Get your skates on to outlaw e-scooters

YOU really are going to have to get your skates on if you want to stop the legalisation of e-scooters. A very rich lobby, aided by slick PR men, sees a huge chance to make a fortune by selling millions of these nasty, bone-smashing adult toys.

This is despite last week’s news that 206 crimes involving a suspect riding an e-scooter were recorded in London in the first four months of this year. E-scooter-linked crimes include robberies, assaults, shoplifting and drug possession, plus escaping arrest.

They are also dangerous to riders and the public. We still wait for MPs to discuss the problem and I urge you to write to yours now.

Lady Ludford last week protested in the House of Lords against the Government’s apparent support of e-scooters, when it claims to be just giving them a trial.

She said acidly: ‘This Government claim to represent the party of law and order, and certainly they often talk about crackdowns, but, when it comes to e-scooters, they have allowed, even encouraged, de facto legalisation without the necessary legislation to protect riders and the public. This has caused problems to escalate out of control in a wild west of lawlessness, where riders are terrorising pedestrians, especially those with disabilities and visual impairment.’

Lord Morris of Aberavon joined her, saying: ‘Our streets are becoming a nightmare for the young, the old, the blind and the disabled.’ Lady Randerson pointed out: ‘Retailers are not being held to their legal obligations and pilot schemes are so numerous that it is effectively back-door legalisation without any of the rules.’

But the Government Minister, Lady Williams of Trafford, declared in response: ‘I do not think there should be an outright ban on them.’ Since there is such an outright ban, outside the areas which have had ‘experiments’ inflicted on them, isn’t she prejudging the outcome? Protest while there is yet time.