Paper columnist's anti-motorcycle rant

A tabloid columnist has sparked anger by calling motorcyclists loonies and saying he doesn’t mind if we kill ourselves.

Paul Routledge writes in today’s Daily Mirror: ‘Motorcyclists are a pain in the exhaust pipe. They drive recklessly and kill themselves in alarming numbers

‘I don’t mind very much about that, but they kill a lot of other people, too, whose only crime is to get in their way.’

Routledge repeats claims from the Commons Public Accounts Committee that nearly 40% of motorcycles are untaxed. He says we’re difficult to catch because we ‘drive too fast’.

• Click here to read the claim that 40% of motorcycles are untaxed

He suggests tackling the problem by making riders ‘pay a year in advance for their road tax’. So presumably Routledge pays in arrears and never has valid tax.   

• Get MCN, on sale January 30, to read why tax evasion figures are nonsense.