The turban ton-up boys
QUESTION Is it true that turban-wearing Sikh motorcyclists are exempt from wearing a crash helmet, as mentioned in an episode of TV comedy Only Fools And Horses? It Is. the MP responsible for the religious exemption of sikhs to wear motorcycle helmets was sydney Bidwell, Labour MP for Ealing-southall.
During a debate in the House of Commons in January 1975, he pointed out that sikh soldiers had refused to wear helmets during both world wars.
He stated: ‘As citizens of the Commonwealth, many sikhs from the middle Fifties onwards have come to the UK. they are hard-working and are winning their way in British society.
‘In the past, because of native prejudice and misunderstanding, they have had to struggle for the right to wear the turban, particularly at work. We have overcome objections to the right to wear long hair and the turban, notably in transport in the Midlands and in London.
‘some factory cases have been fought and overcome. Uniformed caps and helmets are not enforced against the sikh’s religious belief.’
In November 1976, the Queen gave Royal Assent to a Bill to exempt turbanned sikhs from having to wear crash helmets when riding a motorcycle: the motorcycle Crash Helmets (Religious Exemption) Act, 1976. the exemption can be found in Rule 83 of the Highway Code.
turbans may vary according to regional styles, and can differ considerably in size, shape, density and other characteristics, so it would be difficult to design a helmet to fit over or under them.
A turban-shaped helmet is probably not a viable option even if it were acceptable to sikhs, because the traditional turban is meticulously wound, and it would be impractical to rewind it after the ride.
Yet there are concerns that it is dangerous. A 2010 study conducted by sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital found that the forces transmitted to the head at comparable impact energies when wearing a sikh turban are almost five times greater than wearing a helmet.
In 2009, sikh police officer Gurmeal singh, 31, said he was ‘deeply offended’ after being asked to remove his turban, an incident alleged to have occurred on a riot training course.
He claimed at the time he thought he would be made to wear a ‘crash turban’ akin to the one sold by Del Boy in Only Fools And Horses.
A tribunal awarded PC singh £10,000 in damages. J. S. Mallett, Preston.
QUESTION Which country has the highest concentration of railway tracks in terms of area and population? As OF 2014, Estonia had an estimated 1,345 miles of railway track. that equates to 975 people per mile of track, the highest concentration of track per person in the world.
In contrast, the UK has about 11,000 miles of railway track, equating to about 6,120 people per mile of track.
In Estonia, 65 per cent of all rail transport is accounted for by goods transport. Excluding various micro states — Vatican City, Monaco and Nauru, and tiny countries with small rail networks (singapore, with 100 miles of railway track, has 2.78 square miles per mile of track, for example) — the top performing major state is switzerland, with 4.9 square miles per mile of track. Britain, in contrast, has 8.5 square miles per mile of track.
Prior to the Beeching axe in the sixties, we had about 20,000 miles of track, which would have put us at the top of the list with 4.7 square miles per mile of track.
Thomas Blair, Mordon, C. Durham.
QUESTION What was the Trianon Treaty, signed in 1920? Why is it still in force? the trianon treaty agreed the borders imposed on the Hungarian Empire after World War I. It was signed by representatives of Hungary on one side and the Allied Powers on June 4, 1920, at the trianon Palace at Versailles, France.
the Western powers’ main priority was to prevent a resurgence of the German Reich by encircling Austria and Hungary with a ring of friendly states.
Hungary was shorn by two-thirds of its former territory and population. Czechoslovakia was given slovakia, sub-Carpathian Ruthenia, Pressburg (Bratislava) and other minor sites.
Austria got western Hungary (most of Burgenland). the Kingdom of serbs, Croats and slovenes (Yugoslavia) took Croatia-slavonia and part of the Banat.
Romania received most of Banat and all of transylvania. Italy got Fiume. Except in two small regions, all the transfers were effected without plebiscites.
Post-trianon Hungary had a population of 7.6 million, while more than three million people whose mother tongue was Hungarian were in Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
After the fall of Communism in 1990, the topic of trianon resurfaced. Jozsef Antall, prime minister of a right-of-centre government, declared himself, at least in spirit, the prime minister of 15 million Hungarians, i.e. those within and without the borders of Hungary.
the Hungarian Right-wing parties (Fidesz and Jobbik) were preoccupied with the subject. their goal was ‘the unification of the nation across all borders’. this included granting voting privileges to Hungarians living outside Hungary.
It’s highly unlikely the treaty will be revoked. this would require the acquiescence of all the signatories who would have to cede territory. Furthermore, Hungary has a fairly homogenous population. Incorporating former areas would create a multi-ethnic state, to which the current government, led by Viktor Orban, is opposed.
Joseph Barna, Luton, Beds.