Hackney North MP Diane Abbott has tabled an Early Day Motion before Parliament calling on London Mayor Boris Johnson to reinstate for the Commercial Vehicle Education Unit following the deaths of ten cyclists on London’s roads this year, eight of them killed in accidents involving heavy goods vehicles.
Ms Abbott’s initiative came just days after the Mayor had announced that he was disbanding the CVEU, which is staffed and run by the Metropolitan Police and is the only such unit on the country, as part of a cost-cutting drive, as reported on road.cc last week.
Early Day Motions are used by MPs as a means of raising awareness of a specific issue on subjects ranging from the trivial to the serious, but they are seldom actually debated in Parliament. Instead, MPs can add their signature to show their support, with the motion remaining open for signature for the remainder of the current parliamentary session.
The motion currently has the backing of 25 other MPs from across the political spectrum, but only seven of those – eight including Abott – represent voters in the capital, which has a total of 74 MPs. Even allowing for the influence of party politics, once the city’s 21 Tory MPs are excluded, that leaves 45 London MPs who are yet to show their support for it.
A list of the MPs who have thus far signed the motion, together with the full text, can be found here. If your MP isn’t on the list, irrespective of whether you live in London or not, you can urge them to do so through following this link and ask them if they could spare five minutes from filling out their expenses forms to sign “EDM 2144 (Cyclist’s safety in London).”
Feel free to post some examples of the Grauniad posting lies if you wish to give your point some credence.
It's the invisible * motions of cyclists "wobbling across the road" that causes otherwise careful and competent drivers to randomly drive into them...
Driver taken to hospital after flipped car shut road near Barnstaple...
Fortunately for the driver he owned a basenji! No comment...
Is it a catchy but meaningless hook from a European song contest runner up of yore?...
Yes, I've had this same light for years. It works well and is reliable, but it's a few years old now.
A bargain at under £72 per watt!
Our policing and legal systems are based on witnesses, apart from when it comes to driving apparently.
fun guys
It looks like it would give you more of a sideways elliptical motion - like a cross-trainer - rather than the up-and-down of the Alenax.