In the news

On Singletrack they reckon Cycling UK are a better option than British Cycling. Less roadie douche/Olympic shit. https://www.cyclinguk.org/insurance

It is amazing how many people don't know that all the major cycling organisations offer membership packages that include third party insurance. Not just BC and the CTC but also the LCC.

£33.50 if you pay by direct debit. The website knocks 10% off the £37 Commuter package, I called to check.

Is that for the commuter package? I didn't know there was a discount for DD but I'd be careful with the commuter package because it doesn't cover leisure cycling, just commuting and 'utility' (which I think means A to B). I'm on a club committee and for this reason we only recommend Ride, Race Silver or Race Gold. This is the wording from BC's website:

Race Gold, Race Silver and Ride members benefit from individual liability insurance cover for non-competitive, social, leisure, utility cycling and commuting and also whilst participating in timed events such as sportives.

Commute members benefit from individual liability insurance cover for utility cycling and commuting only. Cover does not extend to participation in cycling events or group cycling activities involving multiple participants, such as races, sportives, club rides and group rides.

I guess if nothing else there is an important lesson to learn from this. Don't sue if it's your fault and lawyer up fast if you are on the receiving end. Which one to join?

It’s also worth remembering that if you have a home contents insurance policy it’ll have at least £2million personal liability insurance. This covers you for your legal liability as a cyclist(not racing)

So in this case your insurer would have defended/ settled the claim on your behalf and it would cover the cost of defending the claim (appointing solicitors etc) and any damages.

I’m not sure of the details but the guy is in France. He could be unlucky if he wasn’t insured at the time due to the move.

Plus a lot of people don't bother with home contents insurance

You would need to have the policy at the time of incident for it to give you cover. So if he’d had a contents policy when he was in the uk.

Whilst some people don’t have a contents policy a lot of people do and it’s a little known cover so I still think it’s worth reminding people.

No prizes for guessing the tone of the rest of the article. Fortunately the need to sign in/up meant I stopped short of the first nonsense paragraph.

Pfft. Zealot.

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I love the way that cyclists are called militant and zealot for not wanting to be killed or seriously injured by someone not paying attention to what they’re doing.

The 3 panel about the important thing being that the writer has found a way to feel superior to both groups etc.

With their name in triplet. I kinda wanted to see how many times the author’s name was repeated in the article.

Istanbul Mayoral election re-run
A rumour circulating suggests that if the AK party loses, and loses substantially, signalling the end of Erdogan as an electoral asset, he has proposed a deal that allows him to exit politics.
A guarantee of no criminal investigations into his activities,
and,
he retains the $2bn he has looted from the Turkish economy to tide him over in his retirement.

^ 'Taxi for Mr. Erdogan!
The Ekrem Imamoglu,
should have used this as his compaign song
,
as his surname indicates he is the son of an Imam/preacher:

More 'freeman of the land' silliness.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/23/man-refused-to-register-sons-birth-high-court

This stuff is so sad. For some reason, the belief has taken hold among those people that courts of law are naval courts, hence that nonsense about ships near the end. The poor little baby that's caught up in it.

The UK is a ship at sea and Japan is a giant catfish.

£49,730 of £21,300 goal:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-cover-rob-hazeldean039s-legal-fees

https://www.businessinsider.com/senators-briefed-on-ufo-sightings-by-navy-pilots-report-2019-6?r=US&IR=T

Awiens.

John Prescott in hospital after stroke.

(edited to include story - sorry for S*y N*ws link)
https://news.sky.com/story/john-prescott-in-hospital-after-suffering-stroke-11747984

I remember the Economist publishing a long read on this stuff. Like the flat earth conspiracy, the internet helps this stuff spread against all odds.
The ‘freeman on land’ crap is just one of many ideas. I vaguely recall an argument that if you consistently fill in all governmental forms using only upper case letters you will eventually be exempt from all taxes.

I blame the UK/US tradition of ‘letter of the law’ rather than ‘the spirit of the law’.

Maybe the parents just don't want the child to grow up to be a Pirate?

Meh, not even sure it's about that. Germany has a version of that too, called the 'Reichsbürger'.

I love the Freeman of the Land lunatics and I genuinely wish them the best in their endeavours.

I love the Freeman of the Land lunatics and I genuinely wish them the best in their endeavours.

It's utterly mad isn't it. It essentially boils down to the belief that the state uses all its enormous amounts of power to deceive and enslave you, but that it will miraculously roll over and comply with some higher set of rules if you just incant the correct spells.