Why would Grant Shapps have us think that number plates for bikes are a good idea? The only place that has them is North Korea
Political certainties are rare these days, but the zero chance that Grant Shapps’ ideas about mandatory insurance and registration plates for cyclists are ever enacted is about as close as you can get.
The transport secretary floated the idea of compulsory insurance for all bikes on the road and number plates for cyclists in an interview with the Daily Mail that made the front pagetoday: “How are you going to recognise the cyclist, do you need registration plates?” he asked. He then said the opposite in an interview with the Times: “I’m not attracted to the bureaucracy of registration plates. That would go too far.” His confused interventions would have been news to his junior ministers at the Department for Transport, too, whose longtime view has been that such schemes are a waste of time.
Peter Walker is a political correspondent for the Guardian. He is the author of The Miracle Pill: Why A Sedentary World Is Getting It All Wrong
