I went to the monthly meeting of the MCC last night. The Motorcycle Council of NSW is an umbrella group that represents the interests of motorcyclists in NSW in particular as far as political interference in things motorcycling is concerned.
MCC keeps a close scrutiny on impending legislation that is likely to affect motorcyclists, knowing, as it does, that such legislation is usually framed by faceless bureaucrats who have no knowledge, nor interest, in motorcycling at all. These gutless wonders feel no shame in framing regulations that are arrantly stupid, repressive and, in most cases, unenforceable, and they justify their stupidity in the most patronising and condescendingly “Big Brother” way by making pronouncements about them being good for “safety” or “the environment” or some such other absurd non-sequiter.
The latest piece of absurdity and revenue-grabbing has been the push to have motorcycles fitted with front number plates. This has been initiated in Victoria where all speed cameras are forward-facing (that is, they photograph the front of the vehicle as they approach the camera). Plainly, these cameras can detect, AND photograph, a speeding motorcycle, but the resultant photograph is useless in terms of tracking the bike and the rider, issuing a fine, and, shock, horror, raking in some cash for the avaricious Victorian government to whom exceeding the speed limit by a massive THREE KILOMETRES AN HOUR is a capital crime.
Now those of us who are old enough to remember, will recall that front number plates USED to be fitted to bikes and were eventually discarded on SAFETY grounds; ie that they presented a danger to both pedestrians and to the rider in the event of an accident, and good riddance to them.
Now we have this proposal rearing its ungly head again and, guess who one of its major proponents is? Yes, that ultimate buffoon, enemy of all things motorcycling and public moron, Harold Scruby of the Pedestrian Council. Eh? Run that by me again. Number plates present a danger to pedestrians; that is a proven fact. And yet here is the head of the body set up to serve their interests, foaming at the mouth at every media opportunity, screaming about motorcycles needing to have front number plates on REVENUE RAISING grounds.
Anyway, as I confidently predicted from Day 1 of this absurd chapter in the bureaucrats’ motorcycle-bashing tirade, the issue is about as close to dead as it is possible to be without having actually had the last rites pronounced. And it is through the efforts of the MCC and the AMC that this has come about.
However, before we get too smug and comfortable, this whole sad episode has shown us how much the government and bureaucrats hate us, and, let their be no mistake about this; they loathe us with a passion, and how easy it is for the faceless fools to ramrod through parliament legislation that is stupid, discriminatory and downright dangerous, always cloaked in the mantle of respectability and designed to appeal to the BMW-driving, lattee-sipping, cahrdonay-swilling denizens of Rose Bay and Wharoonga who “demand” that their elected representatives do “something” about “those noisy motorcyclists”
Be on your guard; there IS a target on your back every time you strap on your helmet and the enemy is far more dangerous than the redneck fool stopped behind you at the traffic lights in his Falcon ute with the R M Williams sticker totally obscuring his rear vision.
