I haven't done a TOTW for a short while, as the runaway weekly winners have been Colostomy Brown and Eyebrows Darling, with absolutely no question.
But this week, surprisingly, it's someone different. Unsurprisingly, however, it's yet another Labour Member*.
Barry Sheerman MP has decided, apparently, that motorcyclists are the spawns of Satan and our choice of transportation is "
disgraceful in a civilised society."
In a typically Labour attack of dishonesty, he tosses in a dash of inaccurate figures and, in a spasm of textual twattishness, describes those of us who use two wheels as 'widow-makers and orphan-makers'.
Hmmm. Really?
In 2007
there were 2946 deaths on British roads. 49% of those were in cars, 20% motorcyclists. So that's 1,444 deaths chalked up to four wheels and 589 to two. So the true widowmakers and orphan-makers are, by almost three to one, those who irresponsibly and with malice aforethought, drive cars.
in the same year, 646 pedestrians** were killed in road accidents. Therefore, the widowmakers and orphan-makers are those who dangerously, and without care and thought, walk on British streets.
Oh, and just as an additional point, he claims that 650 bikers die per year and that the number is rising, when in fact 589 lost their lives in 2007 and 493 in 2008 - which is a drop of almost 20 per cent. Labour's statistical massaging strikes again...
Actually, I would say the truest widowmakers and orphan-makers are those
who voted, strongly, to send British troops into action in Iraq.
You know what's really disgraceful in a civilised society? Preaching, money-grubbing political sluts spouting their personal opinions, twisting facts to the point of surreality and dishonesty, and shoving their own personal agendas up our noses in a desperate and nauseating attempt to garner publicity and deprive the long-suffering population of their few remaining pleasures.
Barry Sheerman doesn't like bikes, and uses his Parliamentary pulpit to voice his distaste. Maybe his mum wouldn't let him have a moped when he was a kid - I really couldn't give a flying fuck.
I have both car and motorcycle, and I love both. Especially bikes. And, like every biker, when I get on two wheels my safety is
MY responsibility, not Westminster's. And certainly not Mr Sheerman's.
Yes, some people may crash. That may even be me at some point. Yes, some people may die. Again, that may even be me. But it is my choice to take and to manage that risk, and to take the precautions
I deem appropriate to mitigate that risk.
So, Mr Sheerman, please do feel free to keep your personal opinions to yourself, lest you find yourself being used as a paddock stand. And subsequently set on fire. Go back to what you're really good at -
which would appear to be troughing taxpayers money - and keep your socialist snout out of people's personal choice of transportation and pleasure.
Twat.
* A complete member.** 646 pedestrians. 646 MPs. Sadly, the two aren't connected.