Matthew Parris joins the ranks of the bigots
Writing about web page http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article3097464.ece
What’s smug and deserves to be decapitated?
Cyclists, according to Matthew Parris. He writes in today’s Times
A festive custom we could do worse than foster would be stringing piano wire across country lanes to decapitate cyclists.
Our crime, according to Mr. Parris, is that we chuck empty cans of hi-energy drinks into hedgerows as we pass.
I have never chucked a can of hi-energy drink into a hedgerow. Why should I have my head cut off? Why should other cyclists, who don’t litter the countryside, also face the death sentence. What about horse riders?
Isn’t the death penalty a bit much for throwing litter? I suppose if there’s capital punishment in some middle eastern countries for adultery or homosexuality, it’s not too far fetched to apply it to littering. As long as the person throwing the litter isn’t in a car, when of course, it’s only a misdemeanor.
Stringing wire across tracks is not unknown. More commonplace is aggressive driving. No doubt Mr. Parris will claim it’s not his fault if some homicidal motorist, wound up by the likes of Parris and Clarkson, decides to clip a cyclist whilst overtaking at speed.
27 Dec 2007 14:39
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Chris May
It’s a bizarre column from someone who (in my fairly limited experience) is generally quite balanced in his opinions. I can only assume that either (a) he’s jealous of Clarkson’s higher readership numbers, and is trying to outdo him (but sadly hasn’t read enough P.J. O’Rourke to have mastered the art of being bigotted and funny at the same time), or (b) he was very, very, drunk at the time. Still; the comments are pleasingly sane, given how pro-car The Times’ readers usually are.
27 Dec 2007, 20:06
An Italian motorcyclist was murdered by barbed wire across a track last April
Story in Italian
Google’s translation
27 Dec 2007, 22:31
An incident in Swindon 2006
27 Dec 2007, 22:39
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