RosieBell

Tom Holland: caught out and stumped

This is also posted at Harry's Place.

Tom Holland's documentary, Islam: the Untold Story caused controversy and Channel 4 cancelled a repeat screening because of "threats".

 As the Council for Ex-Muslims said:- 

The threats and concerted attempt to stigmatise the documentary and its producers by attacking its credibility and even legitimacy as a field of inquiry is nothing less than an attempt to impose a blasphemy taboo by stealth and coercion against programming that scrutinises Islam.

John Crace in the Guardian, the last publication to speak evil of Islam, commented on Tom Holland's deference to the religion:-

"Can a non-Muslim hope to understand the origins of the Muslim world?" asked historian Tom Holland. "No," was the emphatic one-word response of Dr Seyyed Hossein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University. .
 
For decades – centuries even – scholars have felt free to contest the accuracy of other religious texts. Not least the Bible; what's true, what's parable and what's just wishful thinking has all been up for grabs without any serious damage being done to Christian beliefs. Not so with Islam, around which non-Islamic scholars tread with extreme caution. I'm all for cultural and religious sensitivity, but the degree to which Holland tiptoed around the subject and apologised for his findings went way beyond what was required. Or would have been on offer for any other religion. It was almost as if he was looking over his shoulder, half expecting a fatwa at any minute.
 
None should be forthcoming, as towards the end of the programme Holland returned to Dr Nasr for reassurance that he hadn't caused any lasting offence. Which he more or less got, as Nasr told him that what he had discovered was "quite interesting, so long as you don't try to impose your view on the Muslim world", as that would be tantamount to "western imperialism". Holland crept out of Nasr's office more or less insisting that the last thing he wanted was for any Muslim to take him seriously, so no harm was done. The gap between western liberalism and Islamic liberalism suddenly looked frighteningly large.

I don't know if a fatwa has been delivered on Tom Holland, but he has now evidently been stamped "Handle with Care. Contents controversial".  Not controversial in an edgy, "may up the click bait/ratings" way of Russell Brand, but "may cause offence somewhere or other and we'd better be careful".
 
According to the excellent site Heresy Corner, Tom Holland was to appear on TalkSPORT and speak about cricket, one of his passions.  That sounds as harmless as you can get.  But no, at the last minute he was cancelled. without being told why. (Read the whole piece.)
 

"I think they Googled me and got into a state, worrying I might be a security risk," he speculates.   "It's utterly weird.  Beyond weird.  Comic.  I think they think they're being PC, when actually they're being the precise opposite."
 
Quite. If the station was acting pre-emptively to head off presumed Muslim anger, they must have a very low opinion of Muslims.  Nor does this kind of hypersensitivity do anything to further social harmony or good community relations.  It is in fact a form of Islamophobia: irrational fear of Islam in its most basic and literal sense.
 
As far as I can tell, there were no threats, or even complaints, in the run-up to Tom Holland's planned cricket-themed appearance on TalkSPORT.  But perhaps they feared a boycott, or imagined that Anjem Choudhary and his mates would picket their studios.  ("Behead Infidels who talk about Cricket!")  Or was the threat something more oblique -- maybe they envisaged EDL supporters phoning in to congratulate Holland, not on his celebrated Six, but on his "brave" stand against Islam."
 

So there we are.  My indifference to cricket overwhelms me and I wouldn't even be able to find the frequency for TalkSPORT but now I've heard of this incident and I'm furious. It's evidently some knucklehead in the station making a kind of ridiculous Health and Safety decision, of the sort which bans using cheese wheels at the Double Gloucester cheese rolling festival - only with more serious consequences for community relations.  Tom Holland's book The Shadow of the Sword is a vivid read, which peoples a tract of history which was bare to me.  It seems he's an accomplished cricketer and Heresy Corner says he's one of the nicest blokes on Twitter.  This kind of misplaced  sensitivity just pisses everyone off, including Muslims who don't want to constantly appear like grenades minus pins.  The only people who will be happy are the EDL, who can roll their eyes, with "see what we mean?" expressions and jihadists, who will no doubt regarde this as another tiny victory in their war for undiluted "respect". 

Down with The Fall

I gave up on The Fall after the second episode. When the series opened with the pretty, lively solicitor I knew she was going to come to a horrible end, while the camera lingered over every last second of her dying then on her post-mortem. You could practically smell the entrails.

I have to quote from the Daily Mail here:-

This visual catalogue of violence against women has even drawn criticism from that bible of the BBC, the Radio Times, and its level-headed chief TV critic Alison Graham. It was now an exception to the rule, she told Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, to see a major drama in which a woman was not raped, bound and gagged, or laid out grey and naked on a mortuary slab.

BBC executives are defending the show and their decision to renew it for a second series: they claim it provides insight into the motives of a sadistic psychopath. By beckoning viewers to share the killer’s experiences, the programme-makers say, it challenges our preconceptions about evil.

Such weasel words are insulting and obscene. The Fall doesn’t challenge evil: it wallows in it. This series is an invitation to share an extended rape fantasy.

Anyone who tries to "challenge my preconceptions about evil" can get a job cleaning up Fred West's house in Gloucester  "Evil" leaves a filthy mess and people in anguish and misery. It's ugly, not edgily glamorous.

Look at the handsome well educated psychopath serial killer in The Fall, so buff, so clever, so handsome and compare him to the filthy toothed illiterate Fred West.  Scenes are constant juxtaposed in a crass artiness e.g. the killer washing the body of his victim and the gorgeous detective showering after an exciting zipless fuck.  Gillian Anderson, who was a great neurotic Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, is affectless, a silk-shirted descendant of the other beautiful blonde and excitingly emotionless detective in The Bridge. 

I like detective stories, both police procedural and comfort-telly Agatha Christies where the corpse is glanced at, tidied away and the interest is in the puzzle, the daffy characters and the period settings.  The Fall pretends to a gritty reality by being set in Belfast but with the elaborately patterned death-dealing it is as unreal as Midsomer Murders.  Cosiness may be a little absurd, but woman-murder porn is vile.

Richard Ballantine's Last Ride

The great cycling guru, Richard Ballantine, has died. I had a copy of his Richard's Bicycle Book, which was covered with oil and fell to pieces. I never became the bicycle mechanic that the book was trying to turn me into, but I was inspired by his enthusiasm for bicycles and green transport and entertained by his laid-back, easy style.

The book was a compendium of cycling-related information which included an account of the history of the bicycle; discussions of different bicycle designs, types and accessories; and tips on maintenance and fitting. Yet it was no dry instruction manual. Its popularity stemmed from the fact that it was a witty and fervently-argued manifesto for the rights of cyclists to use the road unmolested, as well as for the physical and spiritual benefits of cycling.

“Look at what happens to you on a bicycle,” Ballantine wrote. “It’s immediate and direct. You pedal. You make decisions. You experience the tang of the air and the surge of power as you bite into the road. You’re vitalised. As you hum along you fully and gloriously experience the day, the sunshine, the clouds, the breezes. You’re alive!”

“Sex,” as one interviewer put it, “had Dr Alex Comfort. Cycling had Richard Ballantine.”

Famously, Richard's Bicycle Book included a section about you could kill an aggressive dog by ramming a bicycle pump down its throat. This section was removed in later editions, but I thought of it when in New Zealand in January I was cycling through a quiet little town, hear Woof, Woof behind a high fence, then the woofer scrambled over the fence and chased me. I didn't have a pump or any improvised weapon at hand. I just pedalled away very fast. 

Richard’s Bicycle Book was first published at a time when cycling was experiencing a resurgence in popularity due to the oil crisis of the early 1970s and the arrival of nippier, lightweight bikes. It went into several editions and sold more than a million copies, helping to fuel a mini-boom in cycling. This became an explosion when the craze for mountain biking got going in the 1980s, with the growth of bicycle touring, cycling action groups, charity bike events and race series — developments which Ballantine also did much to promote.

I pinched the following tribute from the Edinburgh Cycling Forum:-

Hailing from a family of brilliant eccentrics including the first owner of an automobile in Edinburgh, anarchist Emma Goldman, the discoverer and life-long editor of Eugene O'Neill, [with] a member of the British Raj for one grandfather, and actor, sculptor, race-car driver EJ Ballantine for the other--

Richard was also the only child of paperback publishing pioneers Ian and Betty Ballantine ...

Richard was most drawn to the anarchist writings of his great-aunt Emma Goldman, and that of the dozens of authors filing through his home, he became fondest of Marxist, C. Wright Mills. It was--in fact--on a motorcycle borrowed from Mills, that Richard effectively dropped out of Columbia and rode across the country and back--embracing a Call of the Wild he would never completely abandon. ....

Deafness provided Richard a concentrated clarity which could prove positively spooky. A drunken Bob Dylan once stuck a pistol into Rich's beard in the Espresso Cafe, the zen-like stare from its owner sobering up the poet laureate sufficiently to inspire a rare apology... While supporting himself indexing non-fiction, and cutting his teeth co-authoring books with friends John Cohen (Africa Addio) and Joel Griffiths (Silent Slaughter), at about thirty Richard began work on a long manuscript about bicycles which--it was decided--would be published by the family. His mother, Betty (who happened to be one of the great line editors of her day) remembers being vaguely terrified. "Here was my son--hard at work on an incredibly involved book concerning a subject I knew absolutely nothing about which I was supposed to edit. Of course, upon reading it I was immediately put at ease--nothing less than marvelous! Precise, witty, chock full of energy...an editor's dream!"

The title was pure Ballantine. At once audacious but with a child-like simplicity: "Richard's Bicycle Book" appeared as a new, larger-than-usual "trade" paperback picturing the lean-mean author tuning a crackling-new machine on the cover. Yet it was not only Richard's research and writing, but his timing, which proved superb. The civilized world was reeling from the first oil shortage since WW II; cheaper, lighter, faster bicycles were just coming into production, Ballantine Books already lead the field in ecology books but this how-to encyclopedic omnibus bristled with a fearless eloquence placing its reader squarely on the brink of a self-powered revolution. Nor was Richard's rebellious spirit shy in announcing itself. ...

Nor would his reader even begin to tolerate a polite, hat-in-hand deference towards the far larger, vast majority of motorists as Ballantine became the first to declare war on roads full of smoke-spewing behemoths sure to kill you if you let them. Richard's Bicycle Book went through innumerable editions, incarnations and sequels, including an updated edition for the new century; its author would eventually create several award-winning bicycle magazines, his hands-on approach making him a favorite at bike shows, races, on commitees and as advisor for new designs. Teaming up with Richard Grant (and making spectacular use of an apostrophe) Richards' Ultimate Bicycle Book is easily the most handsome of the brood. ...

His full-on style enlisting a literate, highly adventurous readership willing to follow him from bicycling to rock-climbing, to sailing, snorkling and scuba, from aviation and space travel to actually living with wolves. Among his many publishing achievements Richard assisted his father with an 18 volume illustrated history of Vietnam and a 36 volume Air & Space series for Bantam Books, yet his greatest success and interest remained: the fervent promotion of self-propulsion.

Having imported the first mountain bike's to the UK and creating a hugely popular fat-tyre race, RB maintained his "Godfather" status in the bicycle movement, writing columns for The Guardian--among many periodicals-- while chairing the first Human Power Vehicle (HVP) Club in the 1980's ...

Richard earlier helped start the London Cycling Campaign a bicyclist charity and advocacy group of 11,000 members. And--as proof of the pudding--neither he nor any of his English-based family have owned an automobile for well over a decade.....

As I write Richards' body is being conveyed by cycle-pulled hearse among a cortege of motorlessly-moved-mourners to a memorial at the Golders Green chapel in London, . . . an epic farewell party thereafter to commence.

To this stellar send-off I can't help but compare Richard's Great-Aunt Emma's death which came to her exiled and disillusioned in 1940--the year of his birth; "The Revolution" as she'd envisioned it having succumbed to virulent corruption; her assessment of her own life--a near total waste. While the Human Powered Revolution her great-nephew inspired is growing pedal, spoke-'n-chain stronger by the minute, surging into a deceptively mature and powerful force. Nor may I resist noting that structures Richard Ballantine once sought to topple must soon fall of their own unsustainable weight, while the Glory-Day of the life-sustaining conveyances his name will forever be associated with is a growing, living, breathing reality, right here; right now......

Richard Ballantine's Last Ride

The great cycling guru, Richard Ballantine, has died. I had a copy of his Richard's Bicycle Book, which was covered with oil and fell to pieces. I never became the bicycle mechanic that the book was trying to turn me into, but I was inspired by his enthusiasm for bicycles and green transport and entertained by his laid-back, easy style.

The book was a compendium of cycling-related information which included an account of the history of the bicycle; discussions of different bicycle designs, types and accessories; and tips on maintenance and fitting. Yet it was no dry instruction manual. Its popularity stemmed from the fact that it was a witty and fervently-argued manifesto for the rights of cyclists to use the road unmolested, as well as for the physical and spiritual benefits of cycling. “Look at what happens to you on a bicycle,” Ballantine wrote. “It’s immediate and direct. You pedal. You make decisions. You experience the tang of the air and the surge of power as you bite into the road. You’re vitalised. As you hum along you fully and gloriously experience the day, the sunshine, the clouds, the breezes. You’re alive!” “Sex,” as one interviewer put it, “had Dr Alex Comfort. Cycling had Richard Ballantine.”

Famously, Richard's Bicycle Book included a section about you could kill an aggressive dog by ramming a bicycle pump down its throat. This section was removed in later editions, but I thought of it when in New Zealand in January I was cycling through a quiet little town, hear Woof, Woof behind a high fence, then the woofer scrambled over the fence and chased me. I didn't have a pump or any improvised weapon at hand. I just pedalled away very fast.

Richard’s Bicycle Book was first published at a time when cycling was experiencing a resurgence in popularity due to the oil crisis of the early 1970s and the arrival of nippier, lightweight bikes. It went into several editions and sold more than a million copies, helping to fuel a mini-boom in cycling. This became an explosion when the craze for mountain biking got going in the 1980s, with the growth of bicycle touring, cycling action groups, charity bike events and race series — developments which Ballantine also did much to promote.

I pinched the following tribute from the Edinburgh Cycling Forum:-

Hailing from a family of brilliant eccentrics including the first owner of an automobile in Edinburgh, anarchist Emma Goldman, the discoverer and life-long editor of Eugene O'Neill, [with] a member of the British Raj for one grandfather, and actor, sculptor, race-car driver EJ Ballantine for the other--Richard was also the only child of paperback publishing pioneers Ian and Betty Ballantine ... Richard was most drawn to the anarchist writings of his great-aunt Emma Goldman, and that of the dozens of authors filing through his home, he became fondest of Marxist, C. Wright Mills. It was--in fact--on a motorcycle borrowed from Mills, that Richard effectively dropped out of Columbia and rode across the country and back--embracing a Call of the Wild he would never completely abandon. ....Deafness provided Richard a concentrated clarity which could prove positively spooky. A drunken Bob Dylan once stuck a pistol into Rich's beard in the Espresso Cafe, the zen-like stare from its owner sobering up the poet laureate sufficiently to inspire a rare apology... While supporting himself indexing non-fiction, and cutting his teeth co-authoring books with friends John Cohen (Africa Addio) and Joel Griffiths (Silent Slaughter), at about thirty Richard began work on a long manuscript about bicycles which--it was decided--would be published by the family. His mother, Betty (who happened to be one of the great line editors of her day) remembers being vaguely terrified. "Here was my son--hard at work on an incredibly involved book concerning a subject I knew absolutely nothing about which I was supposed to edit. Of course, upon reading it I was immediately put at ease--nothing less than marvelous! Precise, witty, chock full of energy...an editor's dream!" The title was pure Ballantine. At once audacious but with a child-like simplicity: "Richard's Bicycle Book" appeared as a new, larger-than-usual "trade" paperback picturing the lean-mean author tuning a crackling-new machine on the cover. Yet it was not only Richard's research and writing, but his timing, which proved superb. The civilized world was reeling from the first oil shortage since WW II; cheaper, lighter, faster bicycles were just coming into production, Ballantine Books already lead the field in ecology books but this how-to encyclopedic omnibus bristled with a fearless eloquence placing its reader squarely on the brink of a self-powered revolution. Nor was Richard's rebellious spirit shy in announcing itself. ...Nor would his reader even begin to tolerate a polite, hat-in-hand deference towards the far larger, vast majority of motorists as Ballantine became the first to declare war on roads full of smoke-spewing behemoths sure to kill you if you let them. Richard's Bicycle Book went through innumerable editions, incarnations and sequels, including an updated edition for the new century; its author would eventually create several award-winning bicycle magazines, his hands-on approach making him a favorite at bike shows, races, on commitees and as advisor for new designs. Teaming up with Richard Grant (and making spectacular use of an apostrophe) Richards' Ultimate Bicycle Book is easily the most handsome of the brood. ...His full-on style enlisting a literate, highly adventurous readership willing to follow him from bicycling to rock-climbing, to sailing, snorkling and scuba, from aviation and space travel to actually living with wolves. Among his many publishing achievements Richard assisted his father with an 18 volume illustrated history of Vietnam and a 36 volume Air & Space series for Bantam Books, yet his greatest success and interest remained: the fervent promotion of self-propulsion. Having imported the first mountain bike's to the UK and creating a hugely popular fat-tyre race, RB maintained his "Godfather" status in the bicycle movement, writing columns for The Guardian--among many periodicals-- while chairing the first Human Power Vehicle (HVP) Club in the 1980's ... Richard earlier helped start the London Cycling Campaign a bicyclist charity and advocacy group of 11,000 members. And--as proof of the pudding--neither he nor any of his English-based family have owned an automobile for well over a decade..... As I write Richards' body is being conveyed by cycle-pulled hearse among a cortege of motorlessly-moved-mourners to a memorial at the Golders Green chapel in London, . . . an epic farewell party thereafter to commence. To this stellar send-off I can't help but compare Richard's Great-Aunt Emma's death which came to her exiled and disillusioned in 1940--the year of his birth; "The Revolution" as she'd envisioned it having succumbed to virulent corruption; her assessment of her own life--a near total waste. While the Human Powered Revolution her great-nephew inspired is growing pedal, spoke-'n-chain stronger by the minute, surging into a deceptively mature and powerful force. Nor may I resist noting that structures Richard Ballantine once sought to topple must soon fall of their own unsustainable weight, while the Glory-Day of the life-sustaining conveyances his name will forever be associated with is a growing, living, breathing reality, right here; right now......

The Troof will Prevail

There was a piece in today's Sunday Telegraph which I don't think is on line about Charlie Veitch, a former conspiracy theorist, who was praised by David Icke and Alex Jones. 

The facts in the piece were pretty much covered by Slate in September 2011, so it's old news now.  Still, here are some quotes worth having to hand. (I use this blog as a commonplace book, with a useful search tool).

In essence, the modern conspiracy narrative is the same as the one that has existed since the 19th century: that the few (often termed the "Illuminati") control the many. This, of course, is the nucleus of the dangerous anti-Jewish myth.  When he was an insider, did he experience anti-Semitism?  "Loads. Loads.  I was once accused of being a Jew because of my olive skin and my nose.  They said, "We can't trust him". " And when they say the "Illuminati" or "Reptiles", do they actually mean Jews? "It's slightly complicated but, mostly, yes," he says.

(I realise this is Ickeism for Beginners, but I don't want to move on to an intermediate stage.)

Veitch turned back to normality after taking part in a BBC documentary, Conspiracy Road Trip, where he talked to demolitions experts, air traffic controllers  and family members of the United 93 flight. He came to the conclusion that 9/11 was the work of Islamists on a suicide mission in passenger planes.  He made a video out of his recantation.

His old conspiracy friends took Internet revenge by sticking up hate videos involving pigs and child pornography and emailing a bogus "confession" of paedophilia supposedly from him.  (Do these people reflect that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion might have been a similar kind of trick, using an earlier technology?)  Alex Jones, who had praised his "great work" now put out a film referring to Veitch's "psychopath sociopath eyes".

He describes the conspiracy community as an "evil-worshipping paranoia. As someone who's been deep in it, and seen the hatred and insanity, I think big terrorist attacks will come from conspiracy theorists" He can envisage an assassination or a bombing carried out by a conspiracy believer who has lost all contact with reality.

Conspiracy theorists, he says, are often "bullied people.  People who maybe didn't get the girls at school. . . So they see a lot of rugger bugger types and they're against anything to do with them.  They will side with the devil, as long as the devil is against the West. . There's a professional victimhood in conspiracy theorists.  There's hatred of high achievers."

Over at Liberal Conspiracy Sunny Hundal has put up a post in order to rebut a conspiracy theory about the Woolwich sectarian murder with the explanation:-

"This is a bit of a tricky blog-post to write.

No doubt I’ll be accused by some of giving prominence to these Truthers. On the other hand unless such accounts are challenged and shone a light on, they can generate their own unchallenged cult status."

I really did think Sunny knew the internet better than that. Shining a light on these loons is like painting your nails with sawdust and superglue. It wastes your time, it doesn't work and it makes a mess.

The post has of course attracted the Truthers in full voice LISTEN DELUDED SHEEPLE! THE ANSWER IS IN THE PYRAMIDS AND THE ROTHSCHILDS.  

Pedal on Parliament - We're Everyone

Saturday it rained hard all day. That wasn't encouraging for those of us who were going to Pedal on Parliament.   However Sunday was windless, and only a haar to shut out the son.  In this spring of constant freezing winds and even snow, the weather passed as balmy. 

Last year's Pedal on Parliament was the first.  The organisers expected a few hundreds.  3,000 showed up.  This year we were 4,000 strong.  It was very satisfying to wait in Middle Meadow Walk and see the snake tail of the procession extend right along the Meadows.  All sorts of cyclists waited, from finger thin lycrists to a woman who looked like George Orwell's spinster cycling to morning service, from trick cyclists to wobbling kiddies. 

I don't think our actual ride had such a dramatic effect as last year, when a mass of cyclists took over the Royal Mile, essentially owning the streets for once.  For reasons of traffic flow we were marshalled in batches.  The sense of numbers being united for a cause, which is part of a demonstration, was there when we were waiting for the ride to begin but lost when we cycled in dribs and drabs.

We got more of the mass feeling at the gathering in front of Holyrood Palace.

The rally began with David Brennan, the instigator of the first Pedal on Parliament, laying out the theme of making cycling ordinary:-

We aren’t ‘cyclists’, we’re everyone – from the mum taking her children to nursery to the road cyclist doing 100k at the weekend. But we’re also the kids in the back of the car looking wistfully out of the window because their parents can’t risk them riding to school, the people who drive to the gym to ride on stationary bikes because the roads are too fast and busy. There’s a real hunger out there for conditions where everyone can ride, from 8 to 80 and we’re calling on the Scottish government to make the investment to make that a reality.

Cycling is a single issue campaign, which means that the responses of the crowd are unlike those at a left-wing demo.  At the rally the police got a round of applause because they were on bicycles and had stopped the traffic for us.  The media got a cheer because they are mostly on our side.  The Saturday Glasgow Herald had run this editorial, which could have been a campaigner's press release:-

Cycling should be a simple idea whose time has come. It is a cheap and available activity that has been shown to have positive effects on longevity, health and well-being. It is a convivial activity and a great morale booster. It is easily incorporated into daily life, especially in summer. It can be enjoyed at any level from a toddler on a pink trike to the Lycra-clad fanatic putting 100k under his wheels each weekend. If enough of us swap four wheels for two, cycling could make a significant contribution to tackling climate change as well as relieving congestion and improving air quality. Yet for generations cycling has been in decline. Transport policy has focused on cars and lorries and the way we travel has made us less healthy. Cyclists have become regarded as a rather eccentric minority, often viewed with outright hostility by motorists. Most Scots now consider cycling too risky, with some justification. (Another cyclist died on Thursday after a collision with a pick-up truck south of Inverness.)

To return cycling to levels that can contribute to healthier living and the shift to a low carbon economy, without a rise in road deaths and injuries, major changes in public policy will be required. As transport is devolved, the Scottish Government must take the lead on this issue.

The SNP administration talks about safer cycling and has a target of 10% of all journeys being taken by bike by 2020 but its rhetoric has not been matched by action.

Around £25 per head per year needs to be spent to achieve that goal. The actual spend is less than £3. Only a concerted campaign, supported by opposition parties at Holyrood, prevented cuts to the budget for active travel (cycling and walking) last year.

The Green politician got the warmest reception but a Tory councillor could be applauded when he pointed to Boris Johnson and his London cycling schemes and Andrew Mitchell, who cyclists don't see as a snob supposed calling the police plebs, but as another cyclist being discriminated against. 

The Times has been campaigning for safe cycling ever since one of their journalists was killed cycling, and gave us a front page picture on Monday. 

Sally Hinchcliffe, one of the organisers of Pedal on Parliament, wrote in The Guardian:-

None of us had ever organised a demonstration of this scale in our lives, half of us had never even met each other until the day before the first demo, and we were astounded when somehow – through a mixture of determination, tweeting, mass flyering, blogging and countless emails – we managed to assemble 3,000 cyclists on the Meadows in Edinburgh to lobby Scotland's politicians for more investment and better conditions for cyclists of all kinds.

We were delighted to be joined not only by the "lycra brigade" but by hundreds of families, with several kids even completing the ride on balance bikes. The day was both moving and joyful, a carnival of cycling and a serious attempt to show the politicians that investing in cycling wasn't just something for existing cyclists, but for everyone.

Fast forward a few months, and essentially nothing had changed – for all the warm words from our politicians about how we were "pushing on an open door". While the walking and cycling budget had at least stopped declining, it was nowhere near the level that was needed to see real growth in cycling across Scotland.

We were invited to meet the minister for transport, Keith Brown, but although he listened, it didn't translate into any real action. He recently told the BBC that modernising Scotland's transport meant building more motorways, and they've managed to find the money for a programme of road building while cycling has to wait to see if it gets a few crumbs out of "Barnett consequentials" (windfall money from the Westminster budget).

While Westminster's all party cycling group's recent Get Britain Cycling report laid out a realistic roadmap of how mass cycling could be achieved, Scotland is stuck with the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland, a document that is neither a plan nor provides much in the way of any action. Though Scotland's health, pollution and carbon emission reduction policies rely on achieving a growth in bike use, it doesn't seem to have any real idea of how to achieve it, other than yet another campaign urging road users to be nice to each other. Once again, Scotland was getting left behind.

With no leadership coming from the top, we knew we were going to have to supply the political will ourselves. Following the lead of the Dutch and the Danish who took to the streets repeatedly in the 1970s to get their cycle paths, we started planning the next mass demonstration. This time our message was explicit: "we are everyone".

Outside the Council Buildings on the Royal Mile

The message has got out that cycling is a good thing, not just a pursuit for eccentrics or sports maniacs in lycra.  Now we want the money and the transport policies to follow the message.

Pedal on Parliament - Sunday 19th May 2013 3pm

I took part in the Pedal on Parliament last year. It was a heartening sight, with thousands of cyclist meeting in the Meadows and then cycling down the Royal Mile to a rally in front of Holyrood Parliament.  Just for once, we owned Edinburgh's narrow, dangerous streets.

Pedal on Parliament is happening again, on Sunday 19th May.  Assemble at the Meadows to take part in the ride, which kicks off at 3pm.

What we want

1. Proper funding for cycling.
2. Design cycling into Scotland’s roads.
3. Slower speeds where people live, work and play
4. Integrate cycling into local transport strategies
5. Improved road traffic law and enforcement
6. Reduce the risk of HGVs to cyclists and pedestrians
7. A strategic and joined-up programme of road user training
8. Improved statistics supporting decision-making and policy

Manifesto

Making Scotland a cycle-friendly nation

The great city is not the one that has highways, but one where a child on a tricycle or bicycle can go safely everywhere. – Enrique Peñalosa

Cycling should be the obvious solution to many of Scotland’s ills. It is cheap, healthy, democratic and convivial, benefits local economies and makes the streets a safer place for all. Cyclist benefit themselves – physiologically their bodies are, on average, many years ‘younger’ than non-cyclists’, and they suffer less from the ‘western’ diseases that beset Scotland so – and  they benefit others, cutting congestion and improving air quality. And yet bikes barely seem to be taken seriously as a mode of transport while the majority of Scots don’t cycle, simply because they feel it is too risky. Although statistically the benefits of cycling vastly outweigh the risks, poor design and maintenance of roads and cycle routes, dangerous driving, and lack of enforcement mean those risks remain unacceptably high. Making Scotland safe for cycling and walking, and – more importantly – making it feel safe, could transform our cities and villages and the lives of the people who live in them.

The Scottish government has already made a start. It led the world in signing up to a low-carbon future, part of which will include much higher levels of cycling. The Cycling Action Plan for Scotland (CAPS) set the target of having 10% of all journeys in Scotland made by bike by 2020. Whilst many of the individual points in CAPS are welcome, CAPS does not add up to a coherent, researched and costed path to reach the 2020 target – and nor has it received anything like the necessary funding.  Furthermore, even the existing funding levels are under threat. The history of UK cycling policy is full of strategies which have been quietly shelved when it becomes clear that their targets are not going to be met. We hope the Scottish government will not join Westminster in this hall of shame.

We call on all Scotland’s politicians, of all parties, to sign up to the following eight point manifesto in order to make cycling a realistic choice for everyone, from eight to eighty – and show the rest of the UK that cycling doesn’t just belong on continental Europe, but in the country where it all began:

1. Proper funding for cycling, with a high and rising share of the transport budget committed to cycling nationally, and locally.

If cycling is to reach 10% of all trips then there needs be serious investment. We ask the Scottish government to to commit a minimum of 5% of its transport budget – revenue and capital – to cycling within an overall commitment of 10% of the transport budget to active travel. Further, local authorities should also commit a share of their transport revenue and capital budgets to cycling at least in proportion with the percentage of people cycling to work or school in their area until in total, spending on cycling from all sources reaches a target of £25 per head per year.

To put this into perspective, 5% of the £2bn annual Scottish transport budget equates roughly to £100m, or £20 per head, which is comparable to the £1.32bn over 11 years that the Low Carbon Scotland report proposed spending on active travel (including walking). At the moment in Scotland actual spending is nearer £2-£3 per head. In contrast, in 2010, the Netherlands spent €30 per head (around £25) on installing and upgrading its cycling infrastructure which is already streets ahead of anything found here. Cycling England’s 2005-2011 Cycling City and Towns project invested around £10 per head and achieved significant growth in everyday cycle use, saving around £2.5 for every £1 spent, principally in reduced congestion. Other studies have shown that money invested on cycling and walking networks can pay back up to nineteen times the amount spent, a better rate of return than any other transport investment. If cycling levels rise to 13%, the benefit to Scotland would be between £1-2bn.

2. Design cycling into all of Scotland’s roads and junctions, with improved and strengthened national design guidelines in line with best practice internationally.

Improved provision for cycling must include a commitment to transforming Scotland’s roads and junctions. The existing design guidelines, Cycling by Design, should be revised in line with best practice internationally – particularly drawing on the experience of the Netherlands where 25% of trips are by bike. These standards should be incorporated into the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges and local authority road design guidance and should form minimum national standards for any new road or any road being substantially maintained or upgraded, whether local or trunk road. In addition, the Scottish Government should investigate whether it is possible for these standards to be made binding on roads authorities. Each local authority should commit to creating a dense network of direct and dedicated cycling routes with separation from traffic where needed, particularly on busy roads. Cycling infrastructure should be suitable for cyclists of all kinds, whether fast commuters or children on their way to school. Importantly, it should not bring cyclists into conflict with either pedestrians or heavy traffic. Such designs don’t just benefit cyclists, they benefit everyone who uses the roads.

3. Safer speeds where people live, work and play.
There are significant road safety benefits to a 20 mph speed limit. In residential areas, the presumption should be that roads authorities should apply 20mph speed limits as the norm in these areas. Lower speed limits should also be considered for unclassified rural roads where all road traffic faces a completely unacceptable risk of accident.

4. Build increased cycling into local transport strategies.
Local councils are best placed to know how cycling and active travel can be improved in its own area. Each local authority should be required produce its own local cycling action plan with clear targets to increase cycling levels in line with the national target of 10%, using the existing cycling levels as a guideline. Funding to support this should be ring-fenced and councils required to report against their progress every year. As well as working towards a coherent joined up network (see point 2), plans should include integration with public transport, including buses and trains, making cycling a seamless and practical part of even longer journeys. Local authorities should take cyclists into account when drawing up their maintenance plans, with a duty to give equal consideration to off-road tracks and infrastructure when planning gritting, road cleaning and repairs. Resurfacing roads and fixing potholes should take cyclists’ needs into consideration as well as motorists.

5. Improved road traffic law and enforcement.
While acknowledging that road traffic law is effectively reserved to the UK Government, traffic law must do more to protect the most vulnerable road users such as cyclists, pedestrians, children and older people. The CAPS already includes a commitment to investigate the feasibility of introducing ‘strict liability’ – we would reiterate that this must not be sidelined. Restrictions on parking in bike lanes and on pavements should be strictly enforced and, given a lack of police action on these issues, those local authorities that have not requested decriminalisation of parking enforcement should be encouraged to do so. Where 20mph zones have been brought in they should be properly policed and sentencing must be appropriate when drivers cause harm.

6. A comprehensive package to eliminate the risk of HGVs to cyclists and pedestrians.
This is a pressing problem. Heavy lorries are associated with a disproportionately high risk of death or very serious injury to cyclists and pedestrians. For example, despite being just 6% of road traffic, lorries were involved in around 20% of all cyclists’ fatalities in London. CAPS already has targets for reducing cycling casualties but the onus must not just be on the cyclists to keep themselves safe. The Scottish government should engage with the UK Department of Transport with a view to developing a comprehensive package of measures to reduce the risk to cyclists and pedestrians, based on up to date evidence of what works. These might include better training, mirrors, sensors and warnings, or limitations on movements of large freight vehicles during the morning and evening peaks. Equally they might include complete redesign of junctions to remove conflict between bikes and lorries.

7. A strategic and properly funded programme of road user training.
Much is made of developing training for cyclists in the CAPS yet Bikeability is not fully funded, and Cycling Scotland is dependent on volunteers to carry out vital training in schools. But training should not be confined to children – nor even just to cyclists. All Scottish residents should have access to affordable cycle training, whether children, adult returning cyclists, and those in later life. Further, HGV drivers, bus drivers and other professional drivers should be required to take an on-bike qualification (or a theoretical module if physically unable to cycle) as part of their licensing requirement and be made aware of the needs of both pedestrians and cyclists, and the Scottish government should press the UK government to introduce these measures .

8. Solid research and statistics on cycling.
We can only improve decision-making and policy development with solid research. The information that records how many people are cycling is very poor at the national level and inconsistent at the local level. This makes it difficult to monitor what is happening and which interventions have greatest impact. At a minimum counts should be carried out twice a year using standardised protocols for data collection and handling, taking into account cyclists using off-road facilities as well as those on the public highway. Where possible electronic counters with public displays should be used, as in Copenhagen and other cities, which count the number of cyclists passing through certain areas as these can provide both feedback and encouragement. These would become a talking point and a public reminder to cyclists that they are part of a growing band taking control of their health – and their freedom.

There is all to play for and so little to lose. Proper investment in cycling is not a zero-sum game. It will bring so much more than the expenditure put in, benefits which will gradually be reflected in a changing, healthier population. We all know our natural resources are not infinite and we would irresponsible not to think of ways of making them last, but cycling is hardly a hair-shirt option. Rather it is a joyous way to get about – but one that has become confined to a hardy few because of the conditions on our roads. From Kirkpatrick MacMillan onwards, Scotland has a long history of popular cycling which has been all but forgotten. We believe these times can come again and Scotland can once more be a beacon for the world.

Full article with footnotes here.

Bravecleavage

Today on Woman's Hour (first item) they were discussing Disney making over Merida, the red-haired heroine of Brave, into something sexier and more feminine for merchandising purposes.  Little girls were angry that Disney has spoiled Merida, as Disney does most things it touches. 

"I like Merida because she likes wearing loose-fitting dresses so she can aim properly when she's hunting.   And I also like her because she's not one of those pink girly princesses who is always flapping around looking for boyfriends."

Going by the pictures, they've changed a quirky kid with a bow and arrows to a hot babe, who spends her time in the hair-dresser's rather than on the archery field.

The mothers on Woman's Hour were annoyed as well, as Merida is a gutsy princess they like their daughters to admire, as any decent mother would far rather their daughter had a pin-up of Jessica Ennis (achievement, drive) than of Kate Middleton (expensive teeth).

The little girls favoured Merida's penchant for dress suitable for active pursuits.  One of the worst films I've ever seen in my life was Van Helsing.  Among its general badnesses was Kate Beckinsale playing Anna Valerious who was constantly pursued by evil winged vampires.  If a family curse had me being pursued by evil winged vampires I'd wear a loose top, jogging bottoms and trainers, or the nineteenth century equivalent, not a corset and high-heeled boots up to my thighs.  I'd also tie back or even cut my hair, however tumbling and curly. Throw her to the vampires.

What not to wear when chased by evil vampires

I can understand why the little girls were so furious with the Disney makeover.  If you love a character, you hate them being messed around.  When I was little I adored Emma Peel, as played by Diana Rigg, in The Avengers.  She raced about in a Lotus Elan, wore cat suits and karate kicked the baddies.  I'd have been raging if she had appeared in a frilly dress and stilettos, and had waited to be rescued. 

Emma Peel was replaced by a less fighting woman, and the show fell out of my ratings. 


Diana Rigg as Emma Peel

Speeding Up Jane Austen

I've been unwell so my brain has only been up to mild entertainment on the internet. The paid companion who used to read to rich semi-invalids in Victorian time has been digitised and democratised.  We all have paid companions now.

Philanthropists on the internet upload films and television serials and now I can watch Jane Austen adaptations by the dayful.

I was taught that when you watch a film adaptation of a novel you should judge it by its own merits, not how it relates to the source material. Also, that good films are usually made not out of great novels but okay ones. However, watching differing versions of Jane Austen is like watching different versions of classical plays. Will the Ghost of Hamlet's father be a projection of Hamlet's own mental state or a material ghost? Will they set Julius Caesar in 1930's Italy or modern Africa or among the mafia?  The enjoyment includes assessing the interpretation. What will they do with - well to start - 

Persuasion 2007:-

 

Not bad - rather a nice Anne Elliott with her inward pain and patience, though her sister Mary is shown as neurotically deranged, not just snobbish and fretful.  But that last scene when Anne runs through Bath seeking Captain Wentworth.  Young ladies in Jane Austen's time did run but in the countryside, not through the streets.  Anne was going it like Jessica Ennis.  Jeez - it's the curse of the feisty heroine. To be attractive to modern eyes a film woman has to be physically energetic and outspoken.

So here's Billie Piper playing at shuttlecock, chasing a pug dog and generally tearing about like a mad thing with tumbling hair. Billie Piper is charming and was delightful as a companion to Doctor Who. She would make a delicious Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey. Here she's totally miscast playing Fanny Price - timid, bookish and delicate - in a garish adaptation of Mansfield Park (2007), where Mary Crawford, who is a sophisticate, flashes her ankles at Edmund Bertram and William Price dances the hornpipe. So when the internet didn't let me watch the third chunk of upload I was happy to give up on a vibrant adaptation for the perpetual motionists. 

 


Billie Piper - no Fanny Price did not look as cute as that

I hadn't much liked the film of Mansfield Park (1999) which had shown the influence of Edward Said* by including scenes of the slave trade (mentioned in one sentence in the book) but I did find the 1983 BBC version. The adaptation was faithful to the book and it made 1983 seem as spacious and stately as the days when families listened to Dickens novels being read out loud.  This adaptation got the novel's atmosphere - the formality, the authority of the paterfamilias, the repressed emotion obliquely expressed in walks through a grand garden or private theatricals. .

It did have some odd touches.  Sylvestra Le Touzel who played Fanny looked like an actress from the silent film era, when they widened their eyes emphasising the whites. She moved awkwardly with the same lunging gait as Joyce Grenfell playing a hockey mistress and in outburst was hysterical to the point of needing medication. Henry Crawford was repellent - creepy instead of attractive. And Lady Bertram was catatonic rather than just languid.  Anna Massie was excellent as the meddling Mrs Norris, as was Samantha Bond as Maria Bertram. The final great scene was touching, Edmund and Fanny are sitting by a window one rainy Sunday evening when he tells her of his final disillusionment with Mary Crawford. No running about, only their two faces and the rain outside on the paths and lawns.

 

Sylvestra Le Touzel as Fanny Price - slightly weird

I am now part way through the 1971 production of Persuasion, again done at an easy pace and staying close to the novel.  The autumnal scenery and the women trailing their dresses and shawls on the Cobb at Lyme are very good, the ladies of the English leisure classes at their pretty play. They have also added some poetry for Anne to quote (that time's equivalent of songs for life's soundtrack).  Anne Elliot has an absurd hair style, a kind of beehive. But she is good, the grown up woman always trying to make the peace among the exuberant giggling girls. All the characters are done well, except for a shrieking Louisa Musgrove who is such a pain you think Captain Wentworth shows bad taste in his flirtations. I was quite pleased when she was knocked unconscious.

 


Anne Firbank with bad hairstyle

I find there was a 1960 version of Persuasion but it was cleaned out by the BBC in the 1970s.

The Disciple: Master - will we have eternal life?
The Master : If we are digitised, my child.

*Culture and Imperialism

Saudis on Cycles

Women are now allowed to ride bicycles in Saudi Arabia - in parks, and if accompanied by a male relation, says The Guardian.

"the "unnamed official" who made the announcement added that women will be allowed to pedal only around parks and other "recreational areas". They will also have to be dressed in full Islamic body coverings, and – in a darkly comic stipulation that evokes images of tandems – they will have to be accompanied by a male relative. So cycling alone, and indeed towards possible gainful employment, will remain illegal, along with voting, many sports, and a host of other basic activities many would consider a human right."

There are comments below to the effect that:-

1. Nobody cycles in Saudi Arabia
2. There's nowhere to cycle in Saudi Arabia - it's too hot and the roads are too busy
3. This token cycling is better than nothing. At least the women are getting some exercise.

"When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." said H.G. Wells.

If you see a woman on a bicycle she may be going places.  Bicycles got women out of constrictive clothing and to Suffragette meetings, to jobs and on outings with men who weren't their male relatives.

They don't seem to be taking Saudi women very far.