...about the stupid sky news "journalist" brought to my attention by the lovely Mr Benn, innerbrat has created a petition to have Sky issue an apology and sack the horrible woman.

It won't do any good, like. Such things rarely do. But that does not mean that one should not stand up and be counted.

Sign here, please.

Amused Cynicism has blogged about the BBC's misleading, anti-bike article which states that 40% of bikers are evading road tax because 40% of bikes are SORNed. i suspect that, were anyone to investigate this, they would find that the vast majority of these untaxed bikes are in bits in someone's garage or garden. Notwithstanding that, though, there is a very good case for arguing that bikes should be exempt from road tax anyway, as Amused Cynicism makes clear:

Road Tax for motorbikes is between £15 and £64 a year. However, since the amount of damage a vehicle does to the road is proportional to the fourth power of the wheel loading, bikes do very little damage to the road — most is done by lorries and cars. So bikes are subsidising larger vehicles. Bikes also do not cause congestion, because they can be ridden between traffic lanes. So every person who goes from being a car driver to a motorcyclist is actually helping other road users, by reducing congestion and therefore the other road users average journey times. Because motorbikes use little fuel, they also help to reduce carbon emissions and other forms of pollution.

So bikers are good for congestion, good for the environment, good for reducing the UK’s dependence on imported fuel, good for reducing pollution, and are subsidising the cost of repearing the wear and tear other road users do to the roads. There are not “stealing” from other road users, in fact quite the opposite they are making them better off.

Since bike use benefits society in so many ways it ought to be encouraged. One good start would be abolishing road tax for bikes.

I agree completely. I have thus signed the Petition Gordon petition which exists on this subject, and encourage you to do so too.

Other bike-related petitions you might like to consider:

- Do not introduce EVCS for motorcycles. If a four-wheeled vehicle is stopped by EVCS, it is not going to fall over, crush anyone, throw anyone into the path of an oncoming vehicle, etc. etc. A motorcycle needs to remain under its rider's control at all times.

- Remove VAT on motorcycle safety clothing. This is a no-brainer, surely?

- Exempt motorcycles from congestion charging schemes by law. Motorcycles do not cause or contribute to congestion, and therefore should not be subject to congestion charges.

- Use non-slip road paint. So simple, you would think it would already be in effect, but it's not.

- Let bikes use bus lanes. Because it's safer than dodging cars who, either through ignorance or malice, are trying to kill you.

- Confiscate the phones of drivers who are caught using them while driving. Because these are a prime cause of SMIDSY accidents.

- Stop replacing traffic coppers with speed cameras. Again, another no-brainer.

and, because I'm not without a sense of fun:

- Abolish the speed limit on the motorway. Because it was only created because of that guy in his AC Cobra spooking a few old dears. Speed safety is a matter of judgement, not absolutes, and should be left up to the driver/rider. Sometimes a motorway is safe to ride at well over 100mph; sometimes you need to be less than 50. It works well enough in Germany, so why not here?

It's another Ending Soon Round-Up!

Good Ideas

Extend Motability to cover bikes as well as cars. The Disabled Motorcyclists Association does good work in this regard, but it would be nice if bikers got the same consideration as cagers from the Government.
Clearer labelling on meat products about the origins of the meat. Mat and I are both for this. I think a picture of the habitat the animal lived in would suffice.
In the same area, label food packaging as to whether or not it is recyclable.

Good idea, badly expressed: I'm a convicted criminal and nobody will give me a job! I'm all for the rehabilitation of offenders, but really, learn to spell!

Award For The OverUse Of Capital Letters: Ban the lads mags! I know there are some readers who agree with this and some who disagree vehemently; it's not an argument I want to get into today, please. I'm just amused by the Vehement Capital Letters.

Why does nobody pay attention to ME???: The BBC is biased against the Welsh! Oh noes! That petition writer wants to move to Yorkshire. He'll know what getting ignored by the BBC is then. And all three major political parties too. Bloody Home Counties bias.

A Snowball in Hell: Make it illegal for lawyers to become MPs. And while you're at it, outlaw people with English Degrees from writing books, and people with driving licenses from becoming bus drivers.

tl;dr incomprehensibility award: Something about NICE and Ankylosing Spondilitis. I'm in an at risk group for AS, and if *I* don't understand what the hell that's blathering about, what chance does anyone else have?

short, but still incomprehensible: ban gays from being religious. I think. Anyone else understand this one?

The Molesworth Award for Trying to make money out of skool chiz chiz: Get "payed" for doing homework and "coarsework". Comedy spelling is either unintentional hilarity or intentional genius. You decide.

... are divided into two groups. Firstly the OMG you're INSANE! petitioners:

FFS stop my neighbour's cat crapping in my yard! (I adore the url of that one!)
I have no clue about my own bloodline, let alone anyone else's. Seriously, you have to read the full text of this one, it's comedy gold.
The human body disintegrates at thirty miles an hour! This one really shows the damage that stupid speed limit legislation has done.
Parents should teach their children dangerous occult practises, not schools!
It looks like English, but is it? If anyone can work out what this one is actually asking for, I'd be grateful...

Secondly the nice idea, but it'll never happen ones:

I'd love to see this happen. Sadly, too many rich people in positions of power. But, the way to bring state schools into line with private schools is to tax private schools like buggery and use the proceeds to fund state schools. Not removing choice, but evening the playing field.
Make public transport free! Well, IMHO a renewable deposit for a pass would be a good plan; then if you vandalise, you lose your pass and your money and can't use public transport.
Give MPs a taste of their own medicine. We're actually seeing the fruits of this locally with councillors; I don't see it happening in Westminster any time soon, though. Still, there's always the fabulous TheyWorkForYou
Footballers get paid too much! Well, yes, they do, but this is because idiots are willing to pay stupid prices for tickets and strips. Stop buying the Man U shirts and suddenly they'll stop making as much money It =/= rocket science.
I've been saying this for years. Sadly, vehicle excise duty is more about the database than the tax, these days, so this will never happen. But, for pay-as-you-go road tax, it can't be beaten, and certainly won't cost billions like Darling's madcap plan.
This is a far better solution, IMHO ;)

I'm being very blonde today and keep getting distracted by shiny things, so depth is not about to happen. Have a random series of unconnected paragraphs instead:

Do you know any Swiss people? Direct them to this petition. Sadly I, as a Brit, can't sign it. But I'm passing the link on in case you know anyone who can.

---

In the light of this article, in which the US government blithely states that it would be quite happy to commit what I would call an act of war against us, when we are supposedly it's closest allies, Davide Simonetti has a convincing argument that American Imperialism isn't on the horizon, but is actually with us and has been for some time (thanks to Amused Cynicism for the link).

---

qi_quote is... well... Quite Interesting today.

Sir Richard Burton, the Victorian explorer and translator of The Arabian Nights spoke 40 languages and dialects. At 19, he could already speak seven of them. Born an Anglican, he converted to Roman Catholicism, then Hinduism, then Sikhism, then Sufism, then Islam, before finally reverting back to Sufism. He also wrote A History of Farting and spent the latter years of his life measuring the cocks of African tribesmen.

I wonder if he'd be able to tell matgb and I why we have both been doing incredibly stinky farts (that smell the same, too) since Sunday night...? It's not like we've had the same diet... [/tmi]

---

I have a friend, raven_oreilly. This friend is American, and was brought up in a household where she was taught to believe certain things. She has been going through the process of questioning those beliefs for a while now; reading lots of books, researching, finding things out and evaluating what she's found. She might decide that the beliefs she was brought up with are entirely correct, she might not. But watching her emerge, butterfly-like, from the restrictive cocoon of received wisdom and into the freedom and daylight of thinking for yourself is a beautiful thing, and it will remain beautiful whatever colour her wings turn out to be.

---

Speaking of beautiful: Sam West. He's beautiful, obviously, but so are his words.

---

Vince Cable Watch Special!

Millennium Elephant (well, his daddies) organised yet another Lib-Dem-Bloggers-meet-top-Lib-Dems thingie, and apparently last night was the turn of the lovely Mr Cable (the previous ones being Ming, Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg). alixmortimer is the first to get her report in (with a fabulous punning title), but others are bound to follow in due course

---

And finally, Vote for Mister Splashy Pants!

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/adamhartdavis/

Can't believe this one only has eight signatures, including mine. Adam Hart-Davis RULES.

Also, I found another petition that's nearly expired (expires midnight tonight). It would be great if we can all give this one a final push. Because it will mean that Mat and I won't have to bother having two wedding ceremonies.

Make humanist weddings legal in England and Wales as they are in Scotland.

Today's Sexism Watch is brought to you by shishmish (with a sly wink to strangefrontier, the world's biggest Spitfire fan): the British Dietetic Association have been talking about the decline of the brewing industry, which is, of course, at least one fifth the fault of women. Now, never mind the fact that they refer to lager and Proper Beer as if they are the same thing, where does this assumption come from that smaller glasses is the way to attract women? The idea that men drink pints and women drink halves is entirely culturally imposed. In my experience (of a ten to telve handpump real ale pub) the beer connoisseurs of either gender tend to drink halves, because that way they get to try more different beers before falling over.

Ah well, yet again, it appears I am a bloke in a female body.

In which case, as a bloke, I feel I ought to do the blokish thing and post a list. These are the not-randomly selected highlights of the Petition the Prime Minister website at the moment:

Good Ideas

Change Organ Donation from an "opt in" system to an "opt out" system
Make Sex Education a Foundation Subject. (I'd add to that: stop letting people opt out of it).
Enforce existing road safety laws instead of making up new ones. Actually, enforcement of existing laws rather than making up new ones would be good in a lot of arenas, but really, I'd LOVE to see some ten year old on a mini moto being pulled over by the rozzers and asked to produce his licence and CBT certificate, and questioned on why he wasn't showing L-plates... >:D
Another bike-related one: please don't use External Vehicle Control on a vehicle which is kept upright by the movement of it's wheels. If you force a car to brake with EVS, the car stops and the driver shouts a bit. If you force a bike to brake mid corner with EVS, the bike falls over and the rider dies.
If you're going to have hate crime at all, make it include ALL hate crimes, and not just some.

and, yeah, I know some of you won't agree with me on this one, but please let me have my child educated without having her indoctrinated into a religion.

Less Good Ideas

I Can't Be Arsed to Fill In an HC1 Form. Please make it so I don't have to.
Plastic glasses suck! Please don't make us drink from them!. Srsly, I prefer a proper glass too, but if it's that or close the pub?

Clearly, these people are on crack ideas

Train the Paras to use Parachutes. Not the petition starter who's on crack here, but the MOD - what's the point in having a parachute regiment that can't use parachutes?
Ban TV programmes that show things I don't like!
We'd like permission to continue mutilating our pets, please.