CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 16years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
so depressing to see this: Rule#2 Description
Hopefully it'll just be a passing phase until he realises how much he misses encouraging xenophobia.
Still, he can muster a crowd & seems to get excessive column inches and airtime.
#couldnthehavepickedsomethingelse
can an admin with the requisite powers summon the energy to delete the duplicate thread please.
appropriate sacrifices can be made as needed.
[Admin Edit: done]
I swear I can smell the halitosis and stale fag smoke anytime he defiles my screen with his inane and reactionary nonsense.
Although to be honest in the wider arena the real negative energy should be directed at Cameron et al who allowed themselves to be so badly spooked by NF (sometimes wonder if there's a subliminal message in those initials) and UKIP that we are where we are now..
Mr Farage is the most effective campaigner and politician of the last forty years. He set himself a goal that looked impossible and did every single thing to achieve it with relentless focus and energy.
If he takes against cycle lanes it will be hard to retain them.
I don't want to know what he said.
The answer to the question posed in the thread title, however, is NO, we do not.
Indeed fimm. Best not to give these people the publicity they crave.
That goes for Webber and Dr Scott too.
Not sure CCE counts as publicity. Mr F is the vilest of toads but if we ignore him he will defeat us.
When CCE links into Twitter threads, "newspaper" and even cycling magazine click-bait then it drives up publicity for these people. Like it or not.
I must admit, I did have a play with Dr Scott the other day and I probably shouldn't have
The answer to the question posed in the thread title, however, is NO, we do not.
CCE is one of the more politically fairminded bike forums of which I am a member, and manages to be both hyperlocal and quite broad and does so with a healthy politeness. But I do feel that political discussions on CCE are rather taking over. I certainly don't care to read about NF but can't really escape it. Yes, as was pointed out upthread, we need to have an appreciation of the prescient issues, and sticking one's head in the sand won't solve anything, but not everyone has the stamina for the relentless attacks from factions of society and discussions thereof, and the constant exposure to it is detracting from enjoying the rest of the place.
There are some forums that explicitly forbid any talk of politics, local or national, with threads locked and the occasional loose cannon banned. Other forums keep politics to a single area, and only discussions about planning or land use or infra design such as they relate to one or another LA are allowed elsewhere.
So the answer is no, we don't need a thread. There are plenty already.
Another point:
These threads named "xxxx idiocy / warbling" etc, are they not effectively personal insults towards councillors / politicians?
(I realise my own hypocracy)
To be fair, I usually just don't read the election/coronavirus/referendum threads and that's fine. I was feeling somewhat grumpy this morning and a thread with Nigel <rule 2> Farage in the title was a bit of the last straw.
IWRATS makes a good, if scary, point...
To be fair, I usually just don't read the election/coronavirus/referendum threads and that's fine.
Au contraire, I get all my political information from CCE!
“
and the constant exposure to it is detracting from enjoying the rest of the place.
“
Well yes but
(And you just posted the longest post here).
I am conscious that fewer people post on CCE generally, and that one reason is likely to be ‘less cycling more politics’.
CCE is (essentially) the sum of the interests of those who post.
The reality is that the past few years have become more political in all sorts of senses.
I one way I wish this thread didn’t exist, but there is no merit in deleting or closing it.
I’m more glad it wasn’t started before.
NOTE: it was started at this point BECAUSE it has a direct cycling relevance.
The thread title is pure dead CCE.
Perhaps THAT should be changed.
NOTE 2: no one has to read any threads. There are some I don’t bother with.
NOTE 3: anyone can start a thread about (almost) anything. (CCE rules endure).
“To be fair, I usually just don't read the election/coronavirus/referendum threads and that's fine.“
Yes.
I do see active travel and liveable cities and the activities directed to supporting them as deeply political.
It's all about who has the power and who can change the balance of power and part of that equation is party political actors, the Nicotine Cobra included.
And there are whole threads on CCE I never go near. Very happy to leave people to their stuff, me.
“Au contraire, I get all my political information from CCE!”
Really?
That’s almost as bad as only reading the Morning Star (one copy in the Coop, don’t know who buys it) or the Daily Mail (that seems to be more popular).
On second thoughts that’s actually a compliment to CCE(ers).
There is a range of views here (none too extreme considering the context of wanting more people to cycle more).
Debate is predominantly good natured, well informed (sometimes with prejudice...) and humorous (in the eyes of the begatters at least).
Light touch, self-regulating (doesn’t work for financial markets).
“I do see active travel and liveable cities and the activities directed to supporting them as deeply political.“
Which, of course, is part of the problem -
too deep, should be mainstream - even for the most extreme politicians.
Any politician who doesn’t care about how people live or who has unrealistic ideas about how to improve things for most people (not just their mates) shouldn’t be allowed to self-importantly do politics.
re the increase in political thread posting, I think this is because of the <expletive deleted> situation we are in and - perhaps more importantly - many of us aren't commuting or are commuting less.
So, if political discussion keeps us all in touch, then I think it's a good thing.
I do always wonder about starting a political thread, but the subsequent discussion usually justifies its creation.
“These threads named "xxxx idiocy / warbling" etc, are they not effectively personal insults towards councillors / politicians?”
Yes that is a concern.
Arguably some are against rule 1.
It’s a fine line. (‘Public interest defence’ perhaps?)
CCE, its members and moderators are not infallible.
happy to have the thread deleted - only started as it is directly / explicitly about cycling and potential detriment to infra which could affect us all.
I guess we could ignore and hope the bad man won't excite enough Daily Mail readers and col inches to have a serious impact. It's not like there's a vast amount of uncorralled anti-cyclist sentiment that he can readily tap into or anything.
If a high profile politician starts a campaign explicitly against safe cycling, then how can we NOT discuss it?
also, doesn't backlash of this sort by certain politicians indicate that we're winning?
“So, if political discussion keeps us all in touch, then I think it's a good thing.“
Yes.
I do miss some people who no longer post, but I’m sure there are many (individual) reasons, not just ‘too political’.
“I do always wonder about starting a political thread, but the subsequent discussion usually justifies its creation“
Indeed.
Personal choice whether to read and engage (or not).
“perhaps more importantly - many of us aren't commuting or are commuting less.“
Very true.
OK
Have unilaterally decided to rename.
No longer “Do we need a Nigel F idiocy thread”
Don't know if the entity previously named on the thread title has a history of any targeted animosity against this particular group, or if it's the latest bee he's picked from the bonnets of the right. Possibly an ideal topic for them as cycling can be portrayed as a vaguely European activity to get leavers onside. There's definitely a common selfishness in those crying waaagh-our-country and nyeeergh-our-roads. There's a similar misapprehension in the way paved roads were initially for the benefit of horses and cyclists but are seen as belonging to and paid for by carfolk and that a landmass which has always been inhabited by a mishmash of inhabitants is mistakenly deemed to belong more to those who think they've been on it the longest.
If a high profile politician starts a campaign explicitly against safe cycling, then how can we NOT discuss it?
@srd agree we should discuss
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think NF is a dangerous idiot but rename thread by all means
I worry that NF being involved means we are losing and must remain hyper vigilant
National Front and Nigel Farage have the same initials
"only reading the Morning Star"
Surprisingly readable these days. Certainly a different perspective from most of the Mainstream Media. Mostly trades union related stuff, last time I checked...
Well we always knew that once Brexsh1t was achieved, that the fascists would look for another enemy to target. I suppose many of us lazily assumed that would be EU citizens who have chosen to stay here: but maybe that's coming later. For now they're going for cyclists, an easy target and a minority that can legally be discriminated against and demonised with no fear of legal comeback. Of course they're not the only ones - as we know well local Tories and even Lib Dems are targeting cycling infrastructure with many of the same populist rhetoric that Oswald Moseley incarnate is using.
Hopefully this will not have as much impact north of the border, but then we have our own localist anti-cycling mobs to deal with...
Other details -
“
Nigel Farage, the career politician who has built a large part of that career on railing against career politicians, has found a new target for his rage – penning an article for the Mail on Sunday (link is external) which drags out pretty much every tired, old and incorrect cliché brought to bear against cyclists, and then some.
“
https://road.cc/content/news/farage-forges-new-career-anti-cycling-bingo-caller-278569
“Hopefully this will not have as much impact north of the border“
Looks like England only (may leave London to the Tories).
From original link
“
Nigel Farage says that his Reform UK party will target councils that promote cycling and walking in next year’s local elections in England as the issue of emergency active travel infrastructure, promoted by the government, becomes increasingly politicised – with Shaun Bailey, the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, also making his opposition to such schemes a key policy as he seeks to oust Labour’s Sadiq Khan.
“
Will be interesting to see how many people hate cyclists/want their freedom to drive how they like, ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE to vote for the new NF party.
Clearly ‘we’ shouldn’t be complacent and take on politicians when necessary (especially locally), but really, how much does this actually resonate beyond the opinion columns of certain newspapers?
Yes I know there are knee jerk reactions when LTNs are proposed, but is this the rise of new reactionaryness or just pointless rage?
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