Today is the day of the great Segway protest.
Risking his personal freedom to take a stand on this vital issue of civil liberties, Lembit and a couple of Tories drove a couple of hundred yards on a two wheeled scooter, which a typically understated Lembit described as “the biggest step forward in transportation since the Wright brothers.” He forgot to mention that none of the Wright brothers’ inventions have ever been allowed on Britain’s roads either.
The stunt has generated Lembit, and thus the party, a massive amount of publicity. Londonist states “We salute Mr. Opik for bringing this urgent issue to the attention of our government,” while Kerron Cross says of Lembit’s desire to get arrested: “I, for one, hope that Her Majesty’s finest don’t disappoint dear old Lemsip.” Yes, the level of support and goodwill this protest has generated is tangible.
I do hope Lembit isn’t being sponsored for this in any way whatsoever. The Segway is perhaps the most absurd development in the history of personal transportation, and to describe it as ‘environmentally friendly’ is a travesty of logic, mathematics and common sense (surely walking or cycling is vastly more fuel efficient?).
I for one am delighted that UK authorities are determined to frustrate this American corporation’s quest to get its product rubber-stamped for UK adoption and look forward to more creative import restrictions on a vast range of would-be US imports.
I’m sure a Segway is greener than a motorcycle or a car. Personally I have no problem with them and if they are legal on roads elsewhere around the world we should at least be open minded about them.
The idea that we should be restricting trade with the US “creatively” (yes, I know they do this to us from time to time) is nuttier than anything Lembit Opik has ever come up with.
I hardly think the Londonist and Kerron Cross classes as “a massive amount of publicity”. The BBC website mentioned the story on its ticker tape for a few minutes yesterday and I didn’t see the story on any newspaper website homepage this morning.
Gosh, I hope you aren’t implying that I was in any way being sarcastic El Fattie?
(Having said that, a simple Google News search suggests that he did indeed get quite a lot of publicity out of yesterday’s stunt.)