Rickshaws for London

 Subject: Rickshaws for London

If there was ever an indication that we are economically heading downhill it’s the debate in the House of Commons which  I have just been listening to, an hour long diatribe on the floor of the House of Commons by the Right Honourable Christopher Chope, MP for Christchurch, describing in great detail a parliamentary bill regulating ‘Pedicabs’, known in other country’s as Cycle Rickshaws.

From insurance  issues regarding the insurance of passengers to whether the Pedicabs should charge for the ride (as in the hire of a taxi), regardless of the number of people on board, an  important element in a persons ability to peddle the Rickshaw 🛺 .

The importance of finding a companionable alternative to the Taxi is yet another brick in the wall building on the efforts of Transport for London to remove polluting vehicles from our streets, perhaps, in my scepticism one should also consider the matter of  ‘cattle’ meandering on the road or for pedestrians having right of way to wander across and up and down the roads at will so that we merge fully our own image with that of other countries in the third world.

I know I am being obtuse comparing our green and loverly land with Mogadishu but we seem determined to extend the hand of a secure homeland to people who have used the rickshaw or bullock cart for centuries. Perhaps mayor Kahn has a romantic nostalgia for the ways of sub continent where his parents grew up since there is something appealing about the rights of the cow on the street of Islamabad where the value of livestock overrules that of a Mercedes.

With chickens in their roost at the bottom of a garden, a goat munching the daffodils and the religiously protected cow chewing its cud what better scene to offer as a counterpoint to our hurried increasingly disconnected way of life.