"Road safety" initiative from Henry's Cat et al

So, there is further talk of extending the congestion charge in London to motorcyclists in the interests of road safety. Gee, us motorcyclists should be thankful that those in power are so concerned for our safety, huh?

Let’s look at how one goes about making the bikers safer. Well of course, one could bastardise the ‘congestion’ charge in an attempt to tax as many of them as possible off the road completely, so that they’ll be nice and safe tucked up at home instead. But wait. Those wealthy bikers might just cough up the tax. How will this initiative improve the safety of the poor little darlings then? Well, presumably, it won’t. But the estimates suggest that it would improve the safety of Transport for London’s revenue stream to the tune of £750,000/week, thus greatly adding to the safety of Bob Kiley and his Board of Directors’ large pay–packets. So someone will end up being safer, one way or the other.

Forgive me for wondering whether this is merely another tax to ‘discourage’ people from (read, punish people for) doing something that the government/right–thinking society doesn’t approve of, while raising a good few bob to spend on the things that enjoy greater government approval. Once again the motorcyclist appears to be the social pariah/easy target.

UPDATE: Apparently Ken has now said that he has no intention of extending the charge to motorcycles. It just occured to me that the original story was from the Evening Standard website. They, of course, are the guys with whom Ken had a massive run–in over the “concentration camp guard” remarks. I wonder whether they’ve basically written a scare–story here, based upon an out–of–date briefing document, just to get all the London bikers (including all the new ones post Congestion Charge) all riled up and to make Henry’s Cat look bad?