Let’s hope it’s a good one for you and if we can keep up the pressure from last year, it should be a good one for Riders’ Rights too.

If you live in the South East of England, we are pleased to announce that one of your MEPs, Peter Skinner, is holding a special ‘motorcycle surgery’ at P&H Motorcycles in Crawley on 14th January, at:

P&H Motorcycles Ltd
61-63 Gatwick Road
Crawley
West Sussex
RH10 9RD

As a result of the huge volume of correspondence he has received from riders in his constituency, he has agreed to meet as many as possible on Saturday afternoon (14th Jan) in perhaps the ideal venue, a bike shop.

He is hoping to hear all your concerns about EU legislation first hand, as well as discuss rider training issues, the state of the retail bike industry and the future of the whole industry in light of various legislation, both proposed and under discussion for future proposal.

If you could arrive before 2pm (time enough to grab a cuppa) Mr Skinner will be available to take questions and hear what you have to say, after 2pm.

It is common to visit an MP surgery and discuss local or national issues, but so much of what affects our motorcycling lives now is decided in Europe, this is a great opportunity for us to voice our concerns to an MEP who genuinely wants to understand riders and the bike industry generally.

It should be an interesting afternoon, and remember, P&H is a multi-franchised dealer, so there’ll be loads of bikes to look at too…

Words by: Paddy Tyson, Campaigns Manager.

MAG welcomes the fact that so much attention is being paid to this piece of legislation, at Committee stage, after the many, many months of lobbying by MAG and FEMA.

It shows that the lobbying tactics are working and the postponement comes as no surprise as the vote date had already been postposed several times and we had said this further delay was always a real possibility.

This further delay, as the 305 tabled amendments continue to be discussed, means that the Plenary Session vote, or vote by the whole European Parliament, will now be pushed back to the Spring.

A complaint against the Commission was upheld earlier in the year by the European Ombudsman, that the Commission had failed to provide sufficient evidence for its proposals on Anti-Tampering and Automatic Headlights On, and we have discovered today that the Commission has failed to provide any further supporting evidence.

These two events exonerate MAG’s position that much of the TA Regulation is  ill-conceived and highlights the difficulties that our politicians face if they choose to support some of the Commission’s more outlandish ideas.

Other speakers at the cross-Party event include Kate Hoey MP, David Davis MP, Zac Goldsmith MP, Mark Seddon, Bob Crow.
A full list can be seen here:

http://www.peoplespledge.org/docs/peoples_pledge_congress_2011.pdf

MAG is pleased that the motorcyclists’ voice will be heard at the event; an opportunity to demonstrate how the current structure of the EU is anathema to representative democracy and to illustrate the disassociation so many feel attempting to be heard when proposed legislation is to directly impact upon them.

In essence the People’s Pledge is:

The EU is now planning to give itself new wide-ranging powers in the form of yet another treaty in relation to the crisis in the eurozone. The choice concerning our relationship with the EU is now clear: either we accept being primarily and increasingly governed from Brussels or we decide to abandon membership and negotiate a new relationship with the EU based on trade and, where this makes sense, voluntary co-operation.

There are 5 key reasons why we must have a referendum on Britain and the EU:

• No one under the age of 54 has had the chance to vote on our relationship with Brussels
• The EU now makes a majority of the laws we must obey
• The UK has less than 10% of the votes in the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament
• The EU is costing Britain more and more money
• The EU wants to give itself new powers of ‘economic governance’

MAG’s recent day of action saw over 40,000 riders begin a simultaneous slow ride at 1pm on the 25th September across the UK’s motorway network
as part of it’s campaign to highlight the Proposed EU Type Approval and Market Surveillance of 2 and 3 wheeled vehicles Regulation.

The Motorcycle Action Group (UK) requested confirmation yesterday after the RSA told a reporter on Belfast newspaper ‘News Letter’;

“…at present the RSA’s preference is for the voluntary wearing of high visibility jackets rather than compulsion.”

This contradicted the RSA’s position in the National Motorcycle Safety Action Plan 2010-14 which proposes the introduction of regulations for the mandatory wearing of high visibility upper body clothing with full sleeves for ride and pillion passenger.

Brian Farrell, Communications Manager at the Road Safety Authority, emailed MAG(UK) in response to a request for clarification, saying:

“I can confirm that the RSA has not dropped the position outlined in the Motorcycle Action plan. We do intend to seek to introduce the measure in 2014, subject to consultation with motorcyclists and industry on the most appropriate type of hi-viz material and possible solutions.”

MAG(UK)’s General Secretary Nich Brown said:

“Too many riders have been unwilling to believe they will be forced to wear day-glo clothing in the near future.  Until now the RSA has soft-pedalled its determination to legislate, but now there is no doubt that the authorities are serious.

Recent research shows drivers who also ride motorcycles watch-out for bikes and are far less likely to collide with them.  Commenting, Nich Brown said:

“There are too many collisions between road users of all kinds, the key is to get everyone to look out for each other and to think about who they share the road with.  Forced day-glo will simply marginalise riders and let unobservant drivers off the hook.  Such a lazy approach to road safety does not deserve to succeed.”

MAG(UK) and MAG(Ireland) have organised a co-ordinated protest against proposals for compulsory hi-viz, restrictions on the ability to modify motorcycles to suit their riders, bans on older bikes in cities, and a raft of other measures that will affect biking throughout Europe.

Riders will be gathering at 1pm on Sunday 25th September, starting from more than 100 locations on trunk roads throughout the British Isles they will be riding in convoys to raise awareness of their presence on the road and to demonstrate their opposition to further restrictions on biking.

Map of start points: http://tinyurl.com/Action-Now-EU-Hands-Off-Biking

FURTHER INFORMATION:

MAG(UK)     tel. +44(0)1926 844064    www.mag-uk.org

MAG(Ireland)    tel. +353(0)16020695  www.magireland.org