Moving Target,1991
About a hundred years ago bicycles started to be mass-produced and becameaffordable to many working class people. Suddenly, thousands upon thousandsof workers were able to escape from the cities and spend the day at theseaside or in the country, Many socialist cycling clubs emerged to complimentthe new liberation.
Not everybody was happy about this however. Prior to these events theupper and middle classes had all the resorts virtually to themselves. Ithad been rare to hear a cockney accent on the Essex, Kent or Sussex coastsbecause train fares were relatively expensive. Newspapers of the day claimedthe workers on bicycles were dangerous and irresponsible and branded themas The Scorchers .
This pocket history lesson has a parallel in the present day. Recently,several MP's and certain newspapers have harped on about the "CycleCourier Menace" as if we are more dangerous than an unmuzzled pit-bullterrier. Alexander Walker is a case in point. By weight of numbers andpersistence The Scorchers won the right to cycle wherever they wanted.A fine example to emulate.
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