Bikes don’t need number plates – but there is a serious side to this silly season story

The debate about cyclists is not really about the law – it is a tribal dispute over a scarce resource, namely road space, writes John Rentoul

As a cyclist, I naturally prefer my side’s version, which is that cycles rarely kill people whereas motor vehicles frequently do (Getty)

Write about what you know, they say. So I am well qualified to write about the Daily Mail’s silly season front-page story today, “Cyclists may need number plates.” Not only am I a cyclist, but I am also a journalist, so I am in a good position to congratulate a rival news organisation on a headline that has started thousands of arguments across the country.

It is nonsense, of course. There is no prospect of licence plates being introduced for bicycles in the UK, and everyone knows it. But that is irrelevant if there is a good squabble to be had. The story was teased out of a short interview with Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, in which he observed that speed limits do not apply to cyclists, “and that cannot be right, so I absolutely propose extending speed limit restrictions to cyclists”.

He is right that speed limits currently apply only to motor vehicles, and the Mail noticed that if the law were changed to include cyclists, there would have to be a way of enforcing it, which requires a means of identifying bikes, such as number plates. Another case study for my forthcoming book, How Journalism Works.