I don’t know about you, but I’ve had as much of this fake festive spirit and enforced jollity as I can take for another year! It’s bad enough we’ve had one of the wettest winters on record, with enough flooding in Sussex to make me think of swapping my Fireblade for a jet ski. Now it’s back to a gloomy January, VAT again up to 17.5%, tax rises, fuel increases and smug politicians telling us that we should be grateful to them for arranging the biggest national debt since the Second World War… Bah humbug!
However, as the saying goes “just when you think it couldn’t get any worse”, we have the 3rd Driving Licence Directive (3DLD) looming on the horizon. This wonderful piece of Brussels job creation for the boys is going to spend millions of our Euros in stuffing up our bike licences. These proposals for new legislation seem so boring that the real menace of its intention is lost to anyone with a proper job that doesn’t rely on government funding.
I apologise for being so depressed about the future of biking in this country but look at the 3DLD as it’s called and you’d be pissed off too. We’re going to end up with FOUR categories of motorcycle licence with compulsory testing between each level. The government has the option of allowing training between each level instead of testing – but there’s no money to the DSA in that… Only better trained and safer riders. Now that the DSA have virtually killed off the motorcycle test, there’s lots of capacity in the new mega test centres. Why allow new riders to improve their skills through structured training when you can force them into the test centres, making them jump through more stupid hoops and fleecing them of test fees at each step?
Perhaps the worst bit of the 3DLD is the proposal to do away with unaccompanied learner riders. It doesn’t seem such a big deal if you read it quickly but if this becomes law, riders will not be allowed to ride scooters or 125s on L plates unless accompanied by a suitably qualified person. What will happen to the tens of thousands of people who rely on their bike for school, college, work or just plain fun but cannot afford to take their full test? It’s beyond belief that future generations will be denied the basic mobility and freedom of travel that a small bike can give. I’m sure most of you remember with fondness those first wobbly attempts to master two wheels and then the excitement of the open road on a bike – “any bike!” Remember it well; if our euro monkeys have their way our freedom to ride will be consigned to the history books.
Okay, maybe I’m suffering from rising damp, lack of sunlight and a turkey overdose - and Westminster really does have our best interests at heart. Spring is on the way and global warming is supposed to be turning the south east into a Mediterranean hot spot… Things aren’t all bad then!!
I want to go faster, I want to go faster..
