Bad news - Labour do not get Active Travel

[atlas_shrugged]

Bad news: Labour Transport do not get Active Travel:

https://twitter.com/JimfromOldham/statu ... 4102887425

There are excellent Labour MPs such as Ruth Cadbury who could have been given the most important transport job of developing UK Active Travel. However the task is not even on the list of job responsibilities.

Dear Labour,

Write these three words down:

Prioritise Active Travel

[Paulatic]

I don’t know Jim but I see he chaired Oldham cycling forum for 3 years and in 2016 this was his response to a Manchester Transport Consultation. Looks as if he’s keen on buses too.

[PH]

Bad news: Labour Transport do not get Active Travel:

https://twitter.com/JimfromOldham/statu ... 4102887425

There are excellent Labour MPs such as Ruth Cadbury who could have been given the most important transport job of developing UK Active Travel. However the task is not even on the list of job responsibilities.

Dear Labour,

Write these three words down:

Prioritise Active Travel

Have you got anything to say rather than a twitter link?
I'm a member of Labour Cycles, a Labour Party affiliated group set up to ensure cycling is considered in all elements of policy at local, regional and national levels. While it would be daft to think Labour policy is perfect (There would be no need for the Cycle group if it was) it doesn't match you sensationalist generalisation of a headline.
https://labourcycles.org/

[Richard Fairhurst]

Kerry McCarthy and Matt Rodda both have good records on cycling. I encountered Rodda at a Sustrans event and was impressed.

Disappointing to see the way that the responsibilities are divvied up, though. "Green" transport shouldn't just be the responsibility of one (shadow) minister: all transport should be green transport.

[PH]

Disappointing to see the way that the responsibilities are divvied up, though. "Green" transport shouldn't just be the responsibility of one (shadow) minister: all transport should be green transport.

We'll have to see how that works out, I'd be surprised if it wasn't a part of every shadow ministers responsibility and the compartmentalisation is little more than a administrative tool. Maybe the OP wanted a specific shadow minister to have the Active Travel label, that might be desirable but I don't see it as essential.
I've heard both Kerry McCarthy and Matt Rodda speak and they were certainly making the right noises IMO. My disappointment is that Rachael Maskell isn't on the team, though she's been used elsewhere. I've never heard any MP speak so enthusiastically about rail and the need to integrate cycling with it.

[atlas_shrugged]

="PH Maybe the OP wanted a specific shadow minister to have the Active Travel label, that might be desirable but I don't see it as essential.

You are dead right about this. The only politicians I support on transport are the ones who want to *Prioritise Active Travel*. That said none of the major parties are doing this at a national level. Hopefully if you are involved with the labour party you may like to hammer this message home to them.

[FOSS62]

="PH Maybe the OP wanted a specific shadow minister to have the Active Travel label, that might be desirable but I don't see it as essential.

You are dead right about this. The only politicians I support on transport are the ones who want to *Prioritise Active Travel*. That said none of the major parties are doing this at a national level. Hopefully if you are involved with the labour party you may like to hammer this message home to them.

Isn’t it a Labour administration in Wales who (just days before suggesting that they would start lifting the lockdown) decided that they would put extra restrictions on cycling?

[PH]

Isn’t it a Labour administration in Wales who (just days before suggesting that they would start lifting the lockdown) decided that they would put extra restrictions on cycling?

They've clarified what they consider to be reasonable reasons for leaving home, and what's reasonable for exercise, it would be daft IMO to see it in any other context.

[mattsccm]

It doesn't smack of sympathy to cycling though does it? Could be a case of we will worry about bigger issues later. Fair enough, or it could be a set of people in power who are less keen on cycling.

[PH]

It doesn't smack of sympathy to cycling though does it? Could be a case of we will worry about bigger issues later. Fair enough, or it could be a set of people in power who are less keen on cycling.

It treats cycling for exercise exactly the same as any other outside activity for the same purpose. You could argue they have the criteria and restrictions wrong, but there is no argument that cycling has been treated differently to anything else. I can't think of a single reason why it would be. I find the idea that someone would want to try and use it to make a party political point absurd.
I'll leave it for the people of Wales to say whether the Welsh Assembly is pro cycling or not, but I don't think that ought to be judged in these exceptional times.

[FOSS62]

It doesn't smack of sympathy to cycling though does it? Could be a case of we will worry about bigger issues later. Fair enough, or it could be a set of people in power who are less keen on cycling.

It treats cycling for exercise exactly the same as any other outside activity for the same purpose. You could argue they have the criteria and restrictions wrong, but there is no argument that cycling has been treated differently to anything else. I can't think of a single reason why it would be. I find the idea that someone would want to try and use it to make a party political point absurd.
I'll leave it for the people of Wales to say whether the Welsh Assembly is pro cycling or not, but I don't think that ought to be judged in these exceptional times.

I think there is a bit of playing to the gallery. They’ve made a judgement that ‘leisure cyclists’ are seen as outsiders, so see it as politically useful to be seen to be ‘clamping down’. The main argument around breakdowns meaning someone else has to drive out (and this is obviously so much worse than a trip to the supermarket?) seems extremely feeble.

[PH]

I think there is a bit of playing to the gallery. They’ve made a judgement that ‘leisure cyclists’ are seen as outsiders, so see it as politically useful to be seen to be ‘clamping down’. The main argument around breakdowns meaning someone else has to drive out (and this is obviously so much worse than a trip to the supermarket?) seems extremely feeble.

Edit - I wrote and deleted a post because this has nothing to do with the Labour Party or active travel, if you want to thread about the Welsh Assemblies restrictions, why not start one.

[Tangled Metal]

In a small digression, how does the Welsh assembly work in comparison with Westminster and holyrood? Does the party with the majority of assembly members voted in form an administration? Is that labour and does it have a majority in the assembly?

I only ask because if labour was in power in Westminster it would have a big role in transport decisions. If labour have the power in the Welsh assembly then surely they would have a big role in transport decisions. Aren't the labour party in Wales part of me the same labour party in England and not separated like the Scottish labour is? Doesn't that open things up to include discussing active travel views of labour in Wales as well as England? Why not even discuss Scottish labour views on active travel for that matter?

[PH]

In a small digression, how does the Welsh assembly work in comparison with Westminster and holyrood? Does the party with the majority of assembly members voted in form an administration? Is that labour and does it have a majority in the assembly?

I only ask because if labour was in power in Westminster it would have a big role in transport decisions. If labour have the power in the Welsh assembly then surely they would have a big role in transport decisions. Aren't the labour party in Wales part of me the same labour party in England and not separated like the Scottish labour is?

Elections to the Welsh Assembly are a fairly complex hybrid system with some members FPTP and others PR. You're better off with google if you want the details. There's 60 members, currently 29 Labour and in coalition with one independent and one lib form the government with a majority of one.
I don't know that much about how things are going, maybe some opinions from those who live there might be of interest to us both. The Welsh Assembly certainly talk the talk better than the Westminster one
https://gov.wales/walking-cycling

Doesn't that open things up to include discussing active travel views of labour in Wales as well as England?

I have no objection to discussing active travel and/or labour's part in it. The spur this thread has gone down is to make some point about the lockdown restrictions as if they are in some way are anti cyclist, they're not, and that they had something to do with active travel, they haven't.

[pete75]

Bad news: Labour Transport do not get Active Travel:

https://twitter.com/JimfromOldham/statu ... 4102887425

There are excellent Labour MPs such as Ruth Cadbury who could have been given the most important transport job of developing UK Active Travel. However the task is not even on the list of job responsibilities.

Dear Labour,

Write these three words down:

Prioritise Active Travel

Are the Tories any better? If not why are you attacking Labour over the issue?