It was suggested that he implored people in similar situations and tempted therefore to throw bricks through Curry's window and walk off with the latest tv to do the same thing !
This though was just a tabloid myth designed to provoke outrage and portray the good lord as completely out of touch, and insensitive to the hardships faced by ordinary working class folk.
Be that as it may it cannot be argued that whether meant or not his intervention coupled with the promise of being incinerated by global warming if we use anything with a combustion engine bigger than a lawn mower has resulted in more and more people getting out and about on their bikes.
All very comforting given that millions of pounds of public money has been spent on providing bespoke cycle ways and tracks while it seems acceptable for the road network to be left crater strewn and untended for months making travelling on them in anything other than a lunar rover a bone jarring nightmare!
Of course the 'commute' often means that the bulk of cycling is done on those very same lethal roads into major towns and cities while the cycle network is left for Sundays and bank holidays.
This is mildly irritating but would on its own be fairly palatable, were it not for the hideous 'uniform' that the intrepid cyclist feels is the appropriate garb to wear when 'pumpin the pedals'.
In times gone by we would tuck our trouser leg into our socks, (this being vital to ensure the trousers didn't catch in the chain mechanism resulting in a lower limb amputation)
We'd turn our cap the wrong way around and mount the trusty steed handed down by our dad which despite having Sturmey Archer 3 speed and dynamo lighting also weighed as much as a washing machine and had a hideously buckled front wheel which invariably rubbed against the brake rubbers making forward progress almost impossible!
Nevertheless pops used it every day for work before he succumbed to an arthritic knee which swelled to the size of a football with any exertion. This meant therefore that a car had to be invested in, consigning my siblings and I to the ravages of the planet heating up exponentially and it seemed, the almost daily use of jump leads.
These days things are very different! It appears that the only way to be seen on a bike is to don garments making yourself look like you have come straight from a Lycra fetish party and complete the outfit by wearing a natty helmet fitted with a camera.
This presumably is so they can film themselves breaking the law every day while riding a carbon fibre wafer costing roughly the same as a Brighton Semi.
Men in particular, most of whom appear old enough to know better, seem to feel it is vital to be seen in the latest body hugging, streamlined apparel, so much so, some it would seem even insist on keeping their bicycle pump tucked in the front of their shorts, presumably to reduce drag. What is that all about? It is a frankly terrifying sight!
Of course riders say that they get an enormous amount of pleasure from getting 'out and about' and have become seduced into thinking that a daily dice with death is in someway a healthy and relaxing thing to do and good for the planet.
Nothing of course could be further from the truth as the life expectancy of the average pedal pusher using main roads is something around 3 weeks.
This is not because they will be hit by Tyler the tearaway, 'Sexting' his girlfriend while caning his Corsa, No, cyclists are far more likely to disappear into a pot hole abyss the size of Derby, while trying to adjust the position of their pump, furiously chafing their gentlemen's essentials on the saddle!
So would I ever fancy getting back into cycling?......On Yer Bike!
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