I think sometimes one or other moderator(s) sees a political connection to a cycling topic and mistakenly thinks it’s not allowed.
The forum owner expressly provides for this type of political discussion to happen on here, without being redirected to the NCAP forum.
So, before this thread probably gets locked, here’s what Shaun himself had to say about it:
“I appreciate my closing of the general political debate sub-forum will lead to a short period of re-adjustment, and accept that there will always be a link between politics and cycling and we should have those discussions on CycleChat - we are a community of cyclists and those ideas, propsals, changes, etc. have the potential to have a big impact on us.
There's no change for the Advocacy and Safety forum, it has always had political aspects to the discussions and can carry on as before; and if a political proposal or issue related to cycling doesn't fit into the advocacy and safety forum, feel free to post about it the General Cycling forum.
But please politely discuss issues and allow everyone to post their opinion without turning the threads into party or personal political debates - that's what the new politics site is for.”