Bravo KBC!

Not a headline I have expected to type any time soon, but well done to the Council for securing the Halford's Tour Series Cycle Race in Kettering yesterday evening. The event looked to be a success despite the unfortunate combination of poor weather, potential Kettering apathy and apoplectic car drivers who were forced to endure an additional 30 seconds on their journey!

The event was something new and exciting. The very people who moaned about it happening here would have been the first ones to complain about the lack of the Council's "Get up and go" had the event taken place in Corby or Northampton.

Declaring an immediate interest of being a bit of a hobby-cyclist I took a certain amount of pleasure at the sight of angry car drivers, almost purple with rage at having to endure the indignity of following a small diversion. It seems that society's love affair with the automobile has become twisted into more of a "bunny-boiler" relationship. Some car drivers seem to believe that the world of their little steel bubble is all that matters. Their need to park, speed, nudge, abuse and gesticulate when and how they see fit is held as a sacred right that is beyond challenge.

"Thou Shalt Not Inconvenience Car Drivers" is, as we all know, the unofficial 11th Commandment. Also covered under this commandment are such noble sentiments as: -

• Car sharing is for poofs! DRIVERS DON'T SHARE CARS!


• Little Thumberlina and Tristran MUST NEVER have to walk the half mile to school, when Mumsy can take out the 4X4 and end up parking in the middle of a busy road while her kiddies waddle through the school gates.


• Thou shalt not suffer the indignity of walking to the corner shop when you can drive there in your comfy carpet-slippers.


• Thou shalt drive to work regardless of how close your workplace is.

The interesting thing is that although the internal combustion engine is an intoxicating narcotic, it doesn't take us very long to get it out of our system. All those people at the cycle event seemed perfectly content to get around on foot or on two wheels. No one seemed to miss the ability to stick two fingers up at their fellow pedestrians and then run off!

Remember last Winter? When we were all snowed in and the people you passed in the street were happily chortling "Good Mornings" through beaming smiles? It didn't feel unusual to chat away to strangers. People, who a couple of days earlier would have chased you down and battered you into submission with their fists if you cut them up at a roundabout were happily falling over themselves saying "No, after YOU", to everyone they met.

A short time away from our divisive automobiles and we all briefly became human again. Thankfully the Winter has gone, and the cycle race has packed up and left town. Now we can all go back to hating each other and cheerfully running everyone else off the road.