peoples popular front..................................splitter

 

[classic33]

Last registered description change.

Also,
View attachment 361387

Last Registered Description being the party name. Last changed in 2014. As shown on that page the name they registered under first, follow the link(PP54) and you'll see the list of regisgtered names they've used.

 

[classic33]

I'm missing the point of this.
It would appear that they've changed their description, while retaining the primary name of "The Liberal Party". It's unclear what the purpose of the "description" is, but I rather doubt that it's the party name. But, even if it were, and they had changed the name to "Liberal Party for a Fairer Country" I'm not sure what relevance this has. They definitely exist. Whether the writer of the letter has any right to describe themselves as "Liberal Party Parliamentary Spokesman" is open to doubt.

Spokesman for a party that doesn't exist?

 

[winjim]

Blimey, this thread's moved on. Are we really debating the very existence of the Liberal Party?

 

[jefmcg]

Last Registered Description being the party name.

No, it's not. The party name is at the top of the page, marked by the phrase "Party Name" not sneakily hidden in a column named "Description" inside a section named "Descriptions"

But I am not sure how they come into it at all. There is no party affiliation in the Wales Online article, and if there was in the printed newspaper, I'd wouldn't be surprised if there was a correction next week.

 

[classic33]

No, it's not. The party name is at the top of the page, marked by the phrase "Party Name" not sneakily hidden in a column named "Description" inside a section named "Descriptions"

But I am not sure how they come into it at all. There is no party affiliation in the Wales Online article, and if there was in the printed newspaper, I'd wouldn't be surprised if there was a correction next week.

Do what I did last week, actually phone the Electoral Commission and ask them if there's a Liberal Party registered within the UK.

 

[jefmcg]

Do what I did last week, actually phone the Electoral Commission and ask them if there's a Liberal Party registered within the UK.

Why would I do that? It's clearly listed on their website. That's going to be linked to the current database. A person picking up the phone is either going use the same database or rely on their memory. The former will give the same result as you can get from the website, the latter will either be the same or wrong.