Are you a motorist who has seen cyclists behaving badly? I’m sure the answer from almost every driver is a resounding yes.
In Spain many cyclists are a total nightmare – riding the wrong side of the road as if they were in the UK, going the wrong way around roundabouts, cycling on pavements and then going straight onto a pedestrian crossing giving any on-coming motorist a nightmare and ignoring cycle lanes built for them and riding on roads instead.
One of the worst places locally is the roundabout in Playa Flamenca, outside Mercadona supermarket. There are too many exits and entrances on the roundabout and too many pedestrian crossings, so motorists have to contend with drivers trying to get onto the roundabout and pedestrians constantly on crossings. And then add cyclists doing the craziest things and you have a lethal combination.
I am delighted to hear that in the UK cyclists who kill pedestrians could face tougher sentences in future. We know that the law is an ass, but how about this for total nonsense. In the UK, if, as a motorist, you kill someone by dangerous driving, you could be jailed for 14 years. If you do the same thing as a cyclist, you can only be jailed for two years.
Are top law lawmakers in the UK total imbeciles? They’re paid a fortune to get things right, and do they? What on earth are UK taxpayers paying them for? Does it really need relatives of pedestrians who have been mown down by brainless cyclists to campaign for years before something is done?. I’m pleased that this will be before the future PM in his or her in-tray quickly after the office is filled.
MPs are also going to consider making cycles display number plates and cyclists to be insured. The idea is to bring cyclists in line with all other road users. My guess is there will be loads of opposition from cycling bodies.
But much more needs to be done in Spain. Too many cyclists here seem to think they are immune from traffic laws and display little common sense. Yes, of course, motorists need to keep 1.5metre distances while overtaking cyclists, but for heaven’s sake, motorists need to have some degree of confidence that cyclists are not completely devoid of brain cells and will not cycle anywhere just because they think drivers will be able to avoid them.
I have a confession to make. I am one of those fat cats who dare to have shares in Centrica (which owns British Gas) and living, many would think, in the lap of luxury. I wish I was. Yes, I have shares in Centrica, but no, I am not living in the lap of luxury.
Working class people, my dad included (and he was a former Northerner Labour voter), was wooed by the sweet-talking Maggie Thatcher to buy shares in utilities she wanted to privatise.
Back in 1986, when Maggie Thatcher did exactly the same thing as this ghastly right wing Tory government is doing now – brainwashing the public – millions of working-class people were told it was the patriotic thing to do to buy shares in the former utilities because they were doing the right thing in keeping Britain great.
He probably bought the minimum, taking savings from Premium Bonds to do so. He probably opted to have dividends paid in additional shares, because he was told it was the wise thing to do financially.
However, the reality is that if he had held onto those Premium Bonds he would have done far better.
I inherited those shares and now I am branded a fat cat by Labour-supporting idiots, who think that Centrica and many more companies should be nationalised or raided in windfall taxes to help cash-strapped people. Hard for them to understand that if I had cashed them in and put the money into bank savings (yes, all few hundred pounds of it) I would be receiving far more in interest than from dividends in Centrica.
For two years I haven’t received any dividend at all because the company went into the red. Now it is to pay 1p for every share owned. WOW! That will give me about a tenner, just about enough to pay for two coffees at costalot coffee. And when those left-wing Labour idiots retire, pension money they will receive, will be thanks to pension companies having invested in the private sector, Centrica included.
I wish for once right wing Tories will tell the truth instead of conning the public (like what they did over wretched Brexit which has caused so many problems) and left-wing Socialists. who think that anyone who dares to own one single share in anything is a fat cat and everything should be nationalised for the public good. A plague of curses to both of them – and for goodness’ sake, whoever you are, northerners, southerners, ex-pats, there is another political party sitting in the middle ground of politics, the Lib Dems.
And for heaven’s sake don’t be fooled into thinking that the UK Reform Party will do anything but harm to Britain…they’re more right-wing than the most extreme Tory, and they have that smooth talking Nigel Farage as president. Sounds good, doesn’t it…The Reform Party? Yes, UK politics needs reforming desperately, but not by them, instead by proportional representation by a middle of the road party, and certainly not by the ultra-extreme right wing.
Ther’s hardly one Tory husting in the UK for Tory members to listen to that Liz Truss doesn’t bang on about the Scots. Her answer to Nicola Sturgeon and her demand for independence is to ignore her.
Many Scots wish to have independence from right-wing England as we ex-pats in Orihuela Costa want independence from buttering-their-own-bread councillors in Orihuela city.
I have spoken to several Scots living locally who are furious with Truss who think that Scots can be ignored. Yes, there is a way for the UK to be united and live for the greater good. But Truss’s way is far from the answer and it’s my belief she will wreak havoc on the UK as PM.
