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Jeremy Vine calls out Jeremy Clarkson over criticism of cycling school run mum

It's drivers not cyclists responsible for "extremely dangerous" roads in London says Vine...

BBC presenter and cycle commuter Jeremy Vine has called out fellow presenter Jeremy Clarkson over a newspaper column in which the latter criticised a mother he had seen accompanying her children to school in Kensington.

In response to Clarkson’s assertion that “cycling in London is extremely dangerous,” Vine countered: “No, some people who drive cars are extremely dangerous. That is the issue.”

Writing in his column in The Sun on Saturday under the heading, Let Vine Be Bike Battler, Clarkson said:

This week, I saw a school-run mum cycling through the busy streets of Kensington in London with her two young children riding their little bikes in her wake.

Now, I’m sure that later in the day at the avocado and muesli bar, all her silly friends will have congratulated her for being so ecological and public spirited.

But the fact is that cycling in London is extremely dangerous and that one day, God forbid, it’s possible one of her children could be killed.

Yes, there’d be an outcry and the motorist who ran over the child would get some serious jail time.

But the child would still be dead.

So, if you’re reading this, love, and I know you’re not because you’re a Guardian type, but if you are, don’t use your kids as pawns in a battle Jeremy Vine is quite capable of fighting for himself.

So far, so Clarkson, in line with the anti-cyclist rhetoric he has so often employed both in print and while presenting Top Gear and, more recently, The Grand Tour.

But the TV host and journalist, who has a home in Holland Park, has been spotted at times cycling around Kensington – most notably in the wake of his sacking by the BBC in 2015.

And going by the way he sang the praises of Copenhagen in a column in The Sunday Times three years earlier in which he said that prioritising bikes over cars made it such a liveable city that he would move there “in a heartbeat,” he presumably understands the  value of protected cycling infrastructure.

> Jeremy Clarkson turns cycling advocate as he praises Copenhagen’s approach

As Twitter user @Commuter76 who posted a picture of the column pointed out, Clarkson’s spleen might better be vented at the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, given their opposition to having a Cycle Superhighway (CS9) built along Kensington High Street.

The planned CS9, which will run from Brentford and along Chiswick High Road towards the city centre, will end at Kensington Olympia – the boundary between Hammersmith & Fulham, and the RKBC.

Cyclists will therefore have to travel along Kensington High Street together with motor traffic and past the Royal Albert Hall before rejoining protected infrastructure in the shape of the East-West Cycle Superhighway at Hyde Park.

Vine, whose commute to and from Broadcasting House in Portland Place takes him through Kensington High Street, retweeted @Commuter76’s tweet, highlighting it was motorists – not cyclists – who were the source of danger.

Vine regularly posts video of incidents captured on his ride to social media.

In 2016, Clarkson accused him of “selfish” cycling following an incident Vine captured on camera that later resulted in the driver concerned being imprisoned after being convicted of driving without reasonable consideration and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.

> Clarkson accuses Jeremy Vine of "selfish" cycling, while driver who kicked him says she was "provoked"

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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25 comments

Avatar
embattle | 5 years ago
0 likes

Actually Vine I've seen dangerous people in all forms of transport, even just when walking.

Avatar
ConcordeCX replied to embattle | 5 years ago
2 likes
embattle wrote:

Actually Vine I've seen dangerous people in all forms of transport, even just when walking.

and what is the distribution like among those forms of transport of people they kill or seriously injure?

 

Avatar
mitsky | 5 years ago
1 like

Clarkson should be recycled into the rubber used for condoms and distributed at an STD clinic.

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
3 likes

Frankie Boyle aint wrong, JC is a cancer growth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qrCrxixBKY

Avatar
vorotato | 5 years ago
1 like

Sounds like Clarkson is advocating for less cars on the road and more cycling infrastructure. Someone give this man an ebike so he can stop moaning about bicycles.

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severs1966 | 5 years ago
11 likes

Clarkson himself is one of the reason why drivers are dangerous. He spent years on TV encouraging people to drive like twats

Avatar
ClubSmed | 5 years ago
1 like

On a similar note, I had a thought along the lines of Clarkson's the other day.

I had decided to not cycle to work as there were forecast 50-60mph winds and I thought that would be rather dangerous to cycle in. I ended up walking to work as all the trains were cancelled due to overhead cables down, trees on line etc. due the the really bad storm we had. Whilst I was walking along (thinking how glad I was that I was not cycling in this weather) a lady passed me on her bike with her child on the back of it in a child seat.

I was left wondering if I should be concerned that this lady had decided to put her child at risk in a situation that I was not willing to risk myself or if I had misjudged the situation and should just man up and cycle in such weather.

Avatar
Mb747 | 5 years ago
0 likes

Clarkson says roads are dangerous

Vine says roads aren’t dangerous, cars are

I would argue Vine is just as incorrect, disappearing cycle lanes, poor road surfaces, inadequate parking/parking restrictions for bike lanes etc.

Avatar
burtthebike replied to Mb747 | 5 years ago
3 likes
Mb747 wrote:

Clarkson says roads are dangerous

Vine says roads aren’t dangerous, cars are

I would argue Vine is just as incorrect, disappearing cycle lanes, poor road surfaces, inadequate parking/parking restrictions for bike lanes etc.

This is what Vine actually said “No, some people who drive cars are extremely dangerous. That is the issue.”  Not that cars are the problem.  The issues you raise wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the drivers.

Avatar
Bill H | 5 years ago
4 likes

Why is road.cc giving this story publicity?

A ghost writer has knocked out a silly season article in the guise of ‘angry man’ in a deliberate attempt to cause controversy.

Feuds are perceived to good be for the media as they are self-perpetuating and need little input from the paper. This story is an extended dig at the ‘elitist’ BBC via Jeremy (?) Vine and the Guardian.

I doubt that the supposed author even saw the copy before someone forwarded a link to him. Happy to be proved wrong, but celebrity columnists are paid for their name above the article, not for the contents.

Avatar
HowardR | 5 years ago
6 likes

Paraphrased as: "Pathetic cad says something stupid"

I know that the term 'cad' may be a targe archaic but what term better covers some pointless little multimillionaire twunt, 'friend' of prime ministers and senior newspaper editors, who goes around beating up the staff  - cowardly little cunt.

Avatar
pockstone | 5 years ago
6 likes

Can somebody more social media savvy than I please tweet this toJeremy Clarkson ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-39356514

Thank you.

Avatar
James Walker | 5 years ago
2 likes

Clarkson would make a good inner tube.

Avatar
leqin replied to James Walker | 5 years ago
10 likes
James Walker wrote:

Clarkson would make a good inner tube.

for a fat bike.

Avatar
theloststarfighter replied to leqin | 5 years ago
5 likes
leqin wrote:
James Walker wrote:

Clarkson would make a good inner tube.

for a fat bike.

 

Or a speed bump on a rat run. that's a better way to protect kids, slow the blacked out tanks down a bit

Avatar
DoctorFish | 5 years ago
7 likes

Only comment I would make to the mother is that I think it is safer to follow your children rather than the other way around.  That way you can stick yourself further out in to the road so that the vehicles have to give the children a little more clearance.  Also you can see what the children are doing and if required call instructions to them.

I don't read newspapers. They don't contain news, they contain opinions.

Avatar
Beecho | 5 years ago
11 likes

Cunt says cunty thing.

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emishi55 replied to Beecho | 5 years ago
2 likes
Beecho wrote:

Cunt says cunty thing.

You might say he's a real Jeremy Hunt

 

 

Avatar
ChrisB200SX | 5 years ago
12 likes

I give Vine thumbs up whenever I've cycled past him in Hyde Park recently. I'm not sure I'd give the same hand signal to Clarkson, who is trying to drag us back to the stone age.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to ChrisB200SX | 5 years ago
3 likes
ChrisB200SX wrote:

I give Vine thumbs up whenever I've cycled past him in Hyde Park recently. I'm not sure I'd give the same hand signal to Clarkson, who is trying to drag us back to the stone age.

Personally, I like the design of stone age vehicles

 

Avatar
ChrisB200SX replied to hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
4 likes
hawkinspeter wrote:
ChrisB200SX wrote:

I give Vine thumbs up whenever I've cycled past him in Hyde Park recently. I'm not sure I'd give the same hand signal to Clarkson, who is trying to drag us back to the stone age.

Personally, I like the design of stone age vehicles

 

I consider Pebbles on the road to be a hazard.

Avatar
ConcordeCX | 5 years ago
24 likes

He's an agent provocateur. Or, in Anglo-Saxon, a shit-stirrer. Or, in internet-speak, a troll. Let not thy shit be stirren, as it says in the Bible. Maybe.

 

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Trickytree1984 | 5 years ago
10 likes

Clarkson himself admits he doesn't believe the things he writes. People should stop giving it attention. That's what he wants. That's what he's good at. That's how he is minted

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Housecathst | 5 years ago
32 likes

“motorist who ran over the child would get some serious jail time.”

If only! 

Avatar
hampsoc | 5 years ago
28 likes

I'd genuinely forgotten Jeremy Clarkson.  No need to bring him back TBH.

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