Tackling the right issues head on

There seems to be a perhaps not so odd trend to try and ignore potent, but not so convenient facts when trying to push a cause and/or steer public behaviour. But in the very odd hope that people do not have eyes of their own, and brains to figure out what is affecting them the most.

Hence I fully understand why it is a good eco thing to holiday in Britain but, as I have mentioned before, beyond the weather (maybe self-correcting), the sheer cost is a massive factor in our family decisions. Beyond sitting in a tent on the Wye and eating home-cooked sausages (very nice but after four years a bit of a chore... and bore), the money one blows is prohibitive vs. a bit of sun, sea and sand overseas.

And then there's cycling. I really have not one thing to say against it on almost any basis, though the realities of a 5 mile ride up and down hills in a winter rainstorm to and from work seems to make some advocacy 'optimistic'.

However, there is one thing I'm afraid a few public service campaigns will not sway me on, and that's safety. And when it comes to my kids, that is a problem, no matter how many BBC slots on kids cycling get aired.

Yesterday I decided to take my boys on the road for the first time, them having passed their cycling proficiency. Before it was a 10 minute drive to their chum's house. This time it was 30 minutes. Nice weather. Glorious. And in having to go to a fro twice I got a work out.

Thing is, as we returned and pedalled slowly but surely in convoy up a long hill to town, I was almost knocked off by a clown who just had to get past to then immediately turn left across my bow and then, worse, a psycho decided the car he was following as it approached us at a legal 30mph needing overtaking. He only just got back into his lane as he reached my boys and I.

Short of cars being banned, which ain't gonna happen, and dangerous driving being enforced by police and not revenue robots, which has long since passed into the stuff of bad humour, and actual criminals being prosecuted rather than soft money targets, I don't think I am going to be letting my kids loose on this country's roads alone.

No matter how many boxes may get ticked trying to persuade me.

Webcasting Nasturtiums

Qu: In the exchange on Newsnight with the Sun's 'representative', there was an argument about matters of fact on comments made once the petition became a hot political issue. Who was accurate in their statements?

Times - Nations unite to join a boycott of congestion charge - Well, at least something has brought 'em together at last.

Times - Without road pricing we face gridlock, says Blair

Right message. Wrong person and team to try and sell the solution.

If you can't, or won't, answer key questions with anything other than
defensiveness, denial, hype, spin and 'looking at it' nonsense waffle,
you will not get past the necessary trust levels to allow it to get where
it needs to go.

I await with interest the webcast Thursday pm with Dr.
'Ladymano a 1.8M manos' to see how this little exchange gets carried
out sensibly and then reported.

I'm still trying to figure out who you charge fairly and accurately
without tracking individual vehicle movements as they progress, by
the '2 to 3 ways' alluded to.

Times - Oh, unhappy me. I’m a car owner

Times - Pedal Power

'Road proceeds should be invested in repopularising the bicycle'

I couldn't agree more. However I rather fear as, say with unhiring 750,000 extra civil servants (quoted in these pages I think yesterday), the theory is good but the practice may prove less so.

I'd also like to ensure we are talking here of congestion charge proceeds in London, and not national road proceeds. You see there is a difference.

You may wish to cycle to avoid the smell and overcrowding and performance of an urban transport network that involves minute by minute buses and tubes. Plus the option of heavily subsidised (never understood why such a private enterprise is exempt from charges to carry just one person (ex: driver) in a not very clean diesel emitting all day and night long - maybe it's because the non-car brigade in power still need to get about without the hassle and hoi polloi?).

However, when it's freezing, heaving down, you have a large load and/or two kids, or an urgent appointment well, the trusty Raleigh is the very thing. Especially if the nearest anything is 15 miles away up hill and down dale as the tractor chugs.

And as statistics are a favoured tool of persuasion, may I simply ask (as I don't know) how far affordable housing is from the main urban places of work in the European examples cited? And ignoring the admittedly woeful current support to encourage it in London, what are the geographical challenges. Last time I looked, Amsterdam was pretty flat. I used to live in Wandsworth and there were a couple of hills there alone that would have done for me.

Or is this advocacy solely for young, single, non-parent, fit types?

Guardian - E-petitions: Marketing, or e-democracy?

While I appreciated the opportunity to make my case in London while not having to suffer the irony of drive there to do so (note that one, placard wavers), I'd have to say that what came back was not marketing.

As I do not think any alternative views will gain access to this valuable database, I'd say it falls more under propaganda.

Josef would have been proud.

Guardian - That email