Cycling campaigner gets official recognition

[srw]

Congratulations to Roger Geffen, Campaigns and Policy Director of the CTC (and @rvw's former tutorial partner) for his MBE in the latest Birthday Honours list.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/press-release/2015-06-11/roger-geffen-honoured-mbe-cycling

 

[theclaud]

More of a lobbyist than a campaigner, as we have just been discussing in the pub, but congrats nevertheless.

 

[swansonj]

One of the criticisms of CTC that gets bandied around is that, since choosing to become so dependent on government grants and government-funded schemes for the income that allows them to maintain the size organisation their managers aspire to, they have lost the willingness to upset the government, and their campaigning has become anaemic and sanitised, not really tackling the core issues and being too willing to settle for and trumpet marginal and peripheral wins.

Do we think a gong for Roger Geffen is a dispassionate tribute to his campaigning efforts - or confirmation that, if the establishment is willing to embrace him, he can't be a particularly effective campaigner?

 

[srw]

Do we think a gong for Roger Geffen is a dispassionate tribute to his campaigning efforts - or confirmation that, if the establishment is willing to embrace him, he can't be a particularly effective campaigner?

Or a bit of both, or a bit of neither?

As TC says, lobbyist is probably a better word - but the boundary between lobbying and campaigning is always rather blurred, and you need a bit of both. I think I've said before that if you could marry Geffen's intellectual ability with Boardman's communication ability you'd be on to a winner.

I suspect your cycnicism might be justified if he'd got a knighthood, but in the lower reaches of the honours list I'd be surprised if anyone with authority in politics or government was consulted beyond "Is this chap a nutter, or does he have a point?"

 

[Drago]

The day the Justice League chumps get a knighthood is the day I sell the bikes and buy an Audi.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I think I've said before that if you could marry Geffen's intellectual ability with Boardman's communication ability you'd be on to a winner.

As an admirer of Boardman, I don't think there's anything wrong with his intellectual ability. And he reasons very solidly from the viewpoint of a cyclist, IMO. Or am I missing something?

 

[srw]

As an admirer of Boardman, I don't think there's anything wrong with his intellectual ability. And he reasons very solidly from the viewpoint of a cyclist, IMO. Or am I missing something?

Sorry - I'm probably not making myself as clear as I might. Boardman's a very effective communicator, but he's never struck me as having the political savvy, or the patience, to get things done. Geffen does - which, I think, is why TC described him as a lobbyist.

 

[srw]

One more thing to add - @deptfordmarmoset's words about "from the point of view of a cyclist" got me thinking. Boardman is very good at seeing things from that point of view - and so explaining things particularly to an audience of cyclists. Geffen's good at seeing things from the other person's point of view, and so persuading them.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

MBE = Member of the Bicycling Empire.

GC

 

[dellzeqq]

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/ctc-campaigns.69619/#post-1289095

Not a campaigner. A lobbyist.

 

[srw]

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/ctc-campaigns.69619/#post-1289095

Not a campaigner. A lobbyist.

Or, further up this page....

Or a bit of both, or a bit of neither?

As TC says, lobbyist is probably a better word - but the boundary between lobbying and campaigning is always rather blurred, and you need a bit of both. I think I've said before that if you could marry Geffen's intellectual ability with Boardman's communication ability you'd be on to a winner.