This last year has been a very busy one for MAG. Let’s take a moment to review 2024 and take a look at the highs and lows.
Overall, 2024 has proven to be a backward step for UK motorcycling. This highlights why motorcyclists need to stand up and be counted.
We knew that 2024 would be a busy year. Elections for regional mayors and police and crime commissioners in May, and what was expected to be an Autumn general election.
You may or may not like politics, but if you leave politicians to their own devices, the outcome for motorcycling is always bad.
Politicians are at their most accommodating when they imminently need your vote. The importance of making the case for motorcycling is heightened. This is the point where we have a small chance of getting cut through into a world that normally does not give us a second thought.
PCC and Mayoral Elections
Motorcycle theft is a key area of concern for us. So we launched a major campaign to try to influence the minds of all candidates for Police and Crime Commissioners.
Politicisation of policing is probably at a high-water point now. Whether we like it or not there are politicians influencing policing in your area. Some candidates even ran on a platform to abolish the role!
Our campaign consisted of asking all PCC candidates to make a Fight Motorcycle Theft Pledge.
We were making candidates aware that bikers are voters and thus influencing their votes requires offering them something.
Making the Pledge meant
- setting a target to halve motorcycle theft in their respective area over their term in office,
- holding the local Chief Constable to account by demanding regular progress reports on activity to achieve the target and
- working with motorcyclists to get a multi-agency approach to the issue.
The campaign succeeded in getting 57 candidates, across 33 force areas, to engage positively. They made some level of commitment to ramping up the response to motorcycle theft. Of those 57 candidates, 15 were elected.
Naturally once elections are complete the successful candidates tend to allow promises to fade in their memories. So we needed to engage quickly with at least 15 elected PCCs.
This was always the plan, but of course plans in politics often get overtaken by events.
Strength in Depth
For us the event was the announcement of an earlier than expected general election. Just two weeks after the PCC and Mayoral elections Rishi Sunak tested the water resistance properties of his suit as he announced that the general election would take place on 4th July.
This course of events shows the importance of MAG having strength in depth across the whole country.
The areas that reap the most benefit from national campaigns are the ones with active local groups and reps. They can build the local relationships.
We did return to seeking meetings with our 15 favoured PCC’s after the general election. But the impact would have been greater with an earlier kick off.
Local grass roots activists are the ones that get results delivered. While the national campaigns can help to open doors, we do not have the resource at Central to follow up individually with every local police force.
The work taking place in Kent is the perfect example of how strength in depth works.
Steve Mallett, Julian and other stalwarts in South East MAG led the way with the first Fight Motorcycle Theft Meeting. We developed that into a roadshow of events around the country. It culminated at City Hall in London just before the 2024 PCC elections.
Steve already had a relationship with the Kent PCC Matthew Scott. Scott supported the FMT Pledge campaign. He duly won another term in office and Steve has continued to strengthen and build the relationship.
Things don’t always run so smoothly though. In Humberside we held a FMT meeting in 2023. The PCC supported the FMT Pledge, was re-elected but seems to have drifted away in terms of his interest.
We won’t win them all, but that is no reason to give up.
Licence reform
The first part of the year saw the emergence of a couple of glimmers of hope. The first of these was for licence reform.
The MCIA chose to tie licence reform to Net Zero with their Licence for Net Zero campaign. This launched in October 2023.
Whilst the industry try to muscle through their own vision and proposals MAG take a more pragmatic approach. We are calling for a detailed review to allow a sensible set of criteria for success to be agreed.
The questions around testing and training are vastly complex. There are large holes in the evidence available. So our position is to launch a review aimed firstly at filling the evidential gaps.
Meetings with the DfT and Ministers before the General Election announcement were indicating that a review was on the agenda. The first signs of trouble were evident, though.
The parting comments from officials – after the Minister had left – were that more evidence was needed. This was to justify to the Secretary of State that things should move forward.
That rang alarm bells. Our position is based on the fact that further evidence does not exist. The relevant data is not being collected. They had created a no-win scenario. They would act only if the MCIA could prove an evidential case for their proposal.
This was a trap that can now be seen playing out after the election.
The new Roads Minister has faced written questions about progressing reform of motorcycle licensing. Her response has been that Government is waiting for the industry to supply evidence. Excuses from a Government that is on record saying it has “no policy to encourage greater uptake of motorcycles”.
We battled all the way up to the starting line only to find that the race has been called off.
Bus Lane Access
The second glimmer of hope was the launch in March of the motorcycles in bus lanes consultation.
We believe the outcome would have been positive had Rishi Sunak delayed the election. Had the outcome been announced under his government it would have been a yes. As with the licensing reform, default access to bus lanes was listed as a manifesto promise by the Conservative Party.
The Labour rebuttal could well be nothing more than a partisan political decision. There is certainly no way that the decision is evidence based!
General Election
We launched our Move on Motorcycling manifesto on 13th May just prior to Rishi getting wet on the steps of Number 10.
We were expecting an Autumn election as were many pundits and commentators. But we wanted to get on with making the case for motorcycling. We are never going to be a leading part of a general election debate. Being prepared is never a bad policy. MAG’s manifesto was out long before any of the parties published their manifestos.
Despite our efforts the platform that most of the parties stood on showed little interest in motorcycling.
To be fair to the Conservatives they were promising licensing reform and default bus lane access. No party in its right mind will forget to mention potholes, though none really presented a significant plan. But for us the elephant in the room was always going to be the forced demise of internal combustion engines.
We analysed the manifestos for all the parties involved in the election. The score cards were a dispassionate analysis of the alignment of the party manifestos with MAG’s Move on Motorcycling manifesto. This process was designed to inform riders to help them choose which way to vote.
Arguments and accusations of course came out that MAG was being partisan in giving a positive score to Reform UK. But Reform UK promised to end Net Zero policy and thus the forced electrification agenda for motorcycles.
MAG is entirely non-partisan. We do not tell members how to vote. But we won’t shy away from highlighting the position of any party on issues that impact on our interests as riders.
ICE Ban
Since the general election there has been an eerie silence on the fate of internal combustion engine motorcycles.
The consultation was never resolved by the Conservative Government. There has been no mention by Labour since they took power.
The Unions have spoken out about Net Zero policies. There are rumours of ‘reform’ of the ZEV mandate for cars and vans. But no official announcements or comment on motorcycles is breaking through.
This argument will burst back onto the agenda in the coming year. But for now we are simply playing a waiting game.
The MCIA’s fantasy that government can see the sense of promoting motorcycles that denounce the right to identify as motorcycles has taken a solid hit with the bus lane consultation outcome. This government has no policy to encourage the transport choice we hold so dear.
The sense that an all-out assault on motorcycling is going to appear through the fog of war is hard to shake.
Looking forward to 2025
We are already working on some significant plans for the coming year.
Enjoy your seasonal festivities while you can and ensure that you enter the New Year with renewed energy and purpose. We are going to need every ounce of strength and fibre of resolve to get through the coming year.
Every rider must do their bit. We must turn the negative tide that has been so clearly revealed over the last year.
Let’s face it – even the editor of MCN has felt moved to write to her MP. Things must be getting dire!
