Dear Wakefield MAG Member,
Welcome to the Wakefield MAG Newsletter. If you can't attend our Tuesday meetings regularly, it's the next best thing to keep you up to date with what we are up to.
CONTENTS
1) Bingo Night Report
2) Kidzaware Christmas Toy Collection
3) Wakefield MAG Christmas Do
4) Wakefield MAG Christmas Raffle
5) Remembrance Sunday - Sunday 13th November
6) CEBR Report
7) Biker Quiz Nite
8) Operation Earthquake
9) 2023 Rally Tickets
10) Forthcoming Events (for November and beyond)
Read the event report here
2) Kidzaware Christmas Toy Collection
We are hosting another Christmas Toy Collection for Kidzaware, for Christmas 2022. We are collecting toys and presents (age range: A few months to early twenties) which we will deliver to this very worthwhile local charity in early December.
Please bring along any toys / presents (unwrapped at this stage) to any Tuesday Wakefield MAG meeting, up to and including Tuesday 13th December. If you can't make a meeting but would still like to donate some toys / presents, please let us know, and we'll arrange to collect them from you. Thank you in advance for supporting this most worthwhile Wakefield based charity.
Our Christmas Do is being held on Saturday 3rd December at our HQ, the Thatched House. We are meeting from 13:00 onwards, eating from the above Christmas Menu at 13:30, then (if we still have room), following on with several goblets of foaming ale. You can come for the meal, or meet us afterwards for drinks in the Thatched House, or do both ... the choice is yours. Wakefield MAG Christmas Do's are always highly memorable .... Check out the event report(s) if you don't believe me !!!
Christmas hats and reindeer antlers strictly optional. Hope to see you there.
If you do intend to come for the meal, please let us know in advance and let us know your menu choices, as we need to pre-book with the pub.
4) Wakefield MAG Christmas Raffle
Following the undoubted success of our Christmas raffles in 2019 and 2021, we are hosting another Christmas Hamper Raffle for 2022 with the chance to win a luxury hamper plus other prizes. The tickets are ON SALE NOW at our weekly meetings and are £1 each (although Chas prefers to sell a book at a time for £5 ;-) and will be drawn at the Wakefield MAG meeting on Tuesday 13th December at 20:00. All proceeds to the MAG Fighting Fund for the on-going protection of your freedom to ride your motorcycle. Please buy some and let's boost the MAG coffers.
5) Remembrance Sunday - Sunday 13th November
Wakefield MAG will be attending en-masse the City of Wakefield Remembrance Sunday Memorial Service on Sunday 13th November. We have attended this service for more years now than we care to remember, to honour the fallen from our own area, in our own area. We will again be laying a Wakefield MAG wreath at the war memorial, that we have already purchased from the Royal British Legion. Following the Wakefield Service, we will be attending (at the invitation of the Royal British Legion Riders), the parade and service in nearby Mirfield - The role of the motorcyclists, is to lead the procession through Mirfield, with the marching bands, service personnel, cadets, veterans, and everyone else following on behind. The remembrance parade culminates in an afternoon service at Mirfield War Memorial.
Meet 10:45 (or earlier) at the Wood Street War Memorial in Wakefield for the City of Wakefield Remembrance Sunday Memorial Service. We will then be riding over to the Old Colonial pub in Mirfield, to meet up at 13:00ish with the Royal British Legion Riders (RBLR). We will be leaving the pub at 13:15ish for a ride to the Mirfield parade start point, ready for the 'off' at 14:00, followed then by the service at Mirfield War Memorial. As a thank you for attending, food is laid on afterwards at the Old Colonial by landlord Tim.
The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has co-funded a report from The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) on the government's proposal to ban the sale of internal combustion engined vehicles (ICEVs) from 2030 to 2040. The report shows the economic impact of the ban will be five times higher than any economic benefits. Using the Government's own methodology for calculating costs this policy will cost the average household £14,700.
The CEBR study, 'Economic impacts of the 2030 - 2040 bans on the sale of fossil fuel vehicles', shows that the additional costs of the policy dwarf any environmental benefit, specifically:
Any benefits battery electric vehicles (BEVs) offer will also be vastly lower due to the emissions involved in vehicle production, mining for battery minerals, shorter vehicle lifetimes (8.1 years for a BEV compared with 13.9 years for an ICEV.) The study also forecasts a significant loss of tax revenue which can only result in higher rates of Tax or VAT, or cuts to essential public services.
MAG Chair, Neil Liversidge said: "This report shows the Government's proposal to ban internal combustion engined vehicles is utterly misguided, even if you accept the assumptions which they themselves have made, and without even getting into the environmental arguments. Millions of motorcyclists stand to lose their freedom to buy and ride a practical petrol-powered machine. The costs of this ban are orders of magnitude greater than any possible benefits. This is economic madness, a blight on civil liberties, and a threat to the UK's prosperity, our quality of life and national security. We call on Ministers to drop this disastrous policy immediately before it does any more damage."
The full CEBR report is available here
The legendary and hugely popular annual Wakefield MAG Bikers Quiz Nite is this month !!!
The quiz will be held at 20:00 on Tuesday 29th November 2022 at the Thatched House, 434 Aberford Road, Stanley, Wakefield, WF3 4AA. We are planning a few changes to the format this year but there will still be 60 questions, 20-30 of which will be motorcycle related and 30-40 will be general knowledge. The quiz is hotly contested throughout Yorkshire and the prestigious roll of honour is:
Who will win in 2022 ? .... Leeds Again Probably !
Open to All. £1 entry fee p.p. Team (Max. 5) or individual entry. Great prizes for the winners (1st, 2nd & 3rd), plus booby prize for the least number of correct answers.
And just for a change ....... All proceeds to the MAG Fighting Fund ;-)
Operation Earthquake was officially launched at this year's MAG Annual General Conference and is now up and running. This is the campaign to put our right to ride petrol powered motorbikes (and drive petrol and diesel powered cars) centre stage in the British political agenda. There is lot's of coverage in the latest edition of the Open Road magazine about this campaign. In today's febrile political environment politicians are particularly desperate to shore up their vote. While Labour may be a little more confident than their Tory opponents, it's clear that there will be a Battle Royale to secure a majority at the next election. That's why Operation Earthquake has a good chance of getting significant influence as we head up to the next General Election.
MAG's request to you is simple: ask your local politicians if they support the ban on new petrol-powered motorcycles or not. Make clear that you won't be voting for any candidate who supports the ban. It's really that straightforward. We remind you again of Neil Liversedge's statement at the AGC: 'nobody should consider themselves guaranteed a safe seat.' The Conservatives are particularly sensitive to this realisation. This means that MOST MPs will be nervous about their prospects of being re-elected.
MAG's campaigns team has nearly completed a campaign pack for you to use - This should be available in the next MAG Activist's newsletter 'Network' in December 2022. But you don't need to wait till then to get going. Make an appointment at your MP's local surgery and ask them if they support the ban or oppose it. Then let us know. MAG Central would like to have a full picture of who says what. We can move forward from there and do out very best to ensure that no politician who is crazy enough to back the ban can feel they have a safe seat.
And if you think motorcyclists can't do this alone, you are quite correct, we can't. However, MAG has been working hard behind the scenes to form alliances with other motoring lobby groups. The Alliance of British Drivers (ABD) held their Annual General Meeting in September, in the British Motor Museum in Gaydon right next to the Jaguar, Land Rover works. Ian Churchlow and Lembit Öpik attended for MAG and frankly, it was a brilliant meeting. Ian was given a platform to put forward his presentation that lays out the case against the ban on petrol engines. Lembit contributed on a number of matters too. There was definitely a sense of common cause. This relationship is possibly the most significant joint effort between MAG and third parties we've ever undertaken, and it's bearing fruit. We are not alone and, more than that, we have powerful fellow travellers. With science and some very bright minds on our side, the odds are becoming rather better for those of us who still think that 'petrol' is not a dirty word. Howard Cox (Fair Fuel UK) also attended; and has been on TV almost every day to promote our positive messages about road transport. He's a trooper! Together we're making very substantial inroads in the media which, it seems, is finally waking up to the possibility that not everything they've been told about the 'green revolution' should be taken at face value.
The confirmed dates for the Yorkshire MAG 2023 rallies are:
Tickets are on-sale now online at mapevents.co.uk. The branch will recieve it's allocation of tickets for sale at our weekly meetings early in the new year (Remember, if you buy from us you save on the booking fees (which are per ticket, not per order !!) and postage).
10) Forthcoming Events (for November and beyond)
Sunday 13th November - Wakefield MAG at the City of Wakefield Memorial Sunday Parade & Service
See Above
Rideout to Royal British Legion Riders Branch event at Mirfield, following our attendance at the Wakefield Remembrance Service. Meet 10:50, Wood Street War Memorial, Wakefield
Tuesday 29th November - Wakefield MAG 18th Annual Bikers Quiz Nite
See Above. 20:00 in the Thatched House, Stanley, Wakefield. £1 p.p (to cover cost of prizes)
Saturday 3rd December - Christmas Do
See Above
A Christmas Meal, proceeded and followed by several goblets of foaming ale, at the Thatched House
Tuesday 13th December - Christmas Hamper Draw
See Above
Tuesday 17th January 2023 - Wakefield Branch 21st AGM - The branch will be 21 years old !!!!
Tuesday 31st January 2023 - Post Christmas Auction
Got lots of unwanted Christmas presents ? Got items that are of use/value but you don't have the space for them any more ? Prepared to donate them for a good cause ? Bring them along to the Wakefield MAG 'Post Christmas Auction' where they will be raffled off to the highest bidder, with all the proceeds being donated to MAG and other worthy causes. 20:00 in the Thatched House.
See the events page for further details and more !!!
That's all for this month, hope to see you all soon.
Ride Safe .. Ride Free
Steve Travis
Chairman
Wakefield MAG
0772 078 4734
Wakefield MAG meet at the Thatched House, Stanley, Wakefield at 8:00pm every Tuesday. New (and Old) faces are always welcome.