Guardian

A couple of snippets from Friday's Guardian.

The first concerns cycling, which it is suggested has been decreasing for the past couple of years, rather than increasing in line with our fat leader's £2bn plan. No mention in the text of the waves of fashion which can be triggered by success in the Olympics. I remember the time when we were doing unusually well at ping-pong (the sort played on tables, rather than the sort played on screens) and ping pong clubs seemed to be popping up everywhere, and I suspect that that the subsiding wave of cycling may have something to do with the complained of decrease.

We also get three letters from experienced cyclists who have given up, with talk of terrifying experiences and considerable danger.

Which does not accord with my own experience, either here in Epsom on a real cycle or in London on a Bullingdon. Which is that nearly all the drivers that I come across - cars, lorries, buses or whatever - are considerate and make allowances. If in doubt they wait while you get out of the line of fire. While a lot more cyclists show blatant lack of road manners. For example, by ignoring traffic lights or cycling at speed on shared pavements - including busy pavements which are not intended for cycle use at all.

But I can see that it is all a bit more tricky out in the provinces, where cyclists on narrow roads can hold up lots of traffic, even when they try to help by cycling in single file. No easy answer to that one.

The second, rather more serious, concerns the last minute publication of the UN assessment of human rights concerns about Xinjiang, in western China, for which see references 1, 2 and 3 below.

Yet another case of the dominant central authority trying to put its stamp on its periphery. In this case a large and potentially rich region which until recently was relatively poor and relatively thinly populated by a mainly Muslim population, that is to say not Han Chinese. Given the world's dismal record in such matters - for example the powers in London trying to pull its Celtic fringes into line or the powers in Naypyidaw - the capital of what used to be called the Union of Burma - in the beginning more of a federation than a union - trying to pull its fringes into line - all very depressing. See reference 4.

References

Reference 1: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/08/un-human-rights-office-issues-assessment-human-rights-concerns-xinjiang.

Reference 2: OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China - Office of the High Commissioner - 2022.

Reference 3: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AvPvDT7vzzpQh9Van2fsqZPzGtw_1Q?e=fOoS4q. My copy of the assessment.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar#Independence_(1948%E2%80%931962). A bit of the story from Myanmar.