How did Angela end up peddling such a daft idea?

OH LOOK, how jolly, here is Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, whizzing through Bristol on an e-scooter. Why, exactly? Ms Rayner doesn’t have much of an explanation but gosh, I bet the promoters of these nasty machines are congratulating themselves on a brilliant bit of product placement, as she is an attractive and engaging public figure. Just as they must have done when Tom Hollander and Saskia Reeves were shown using e-scooters in the recent BBC drama Us.

As I keep pointing out, these vehicles are a menace and if they are legalised all over the country we are going to be so sorry, as drunks and idiots ride them everywhere on paths and pavements. The other day, in Feltham, a three-year-old child out walking with his grandmother was struck from behind by one and badly hurt – two broken collarbones. In Paris, where the authorities foolishly allowed them, there were deaths on the roads and serious injuries to pedestrians. It will be the same here if we are stupid enough to allow it.

The supposed green case for them is empty. The power needed to charge their batteries pollutes the air just like all power. The batteries are made with metals grubbed from hideous African mines by underpaid children. They provide no exercise. They serve no need not already filled but create a new, swift and silent danger to pedestrians, especially to the blind and the deaf. People will not abandon their cars to use them, though I suspect they will appeal to those who have lost their licences.

But there is a brilliant oily PR campaign behind them. And that is why Bristol is one of a number of cities where the law has been suspended (astonishing in itself) to allow them to be used in parks and on bike-paths, which would be a serious offence anywhere else. Coventry paused such an ‘experiment’ after the machines were ridden in pedestrian areas and dumped everywhere. But most local authorities involved (for reasons quite beyond me) seem to be happy to co-operate with the scooter lobby.

I only began writing about this when it was clear nobody else would. But I am baffled there is so little opposition. There will be plenty once it is too late to do anything about it. Now is the time to object. Perhaps Angela Rayner could do some research. I can’t see how e-scooters will make the lives of her supporters any better.