Comment
Mary Williams: Where 'TOP Gear' meets road safety
Published: 03 October 2006
Stephen Ladyman, the road-safety minister, can find the time, and therefore spend taxpayers' money, saying in the media that he is "distressed" that Top Gear is being "knocked" in the wake of the injury of the presenter Richard Hammond. But, sadly, he can't find the time to launch National Road Safety Week (6-12 November), organised by Brake, the road-safety charity, which this year focuses on the terrible death toll caused by young drivers.
Alexei Sayle: A sea voyage out of our skins
Published: 26 September 2006
I have only ever been on cross-Channel ferries before, so this time when travelling to Spain I thought it would be interesting to take the two-night car ferry trip from Portsmouth to Bilbao.
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 26 September 2006
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 19 September 2006
Sean O'Grady: Let's be balanced on our bikes
Published: 19 September 2006
I'd like to offer an apology. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a column that ridiculed Transport for London's "you're better off by bike" campaign and criticised the behaviour of some cyclists (for jumping red lights and so on). I said cycling on busy roads was dangerous. I thought cyclists ought to be insured for the admittedly extremely rare damage they do to cars, if they happened to scrape their bodywork, say. The solution, I argued, was for cyclists to be insured (compulsorily), licensed, and to be steered away from the busiest roads. There should be a small fee to help cover costs.
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 12 September 2006
Alexei Sayle: The Communist Motoring Manifesto
Published: 12 September 2006
I WAS doing a television interview recently and during the course of it I was asked where my fascination with cars and driving came from.
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 05 September 2006
Sean O'Grady: Cyclists don't own the road
Published: 05 September 2006
There is what must be an enormously expensive advertising campaign going on in London, promoting the idea that "You're better off by bike". The ads are paid for by Transport for London, the Mayor of London's transport quango.
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 29 August 2006
Alexei Sayle: Not really the thing for an evil magician
Published: 29 August 2006
AFTER SPENDING three weeks in Spain with the Kia Magentis 2.0 diesel it was finally time to return to the UK. I've driven all the way down to my Spanish village twice before: once in a pre-launch, top of the range Rover 75 and once in a £50,000 Lexus LS430. But nobody there, either Spanish or British, ever showed any interest in either of these cars, whereas several people admired the Kia, asked what it was and how much it cost. I don't know whether that means people in my village are weird, or perhaps they could see that the car was more in their price range.
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 22 August 2006
Sean O'Grady: The ugly side of going green
Published: 22 August 2006
Alexei Sayle: My Week With An Old-Skool Charmer
Published: 15 August 2006
After making a speech in Trafalgar Square condemning the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, I drove to Portsmouth in the new Kia Magentis and boarded a ferry for Bilbao. Now there's not many motoring correspondents who could say such a thing as that: to me it has a whiff of the inter-war years, of memoirs that start: "After saying goodbye to Leonard and Virginia Woolf and having sex with them both I motored down to Spain in the 8 Litre Delahaye Superbe where I volunteered for the International Brigade to fight against Franco. Within the week I was in command of a regiment of surrealists on the Aragon front, our artillery mostly comprising giant clocks pulled by teams of trained lobsters."
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 08 August 2006
Ruth Metzstein: Dear AA, thanks for my really lovely night out
Published: 08 August 2006
THE 10 minutes on hold, waiting for my call to be answered, did not bode well. But then again, I was a "lone female" (highest priority) in a dangerous location (warning light number two), on one of Britain's busiest motorways (less than half an hour from Birmingham), how long could the AA take to rescue me?
Alexei Sayle: Why I shouted at innocent people from my 4x4
Published: 01 August 2006
I love cycle racing, specifically I love the Tour de France. I even like it that all the teams are named after commercial products rather than cities or countries, as in football or athletics. To me this is the way things will be in the future when we all live in places called Milton Tescos or the Isle of Morrisons, so my feeling is we might as well get on with it.
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 01 August 2006
Gavin Green: Made in Britain? Not if you look under the bonnet
Published: 01 August 2006
The unions are protesting about the closure of Ryton. The Chinese are starting production at Longbridge again, but on a fraction of the old scale. MG Rover has gone, Ford-owned Jaguar shut its spiritual home at Browns Lane, Coventry, and GM's sole remaining car production facility in the UK, at Ellesmere Port near Liverpool, has downsized. It's been grim for the UK car industry.
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 25 July 2006
Nigel Mansell: Safety is earned, not bought
Published: 25 July 2006
This year I visited the Motor Show for the first time since I became president of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists). And my new focus on the IAM's work started me thinking about car safety.
Robert Hanks: The Cycling Column
Published: 18 July 2006
Alexei Sayle: The big motor show at the end of the world
Published: 18 July 2006
I have several women friends for whom shopping can be something of an ordeal. This is because when they go into a store they have this feeling that the staff will get upset with them if they don't buy something.
