Helmets.....

[Sara_H]

The govt can make helmets as compulsorary as they like, I won't be wearing one - I wont be paying any fines for not doing so either!

Gosh, I sound like my Dad when compulsorary seat belt wearing was introduced! True none the less!

 

[Boris Bajic]

So what you mean is you think there is no reasonable prospect of a helmet law being introduced in your particular part of the UK but you really don't mind if other parts get one? I enjoy cycling in Northern Ireland. Its part of the country I live in. I don't want to be forced to wear a helmet by law in the country where I live and cycle. You seem happy with an I'm alright Jack attitude.

Up to a point, that is what I mean. It's absolutely not an "I'm alright jack attitude", but I can see that it might come across as one.

I married into a Welsh family and have Welsh (Welsh-speaking!) relatives. I spend a lot of time in Wales and we all cycle there. Thanks to the partial devolution of Welsh politics, decisions are made there that have no effect on my life in Engand. I have no say in the 'parochial' politics of the Welsh Assembly. I have no wish to have a say. If the Welsh Assembly wants to introduce a helmet law, I shall simply either wear a helmet or risk a fine in Wales.

Similarly, I have no say and no wish to have a say in NI politics. You may enjoy riding there, so you have an interest. I have none. In that sense, your attitude might easliy be described as you describe mine. You might be argued to be against helmet legislation in NI because you don't want it to interfere with your enjoyment of cycling there. I wouldn't sugest that, but one ought to be careful about pointing the 'I'm alright Jack' finger.

I have no interest in Northern Ireland. I love the south and visit often, but have never cycled there. I have no interest in getting involved in the local (or national) politics of either place.

I cycle in France, Bosnia, Serbia and similar. I have no desire to involve myself in the politics of any of those countries.

I shall let Northern Ireland continue to get cross about men in ridiculous hats and tabards playing bad music in dull streets where they're hated.

 

[snorri]

... it's all about shouting at each other these days.

I really don't think it is.
There are still people popping up on here who have not studied any evidence whatsoever but state that it's just common sense for all cyclists to wear a helmet. I would like to think the helmet debates encourage people to seek out evidence, or at least accept that others are entitled to hold differing views.

 

[theclaud]

If the Welsh Assembly wants to introduce a helmet law.

Not on my watch!

 

[on the road]

okay here's a question then, and it's a genuine question to see what peoples thoughts are. You can get a helmet in a sale for £20, which isn't exactly loads of money. So why would you not wear one? Is it a case of thinking that they are useless? Or is it because people simply don't like the look of them? Don't shoot me down with sarcasm, i'm genuinly interested in peoples thoughts.

The reason I don't wear one is because I just simply don't want to wear one. Simples.

You don't have a problem with that do you?

 

[Boris Bajic]

i just wish we could go back to the days before helmet debates and helmets in much the same way I'd rather watch Emmerdale Farm than Emmerdale... it's all about shouting at each other these days.

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW WRONG YOU ARE!!

LET ME INFORM YOU!!

VERY WRONG!

 

[Red Light]

Not on my watch!

Relax TC. Boris says it will never happen so you can stand down the watch knowing that there will never be a helmet law in Wales or any other part of the UK.

 

[Boris Bajic]

Relax TC. Boris says it will never happen so you can stand down the watch knowing that there will never be a helmet law in Wales or any other part of the UK.

I didn't. I said it was highly unlikely that it would be passed in Westminster and I said that it was a matter of no consequence at all to me whether it was passed in one of the devolved assemblies.

Also, much as I hate to say it I can be wrong. I have history in this regard. I moved from Belgrade to Sarajevo in early 1992 because I was fed up with the war conditions in Serbia. This decision later proved to be hasty and ill-considered. I have been wrong several times since, but less spectacularly.

I'm not sure whether you're being serious Red Light, when you say TC can relax. It turns out that my opinion and the way things turn out are not always the same thing.

Still, it'll never be passed in Westminster.

 

[snorri]

but my own opinion and decision to wear a helmet was purely based on the fact that any sport that involves cycling involves helmets....

You do realise many of us do not regard cycling as a sport but as a mode of transport?

 

[Boris Bajic]

Your exact words were:

"There have been no credible attempts to impose mandatory helmet use in the UK in my cycling life",

They were. You are right. My use of words was lazy. I was speaking of Westminster. I have that awful English affliction of not taking regional assemblies in the least bit seriously. I ought to have written 'across the UK' but I did not. I confess to having no more interest in the babblings of quasi-MPs in regional talking shops than I do in Bracknell Borough Council. I'm lazy and dismissive like that.

When a contributor started to take things to a regional level (to demonstrate how scarily close we'd been to Helmegeddon), the debate had moved on from my earlier comment and I made my contempt for the impact of regional assemblies on the wider UK pretty clear.

I still think there have been no credible attempts in my cycling life. What I was ignoring was anything that may or may not have been said in regional or provincial assemblies. In the same way that I ignore children's television now that I'm old enough to vote.

But it's OK. I wrote lazily about a zillion posts ago. I'm sorry. It won't kill me.

You found me out. I'm heartbroken, but it won't kill me.

I'll be able to keep cycling legally helmetless in the UK for decades to come. Amusingly, that might kill me.

But I'm not sure that's a helpful comment at this time.

Keep up the mighty fight to prevent us from suffering from the highly unlikely. You seem to be winning.