Monday 12 November 2012

Quote of the Week

Bradley Wiggins got knocked off his bike by a car last week in a classic example of motorist’s SMIDSY (Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You). A Guardian article concluded with a quote from a British MP, a member of the UK’s Opposition Labour Party, who, at the time of making the comment (January 2012), was a shadow environment minister. Step forward Tom Harris, Labour MP for Glasgow South, speaking in a House of Commons debate on the Civil Aviation Bill on 30 January 2012.

Mr Harris responded to the news that the Minister of State at the Department for Transport, Mrs Villiers, had been knocked off her bike with the following gem,

I trust that when she returns to her duties after that speedy recovery, she will use her ministerial car rather more often and her push bike rather less often.”

Yes, that’s the Labour Party’s shadow environment minister. You couldn’t make it up.

1 comment:

  1. Tom Harris is a strange one. He spent a large part of the past decade moaning about how Brian Haw was spoiling the look of the beautiful 5-lane traffic roundab-- I mean, the beautiful manicured city square outside parliament.

    For a while he did the DfT junior minister job that Norman Baker does now. (Well, a slight variation on it.) Never seemed like an obvious choice to be guiding the development of things like Cycling England...

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