CRITICAL CONDITION

Last night in London, a gang of thugs stopped the flow of traffic, making it impossible for ambulances, fire trucks and other emergency vehicles to pass - not to mentions thousands of Friday night partiers to get to their destinations. They call themselves Critical Mass, but more like critical massacre in reality. No wonder that they have had problems with the police over the years, and some motorists have just been so frustrated after dealing with them - and having their cars damaged - that they have tried to drive right through. Two wrongs each claiming to be right. So bad it is that other cyclists have started counter demonstrations to combat the combative image that critical mass gives to cyclists by blocking traffic. In the UK they pick the last Friday of the month to make other peoples' lives miserable. I watched as these anarchists got their way last night, and the Met tried to reason with them, but this was just about impossible. Their stupid antics have been supported by Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth, but no surprise, he had no time for hemp. FoE has an office in London where they - get this - use polluting vehicles to preach their nonsense - but it's OK for them - and that's not even getting into how many flier miles Juniper et al. have racked up flying around the earth they claim to love so much.

Personally I love cycling, I do not even own a car or have a licence - so my green/cycling credential go a bit further than Juniper and the critically deranged idiots I saw last night. Once again, the police earned respect for their treatment of the situation - they managed to get them to moev on and did not make any arrests. Another aspect to it all was the fact that most, if not all, massers, were foreigners, and seemed to relish the havoc they were making in Britain; one I talked to at length was full of hate and had no vision whatsoever, typical for many of these pseudo-environmental groups. If Juniper et al. had any concern for their Brits and the need to keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles they would not support this nonsense. Critical Mass has been around for over a decade and has achieved very little - there are real concerns about the state of the road, sewer girds and other impedimentia in the bike lanes, etc., but these are resolved by due civil process. I urge real environmentalists to boycott these thugs and find a pro-cycling group that does not act so dangeously and selfishly.