Wakefield MAG June 2021 Newsletter

Dear Wakefield MAG Member,

Welcome to the June 2021 Wakefield MAG e-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) Wakefield MAG Weekly Meetings
2) MAG publishes petrol motorcycle survey results
3) MAG AGC 2021: a virtual affair
4) Yorkshire MAG AGM
5) Wakefield Branch AGM
6) Neil's Manifesto for the Office of Chairman of the Motorcycle Action Group
7) Branch Events
8) Riding the Lockdown Rollercoaster
9) Press Coverage
10) YPR Marshals Registration Now Open
11) Forthcoming Events (for June and beyond)

1) Wakefield MAG Weekly Meetings

Our weekly Wakefield MAG meetings restarted on Tuesday 18th May at the Thatched House in Stanley. If you haven't been to a meeting in a little while (admitedly, none of us have until quite recently), then do pop along, it's always great welcoming back old (and new members). Everyone is guaranteed a warm welcome, healthy debate, friendly banter, free food and cheap drinks. What more could you ask for !?!

Now things are opening back up, we have scheduled some cracking events for the rest of 2021 and beyond (see Branch Events below).

And to supplement our own activities, we'll also be attending as many of the activities of our very good friends in the other Yorkshire MAG groups, as time dictates. One thing is for sure, you wont get bored being a member of Wakefield MAG !!!!

Hope to see you at a Branch meeting soon. Wakefield MAG meet at the Thatched House, 434 Aberford Road, Stanley, Wakefield, WF3 4AA at 8:30pm every Tuesday.

2) MAG publishes petrol motorcycle survey results

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has published the results of it's snapshot survey of motorcyclists' attitudes to potential phasing out of petrol motorcycles.

MAG recently ran a survey to establish a snapshot of riders' opinions about what remains technically a potential phase-out of petrol-powered motorcycles. Motorcycles are not currently included in the Government's announcement of the 2030 end-to-sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans. It is widely accepted, however, that motorcycles are likely to be covered in future announcements as the country works to decarbonise transport.

The survey attracted a total of 4,805 responses. Of these, 1,575 responses were from MAG members. The remaining 3,230 were from non-members. It is assumed that all respondents would consider themselves to be motorcycle enthusiasts due to the channels used to promote the survey. This was not a randomised sample of all motorcycle riders.

The first question covered opinion on a potential phase-out of the sale of new petrol motorcycles. We refer to the phase-out as a ban for brevity. Just 8% of respondents accepted a potential ban, 36% would want to see a ban delayed and 55% were completely opposed. It is noted that complete opposition was higher amongst non-members than members (48% of members compared to 59% of non-members were completely opposed.)

Eighty-three percent of all respondents want to see MAG work with other groups opposed to the ban of petrol and diesel powered vehicles.

The third question probed attitudes to electric motorcycles. Asked whether they would stop riding altogether, keep existing petrol motorcycles running for as long as possible, or adopt electric before the end of any phase-out, 31% said they would hang up their crash helmets, 56% would resist the switch for as long as possible and just 13% would make the switch before it was unavoidable.

MAG Chair, Selina Lavender, commented: "I was delighted by the level of response to the survey and I would like to thank all those that took the time to let us know their opinions. MAG always represents the views of all riders, regardless of their choice of motorcycle. We have worked hard to develop the channels that get riders opinions heard by Government. We will not misrepresent those opinions. If you care about motorcycling, you can rely on MAG to voice your opinions at the highest levels. Please do ensure you join or renew your membership of MAG. Your subscription will help support our work to ensure motorcycling has a bright future."

3) MAG AGC 2021: a virtual affair

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) announces that their Annual Group Conference (AGC) 2021 will take place with an online element, offering members the best opportunity to attend this important event amidst ongoing uncertainty regarding the pandemic. Motions and nominations must be submitted no later than Wednesday, June 30th, 2021.

MAG AGC 2021 will take place on Saturday, September 25th. In order to announce details of the event, and to provide timely notice for submission of motions and nominations, the decision regarding how AGC will take place had to be taken in May. The National Committee considered the viability of holding a group event to include members from all four nations, taking into consideration the possibility that conditions could change, and restrictions reintroduced. It was strongly felt that this year's event should go ahead, allowing the maximum number of members the opportunity to participate, and should include a contingency in case of restrictions being reinstated. AGC 2021 will therefore take place with online connections.

Motions and nominations should be submitted to central-office@mag-uk.org or by post to MAG, Unit C13, Holly Farm Business Park, Honiley, Kenilworth, Warwickshire CV8 1NP. Submissions should be received by Wednesday, June 30th, 2021 latest.

The following positions are up for election:

Plan A: Online live meeting with 'hubs' plus limited individual access. MAG groups to arrange a physical event - locally or as a region - where multiple members log in via one connection: a 'hub'. This allows those who wish to come together and perhaps include a fundraiser or party the option to do so. Those not in a position to attend a group event can request to log in as individuals, but these places will be limited.

Plan B (contingency): Should restrictions be such that, on the day, physical groups cannot meet, or applications to attend exceed the limit of the software licence, the event will change to a pre-recorded video format. The video will be available to members for a limited time to view. A deadline will be given for asking questions and voting, which can be done via either email or letter.

Selina Lavender, MAG Chair, said "There is a lot of administration to be worked through and it is acknowledged that this scenario is not ideal; however, we owe it to our members to take the steps necessary to hold an AGC in 2021. Many elements of life have been put on hold due to the pandemic, but politics and attacks on motorcycling continue. I do hope our members will be supportive of an online event, and that they will provide assistance to those members who are looking to join but who are less confident with the technology."

Full details regarding AGC 2021 will be published in The ROAD, and in Network.

Nominees are invited for the following awards:

Nominations for awards may be made directly to your Regional Rep OR to the Chair via email (chair@mag-uk.org) or by post (MAG, Unit C13, Holly Farm Business Park, Honiley, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, CV8 1NP). The NC will consider all nominees for awards at it's August meeting.

Ed: This was discussed in our weekly meeting on the 1st June and the unanimous decision of the meeting attendees was that we do not agree with the decision to hold a virtual AGC. This will undoubtedly disenfranchise a lot of the core AGC attendees given the age demographic, and given there are already comments about the limited number of software licences, it's unlikely all those who may want to attend virtually will physically be able to on the day. A socially distanced conference with all the prevailing CV-19 precautions could easily be organised, with the option to attend virtually for any areas of the UK that may be subject to any local restrictions at the time of the AGC. If you feel strongly about this, please contact MAG Central (central-office@mag-uk.org) and ask for your note to be forwarded to the National Committee for consideration. MAG is a member led organisation after all.

4) Yorkshire MAG AGM

Now things are returning to some degree of normality, a date has been set for the Yorkshire MAG Region AGM, which will be held from 09:00 to 11:30 on Sunday 25th July at Squires Cafe, near Sherburn in Elmet. An agenda for the AGM will be circulated nearer the event. All Yorkshire MAG members are cordially invited to attend (bring your membership card to vote) and all Wakefield MAG members who attend will receive 75 branch points (and after the year we have had to date, everyone's branch points will be sadly depleted, so this is any easy way to boost yours - and remember, points mean prizes ... literally !!!).

5) Wakefield Branch AGM

We are holding our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 29th June at 20:30, at our HQ, the Thatched House. All Wakefield MAG members are cordially invited to attend. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we were not able to hold our planned AGM on Tuesday 12th January 2021, and the last time we we hosted an AGM was on Wednesday 15th January 2020, when we were still meeting in the Grey Horse.

This will be a cutdown AGM covering the following agenda items:

We'll then hold a 'normal' AGM again on Tuesday 11th January 2022.

75 Branch Points awarded to all members who attend our Branch AGM

6) Neil's Manifesto for the Office of Chairman of the Motorcycle Action Group

Neil Liversidge originally formed Wakefield MAG back in January 2002, when he was then the National Chair of MAG. He has recently thrown his hat back into the ring and is standing for election to National Chair again at this year's AGC on Saturday 25th September (See Above). This is Neil's Election Manifesto:

Manifesto for the Office of Chairman of the Motorcycle Action Group

Almost 40 years on from the time I first joined MAG as a 17-year-old and almost 20 years on from the time I last served as your National Chairman, a role to which you elected me 12 times in succession, I am offering myself once again to lead MAG.

MAG now faces its ultimate challenge, a fight for the survival of motorcycling against those who want to make all personal transport electric-powered, four-wheeled and driverless. My opposition to the proposed ban on the sale and registration of new internal combustion engine vehicles is total and unequivocal and has been since it was first announced, when I knew that the vast majority of motorcyclists, like me, would oppose it utterly. MAG's own survey has now proven me right, much to the disappointment of the surrender advocates.

This is not about being pro or anti-green. This is about being pro or anti-freedom, practicality, and common sense. This is also about a better way to improve the environment and raise living standards. Some in MAG are out to stop me. They are happy to give up on motorcycling but I am not. I ask you to give me your support but with it, you must also give me the tools, the team, and the overwhelming mandate that is needed if MAG is to have any chance at all in this fight. Those who say 'it cannot be done' should get out of the way of the man trying to do it.

This is not the place to lay out in full all the reasons why MAG must take this stance. There is not space and most of you know the arguments anyway. I shall therefore content myself with saying that the only way driverless cars will ever work is if motorcycles are eliminated from the transport equation, be they petrol or electric-powered bikes. As regards electric vehicles, I have no objection to anyone buying one who wants to do so and if the market can serve their needs, I shall be delighted. That should, however, be their choice and not one forced on them. Nor should others be forced to subsidise it. Those who can afford a Tesla do not need or deserve to be subsidised by their vastly poorer fellow taxpayers. Taxation is of course the subject that the proponents of battery cars have resolutely avoided discussing. The reason is simple; they need to keep the tax con going until we are beyond the point of no return.

I would not waste my time if I thought this a bad or lost cause and nor would I ask you to do so either. Only fools order Light-Brigade-style charges and bigger fools lead them. We can win, but to do so MAG must think in a radically different way to how it has traditionally. There can be no division between motorcyclists and car drivers. Of the 32 million licence holders in this country, the overwhelming majority drive cars. Only with the mass support of the car-driving populace can we win. Some in MAG see this as a negative. They are wrong. This is actually the best chance MAG has ever had, or will ever have, to drive the transport agenda.

Historically the RAC and the AA purported to speak for motorists but in reality, they never did. They were and are insurance companies run for profit and motorcyclists' interests, if they considered them at all, were at best an afterthought. If motorcyclists lead this fight though, we will not be the afterthought we shall be the thought, the guiding light, the leading voice, and the policy-makers. This is about choice in personal transport and in this context, personal transport embraces public transport. For my entire adult life, I have believed that the country should have a fully nationwide and fully electrified public transport system consisting of trains, trams, and trolley busses fed efficiently and centrally generated power, affordable to those of modest and small means and which, if built properly, will serve the daily commute for the vast majority who need to make it. Some things work best on the large macro scale and never has that been truer than in the case of electric transport.

The British people have the chance now to stop their government from making a monumental mistake. Instead, we can set it on a better course. We can achieve the greener country that we all want and at the same time show the world an alternative more practical way to safeguard the environment whilst raising people’s quality of life, keeping taxation fair, enhancing living standards, and preserving choice in personal transport.

I am not promising you a miracle. I am under no illusions as to the magnitude of this task, the paucity of our resources, or the bitterness of the vitriol that the fanatics on the other side will spew against us. Against us are ranged the toy-town Pol Pots who think they can reset the world to year zero. I do believe though that ultimately, we will win because ours is a reasonable logical, and well thought through compromise that will be recognised as such by the reasonable and common-sense individuals who make up the vast majority of our population. Politics, as any intelligent and successful politician knows, is the art of the possible and relies on compromise. Our strength is that we are the people advocating reasonable compromise. We shall win because 32 million licence-holders are 32 million voters. Politicians are replaceable, freedom is not, and politics is too important to be left to the politicians, by whom the vast majority of ordinary people feel unfairly put upon. The people feel that decisions are and have too long been made over their heads by elites without their being afforded any real say. They are right. Voters, however, are learning that such no longer needs to be the case. Voters have learned that policies can be changed, indeed that the entire direction of their country can be changed. They have made it so that there is no such thing as a safe seat in Parliament any more, that all politicians are replaceable. We shall rally the voters for motors.

Over the course of recent decades, more people have come to realise that blind unconditional allegiance to any political party is beyond foolish, it is downright harmful. When politicians know that they can harvest votes regardless, that they no longer have to listen to those they are supposed to represent, they cease to represent them and end up despising them. Then they go off on frolics of their own, promoting their own agendas and pursuing their ideas of fantastical utopias which invariably take little or no account whatsoever of the way in which the vast majority or ordinary people have to live their lives. The problem with such utopians is that none of them ever seem to comprehend the significance of the fact that 'utopia' is derived from the Greek word meaning nowhere. That is where their absolutism will take us. Nowhere. Certainly not to a greener future.

I am back because I believe in this. I am back because this needs doing and the fight needs leading. I am back because so far, I have seen nobody else willing or able to lead it. I am back because I have been asked to return by a vast number of MAG members, mostly ordinary members like myself who hold no office, but who know this is right and must be done. Above all, though I am back because I am a biker. I love motorcycling now even more than I did when aged 17, in 1981, I put my first bike on the road.

As I have said already, I am under no illusions, but I do believe in the sense and justice of our cause in the service of which I hereby offer myself for election if the Members desire it.

Neil F Liversidge
MAG Member 23660

7) Branch Events

Now we are no longer mothballed and back up and running, we are delighted to announce our schedule of events for the remainder of 2021 !!

8) Riding the Lockdown Rollercoaster

Source: MCIA - 10th May 2021

The Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) has recently released the April 2021 powered two wheeler (PTW) registration statistics. With the 2020 lockdown curtailing PTW retail activity, the three-figure percentage increases recorded this year were not unexpected. However, the growth over the 2019 pre-COVID result confirms MCIA's belief that 2021 can be a bumper year.

2021 April registrations show an eye-watering year on year increase of 570% at 10,874 units and an arguably more impressive growth of 10.7% against April 2019. Whilst the 2020 lockdown may have instigated the thirst for PTWs as an isolated and safer way to travel, 2021 is seeing the transport decisions materialising in new PTW purchases for both efficiency, leisure and the many mental and social health benefits associated with riding.

Electrically powered PTWs once again go from strength to strength with April registrations up 515.7% on 2020. If the idea of the many benefits of riding a PTW appeals to you, visit www.unlockyourfreedom.co.uk, to find out more about getting onto powered two wheels, including how to access the straightforward Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) course, which is all that is required to ride a PTW of up to 11Kw or 125cc.

More details about April's PTW registrations can be seen at: www.mcia.co.uk/press-statistics

9) Press Coverage

Richard 'Manny' Manton (Yorkshire Regional Rep) has managed to cultivate a great relationship with the Yorkshire Evening Post crime reporter. Here are a couple of links to recent reports in the paper with plenty of name checks for MAG. Onwards and upwards.

Leeds motorbike thefts not a victimless crime say campaigners calling for action

Leeds motorbike theft problem needs tackling to stop illegal and anti social riders - Motorcycle Action Group

10) YPR Marshals Registration Now Open

Marshal Admin and Registration is now open for Yorkshire Pudding 2021. Please click on this link: www.magmarshals.co.uk to access the forms.

If you have marshalled at a previous event, then you can just go straight to the Marshal at an Event section and use your email and password from last year. If you cannot remember the email address you last used was, then you can email us at marshals@mapevents.co.uk and we should be able to tell you your email username. If you have changed your email address since last using the registration forms and you wish to use the new email, you can Re-Register with your new email before registering to Marshal at an Event.

If you cannot remember your password, then go to the Get Help section to reset it.

If you wish to register to marshal at an event for the first time, please complete the Registration page, then go to the Marshal at Event Section to sign up for Yorkshire Pudding 2021. It is helpful if you can state which is your local MAG group when you register and you can tell us a bit about any relevant skills and experience on the special requirements section, such as an SIA badge holder, bar experience or marshalling at other events. Someone may contact you to find out a bit more about what would be a suitable role for you, whilst we will try to accommodate everyone’s request to marshal, it is always at the Event Manager's discretion. Please also ensure to let us know under special requirements if you have any disability or health condition that limits what you can do, we need to know to ensure everyone's health and safety.

Also, you should receive a confirmation email for every form you fill in and submit. Should you not receive the confirmation email, again, please email us at marshals@mapevents.co.uk so we can get you fully registered on our system.

You can go back into your form and update it at any time until the closing date, which is Friday 9th July 2021. Please ensure you press the submit button at the bottom of the form if you do this.

The shift confirmation email will be sent to you within the week starting Monday 12th July.

Please remember to bring your own re-usable drinks bottle as we are continuing with our quest to reduce the amount of waste at our events so there will be no water in bottles this year.

We also now have a Facebook page exclusively for all marshals called Yorkshire MAG Marshals Page. Please ask to join and invite all the marshals you know to join. It's for you to air your views. We do accept constructive criticism as this allows us to adapt and move forward but any kind of nasty or unacceptable comments will be removed.

Thank you very much for your continued involvement with the Yorkshire MAG events, without you they wouldn't happen. If you have any queries, please reply to marshals@mapevents.co.uk we will try to reply by email but it will help if you include a phone number.

11) Forthcoming Events (for June and beyond)

Tuesday 29th June - Wakefield MAG AGM

See Above. All members are invited to attend the 19th Wakefield & District Motorcycle Action Group Branch Annual General Meeting. This will be an AGM for the Election of Branch Officers for 2021 only, together with signing off last years accounts, as not much happened in 2020 for us to review. Current MAG Membership Card required to vote. 20:30 in the Thatched House, Stanley, Wakefield.

#### Cancelled for 2021 #### - Farmyard Party (FYP) Rally www.mapevents.co.uk

Sunday 25th July - Yorkshire MAG AGM

See Above

Friday 6th - Sunday 8th August - Yorkshire Pudding Rally (YPR)

www.mapevents.co.uk

TBC - Evening Rideout to Sheffield Speedway

Exact date to be confirmed but the Sheffield Tigers are back to Thursday Evening home fixtures

TBC - Belated Wakefield MAG 19th Birthday Do - Exact date and 'activity' to be confirmed

Saturday 25th September - MAG AGC

See Above

Tuesday 26th October - Bingo

See Above

Tuesday 30th November - Biker Quiz Nite

See Above

Saturday 11th December - Christmas Do

See Above

Tuesday 15th December - Christmas Hamper Draw

See Above

Tuesday 25th January 2022 - Post Christmas Auction

See Above

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 8:30pm every Tuesday. New (and Old) faces are always welcome.