Another side of Lesley Riddoch

Well the luck of the Irish seems to follow me – even though I was born in Wolverhampton! I got to Eigg for its 16th anniversary celebrations despite missing the Cal mac ferry by 3 minutes (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh) – I'd looked at the Sunday not Saturday timetable. But sometimes it's good to make mistakes and depend on friends and strangers – good will's always round us but we'll never know if if we're too well organised. Many thanks to the Eigg jungle drum system featuring Camille and Eilidh (I think) who contacted someone travelling with the mad Glenuig rib owner Fradz (sp?) who called me out of the blue to say - get here now! There was a torrential downpour so we all changed into waterproof trousers etc -- but as you can see from the pix once we got to Eigg the sun was out fulltime, as usual. Fab ceilidh with Ja'Ma'Tha (pron Yamaha geddit?) Breabach and Bombskare – I missed their song about last week's Question Time rammy though cos I was off being interviewed in the "simmer dim" amongst infernal (but strangely non-biting) midges by Paul Murton and the Grand Tours of Scotland team about island life and the buyout.

This week, it's the turn of wind energy and cycling to feature in the @lesleyriddoch podcast. Concepts like 'wind crofters' and 'strict liability' will be explored in the light of the 'Land Reform Review Group' interim report and Emma Way and the #bloodycyclist affair. However, we do start with an unusual appeal.

 The whole issue of land ownership and usage has been re-ignited by a whole series of events and blogs, including Andy Wightman's. Lesley touched on it briefly this week in the Scotsman.

 The whole premise of the "#bloodycyclist" meltdown was the idea a motorist could bump a cyclist with impunity. We discuss the various reactions and delve into strict liability again. The video mentioned is here.

And finally, Lesley touches briefly on her encounter with architects, albeit student architects....

Today's Sunday Post column in full

What a difference a week's made for cyclists. It began on a sombre note as four thousand Scottish bikers pedalled on parliament in a poignant protest led by families of Audrey Fyfe and George Dalgity – two Edinburgh cyclists killed three decades apart by the same thoughtless driver. Gary McCourt's sentence caused outrage a few weeks back when the sheriff commented on the 75 year olds failure to wear a cycling helmet and McCourt got 300 hours community service and a five-year driving ban. Audrey's daughter paid tribute to her mum; "She had the energy and enthusiasm of a 40-year-old and was an inspiration to everyone in the cycling community, Scottish country dance world, the ramblers and the church." Now thousands have backed the family's call for an appeal over McCourt's sentence and a legal answer to a simple question. Surely a man who has killed two people with a car shouldn't drive again?

And yet, cyclists weren't holding their breath for quick progress. After all, cycling deaths are commonplace. Last week alone an eight year old lad died after colliding with a mobile crane in Aberdeen, a 17 year old died after being struck by a car in Macclesfield, a 21-year-old Falkirk labourer was killed after an accident with a truck on a Highland road and a 61 year old father of four cycling in Teesside died when a lorry hit him.

So far, so sadly usual. But then one daft, boastful trainee accountant went way too far – and may have helped change attitudes for good.

21 year-old Norfolk lass Emma Way was zipping down a country lane when she knocked a cyclist off his bike, through a hedge, did not stop and drove on without a second thought. But then the daft lassie boasted about the incident on Twitter: "Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier – I have right of way he does not even pay road tax! #bloodycyclists."

Fellow cyclists spotted the barmy tweet, circulated it, the biker confirmed the incident, newspapers, TV, Norfolk police and Emma's own employers got wind of it all – and the young airhead managed to back-pedal fast. Emma hired a lawyer, went on Breakfast TV, claimed the cyclist actually hit her and swore he was upright when she left the scene. Emma purlease! If you "saw he was upright", why tweet you knocked him off his bike?

Indeed what about an earlier tweet criticising a slow-driving "clueless crazy fool" for making you late or the "wha's like me" picture of your speedometer at 95mph? Tell me Emms – ain't that a bit over the speed limit?

Anyway, that ill wind did blow some good – indefensible Emma may have helped turn the tide against dangerous, "cycle-blaming" drivers. A Bristol court finally handed down a proportionate sentence to a motorist who killed a couple cycling on a tandem. He got ten years jail and a lifetime driving ban. The next day two of the UK's biggest driving schools — AA and BSM — announced they'll give learner drivers cycling awareness training from now on. BSM boss Mark Peacock made the common-sense point that even the best cyclists have to avoid potholes and wobble in strong winds. AA boss Edmund King made a pledge to end the "two tribes" attitude displayed between some drivers and cyclists, and Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown announced he's off to Amsterdam for lessons in cycle-friendly road design.

Hooray. Scotland won't become McCycle heaven overnight -- but this week was a start. And the public-spirited Fyfe and Dalgity families have led the way.

Today's Sunday Post column in full

Denmark's been in the news lately – and not just because of Borgen.

The Danish TV series about a fictional female Prime Minister was a surprise hit on BBC4 this winter -- inspiring and tear-jerking in equal measure. Why? Because it Scots glimpsed a genuinely progressive society many of us would give our eye teeth to share. Statsminister Birgitte Nyborg works full-time in the top job despite being a single mum. That's not just Danish fiction. Childcare, costs £500 for two toddlers full time in Copenhagen compared with a whopping £1400 in Edinburgh. So 74% of women in Denmark work (65% here) – and more have well-paid, full-time positions not badly-paid, part-time jobs. Danish children are at kindergarten until they start school at six – so vital early years are spent learning to talk, play and share with other bairns. All education is free so well-educated mums can keep working, paying taxes and helping to fund the Danish "welfairytale." As a result -- Denmark was named the happiest country on earth in 2012.

Favourite slide from Copenhagen cycling Nordic Horizons event. Soren Rasmussen says Danes show cyclists are valued with little things like fab footrests at junctions.

In the 1970s Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as every other city in Europe. Now the new Danish cabinet cycle to the Palace to meet the Queen in the world's most cycle friendly city. The day we see Alex Salmond and Johann Lamont cycling we've won. Mind you, the day political leaders can be as carefree, helmetless and non-go-faster on Scottish roads as they are in this Danish pic – cycling for real people will also have won. How was Copenhagen's transformation achieved? Danish Cycle Assembly member and architect Soren Rasmussen explained all to a packed Holyrood Committee Room last night – audio and full powerpoint slides coming soon on www.nordichorizons.org. But meantime catch my tweets @lesleyriddoch or @NordicHorizons and here's a summtweetery (tweet summary)!

This is not Lesley blogging today - it's me , Chris , her husband. She doesn't know I am posting this behind her back for very good reasons. Lesley is a warm hearted, generous soul and eminently lovable. Especially, when she sends out emails like this to her close friends.  Read this and you will agree. And don't clype on me, please.

Dear all,

First of all this is definitely me not a wee wummin in Lagos or a machine in Dubrovnik.

Second, apologies for asking for money by email. It’s for a charity I’ve supported for ten years – Scottish Motor Neurone Disease. I know how many emails ask for sponsorship these days so I wouldn’t ask if a small contribution wouldn’t be a huge help.

25 years ago this weekend, Anne Hay organised the first sponsored cycle round Cumbrae to raise funds for Scottish MND in memory of her dad David who had just died with the condition. His brother had also been diagnosed – he too is now dead. No-one can say why these familial links occur but research is finally making progress on the disorder which destroy cells that control muscle movement. The big donation by JK Rowling into the MS Centre at Edinburgh University will help all the degenerative neurological conditions including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and MND.

Meantime families like the Hay’s just quietly get on with the job of raising money little by little, year after year to fund respite care, specialist nursing and self-help groups for total strangers – united only by their experience of MND.

I became a Scottish patron of the charity ten years ago after a whirlwind of a guy called Owen McGhee was diagnosed. Owen used to work for IBM, left and worked with alienated, under-achieving Scottish kids encouraging them to set up small businesses in school. It proved to be one of the most practical ways to get work, confidence and jobs into poor communities and the energy generated at each annual final event (which I tried to chair) with 600 focussed but headstrong kids had to be seen to be believed.

Belief in the impossible stood Owen in good stead when he was diagnosed with MND in 1998. 48% of patients die within a year. Do the maths as they say and marvel at the man’s epic defiance of the odds. How does he do it? I don’t think anyone knows the half of it but he rows five days a week. He trains for it with a warm-up which includes climbing up and down stairs 30 times. He then walks up and down the steep lane outside his house, in Renfrewshire, 50 times and, later he runs up the lane 20 times. Every morning before he gets up he recites Tam O'Shanter from memory for communication skills. Owen claims he uses my tongue-twister of a name as good chin exercise – but he’s such a charmer I’ll bet he says that to all the gals.

How could you not make an effort when you meet people like Owen … or David Hay’s daughter Mary who hasn’t missed a cycle run in 25 years.

If you could have had any personal contact with MND do please consider a wee contribution by sponsoring us. Chris has set up a page (link below) and I think it’s quite easy to donate.

Happily, cycling 15 miles round Cumbrae is not such a big effort for us – though some people go round in wheelchairs, someone has canoed round and there’ve been a few horse trips.

The only effort we are really making is asking you to help a group of people you may never meet.

Thanks for your time