"Economist" thinks cyclists are paupers and delay traffic

[Woofage]

clicky

Maybe he should move to the USA to see what cities designed around the motor car are really like .

[clarion]

'Economist' is ignorant idiot.

Right winger?  Check

In pay of road lobby?  Don't know, but my bet is that he is.

[Wowbagger]

George Monbiot had something very apposite to say about think tanks in yesterday's Grauniad.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/01/rightwing-insurrection-usurps-democracy

[Jaded]

Finally, a more punchable face than Michael Gove.

[davelodwig]

I've read quite a lot of his tweets, in short the man is an idiot.

I've replied to a few, He mutters a lot about the time delays bikes impose on cars, quite frankly I couldn't care less about them but it's really not the bikes holding up traffic.

[bikenrrd]

He should try cycling into Oxford where cars hold me up on my commute to work!

[mrcharly-YHT]

Finally, a more punchable face than Michael Gove.

Impossible!

[davelodwig]

To be honest his photo does make him look a little special. I wonder if anyone actually gave any thought to the fact that he was using a profile image that makes him look a bit like "Tim nice but dim" or he was allowed to choose for himself.

It's scary but people making decisions probably listen to this cockwomble.

[hatler]

Finally, a more punchable face than Michael Gove.

That's a brave assertion, and given the nonsense being forced on schools at the moment it would take quite a lot to dissuade me of the notion that Gove's face is, by some distance, the most punchable of the lot. But give me time to read the article in the OP.

[hatler]

OK. Article read. He is a tosser of the first order but there are wiser minds than his about and he will get drowned out in the noise of the increasingly obvious pro-cycle arguments. (Though that's not to say the battle has been won yet.)

Gove on the other hand is doing real damage to schools right now with impunity. No-one is standing in his way.

Gove still gets my vote.

[clarion]

Finally, a more punchable face than Michael Gove.

Impossible!

Jimmy Carr, unrepentant speeder.

[Rhys W]

Finally, a more punchable face than Michael Gove.

This is what intrigued me enough to go back up and click on the link! 

Not quite true, but he does look a bit jowly and pale... he should ride a bike, he'd feel better.

[TimC]

He has a peculiar set of views, even for a 'right winger' (if indeed he is such). I suspect he has spent so long in the company of libertarian academics, brainstorming 'innovative' solutions to society's ills, that he has lost touch with reality.

[clarion]

...he does look a bit jowly and pale... he should ride a bike, he'd feel better.

He'd get to where he's going faster, too

[clarion]

He has a peculiar set of views, even for a 'right winger' (if indeed he is such).

He works for the very right wing  'libertarian think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs'

[TimC]

He has a peculiar set of views, even for a 'right winger' (if indeed he is such).

He works for the very right wing  'libertarian think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs'

I'm not suggesting the IEA isn't right wing. I just wonder if this individual's views are so unorthodox they defy classification. He certainly seems rather odd - advocating using parks and playing fields for housing, for example.

[clarion]

I've heard that before - from free market thinktanks.  It's a rightist thing.

[RJ]

Finally, a more punchable face than Michael Gove.

Almost full screen

What a tosser.

[JonBoy]

Doesn't sound very libertarian

[twiddler]

There was an old woman who swallowed a fly....

[tom_e]

I wonder if that guy read the recent BBC news article about traffic jams round the world.  Funny, they didn't seem to be caused by bicycles.  Many of them seem to correlate to a shifting from large scale bicycle use to car use.  And it seems to be making the cars slower, not faster.  How confusing.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I thought this was going to be about The Economist - which would have surprised and disappointed me.

[Wowbagger]

He has a peculiar set of views, even for a 'right winger' (if indeed he is such).

He works for the very right wing  'libertarian think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs'

I'm not suggesting the IEA isn't right wing. I just wonder if this individual's views are so unorthodox they defy classification. He certainly seems rather odd - advocating using parks and playing fields for housing, for example.

That's not just advocated, it's put into practice in Southend.

[Gandalf]

Is it me or does he remind you of Stuart Pearson from 'The Thick of It' ?

[rower40]

Is it me or does he remind you of Stuart Pearson from 'The Thick of It' ?

Far from it - you don't remind me of Stuart Pearson at all.