Plebgate - the real question is a bike a vehicle?

So anyway...
Putting aside prejudices if the below account from the telegraph is correct how on earth did it blow into the story it did. I can see how he would have been frustrated, that bike he rides can't be the easiest thing to manoeuvre around the pedestrian exit.

Just from the cycling point of view, was he right to insist on using the vehicle exit?

Mr Mitchell has admitted that when he set off from Number 9 Downing Street on the evening of Wednesday 19 September, he was frustrated having spend the day locked in a series of tense meetings with colleagues who had been sacked in the recent reshuffle.

Late for a speaking appointment he set off from his office at 7.30pm and cycled towards the main Downing Street gates leading onto Whitehall.

Mr Mitchell confirmed that he had been prevented from passing through the main gates on a number of previous occasions but decided to try again that evening as he was in a rush.

He claimed he said to the officer at the bottom of Downing Street: “Please open the gates.”

According to him the officer responded: “No, please get off your bike and leave by the pedestrian exit.”

Mr Mitchell then said: “Please open the gates I am the Chief Whip; I work here at Number 9.”

But the officer again responded: “No, you have to get off your bike and wheel it out.”

Mr Mitchell continued: “Look, I have already been in and out several times today. Please open the gates.”

But the police officer again replied: “No.”

Mr Mitchell said he then dismounted his bicycle and wheeled it across to the pedestrian side exit but in doing so muttered: “I thought you guys were supposed to ******* help us.”

Hearing the remark the officer responded: “If you swear at me I will arrest you.”

Mr Mitchell then said he cycled away from Downing Street muttering that they had “not heard the last of this”.
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velomaniac":30xebn6y said:
Brave words from the only Tory in Glasgow :LOL:
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The glorious garden suburb of Pollokshields is the only ward in Glasgow to have a Conservative councillor. So there's at least two of us.

That said I don't always vote Tory. They're currently not Tory enough.
 
I have no problem with people with strong opinions, at least they have opinions, as long as opinions are not actions.
Nice neck of the weej to live, is that the bit by Pollock Country Park, the park with Scotlands smallest man made mtb trail. Had a nice wee wipeout on the upper section of the red route, ended up hanging in a tree :LOL:
 
velomaniac":264ceszp said:
Nice neck of the weej to live, is that the bit by Pollock Country Park, the park with Scotlands smallest man made mtb trail. Had a nice wee wipeout on the upper section of the red route, ended up hanging in a tree :LOL:
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Sure is, the only bit of Glasgow I'd want to live in tbh. Dunno how anyone can wipe on that trail though, unless it's the wee off camber fast bit after the tarmac path.

Shame it's ALWAYS a foot deep in mud at a lot of sections. PITA.
 
The collective noun for a group of Scottish Tories is an 'irrelevance' for a reason.

Voting Tory in Scotland is more or less like spoiling a ballot paper.
 
Which is why I generally don't.

When the majority of Glasgow (and Scotland) is a shithole, with worst health records, highest murder rates, highest deprivation, shortest lifespan, poorest housing etc etc in the UK if not Europe and yet the same majority is and always has voted Labour it doesn't say much for the electorate.

Tories usually poll around 18% which is pointless in all but a handful of UK seats but the Scottish system is a different matter. Not that I agree with that talking shop.

I tend to vary my vote dependent on the election. I'm sure you can imagine which parties feel the occasional benefit, and which ones don't.
 
I am sure the BNP are very grateful, but they are even less relevant than the Tories.

Collective noun for a group of BNP members, an 'offence.'

;)
 
highlandsflyer":z0x8ffzz said:
I am sure the BNP are very grateful.
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Racism aside, given they are essentially socialists I can safely say they won't be getting any vote from me.
 
Sorry, it was a cheap shot.

Interested to know what the alternatives are here for the right of Tory?

Each to their own anyway, no party should go unchallenged by strong opposition. I support the SNP personally, and Labour in England.

Surprise for some, I am not sure.

The Labour party in Scotland are a disgrace.

Whatever anyone thinks of the SNP, at least they restore some of the pride we ought to have in ourselves. I am not sure I really want independence right now, not that it is coming, but constantly having a party few of us vote for here in the North ruling over us is getting old. Really old.

Now, as far as this Tory posh boy goes. Whatever I think of Tories as a generalisation, no one deserves to be fitted up by the Police.

I hope he is reinstated as whip, or how about Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice?

They deserve it to be fair.

:)
 
highlandsflyer":1lxrexzw said:
Sorry, it was a cheap shot.

Interested to know what the alternatives are here for the right of Tory?
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UKIP for Euros, Tory for Scottish. Float between the two for UK, as you say even in Pollokshields Labour have it sown up due to the rest of the constituency being Pollok and Govan... and spending 5 mins in either explains why people always vote Labour, they've done so much to improve them over half a century. Or not.

highlandsflyer":1lxrexzw said:
The Labour party in Scotland are a disgrace.
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Agreed, on so many levels it's not true. From nepotism to corruption to 20odd Catholic provosts in a row, and a council leader who disappeared in dodgy drug/criminal circumstances. And that's before we start on their record.

highlandsflyer":1lxrexzw said:
Whatever anyone thinks of the SNP, at least they restore some of the pride we ought to have in ourselves. I am not sure I really want independence right now, not that it is coming, but constantly having a party few of us vote for here in the North ruling over us is getting old. Really old.
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I get that. Independence isn't coming, not this time anyway. Salmond is a smug fat f**k but he's also the most accomplished politician and performer in Scotland by a country mile, and arguably in the UK. To be fair I don;t have massive issues with them in the main, other than their meddling with alcohol pricing and fag advertising, which is just nanny state stuff they take on because health is the main area that's devolved. They did build the M74 extension though which is the best, smoothest, quietest and most convennient road I've ever used. If they'd just joined it up to the Kingston Bridge properly...

highlandsflyer":1lxrexzw said:
Now, as far as this Tory posh boy goes. Whatever I think of Tories as a generalisation, no one deserves to be fitted up by the Police.
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That's the thing though, I have a general view of traditional Labour voters but that has been skewed since Blair. When Labour are winning in East Renfrewshire something has changed.
 
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