CYCLISTS AND SUITS NEED NOT BE AT WAR WITH EACH OTHER
TENSIONS between the City’s suits and its many cyclists – from couriers to tourists – have reached boiling point, The Capitalist hears.
One disgruntled cyclist pulled over recently on Bishopsgate has been in touch to relay exactly why it is that City of London cops are out in force, lurking under trees and behind lamp-posts, to catch errant cyclists running red lights and the like.
“Why do you waste your time with this?” our cyclist inquired of the bobby who stopped him.
“It’s the suits,” our copper replied with a shrug. “They hate cyclists.”
Or, in the more gentile language of his press office, it’s “community policing” on behalf of the suits.
More precisely: “Ninety-five per cent of the people in the City wear suits, so if you’re responding to people wearing suits, you’re responding to the people in your community,” a spokesperson for City of London police explained.
Not to mention that the suits tend to go to more City ward meetings than do the cyclists.
Of course, in the interests of full disclosure, The Capitalist ought to confess that she is often to be found cruising through the City on a bike – but just as often in a suit jacket as well. Perhaps there’s the beginnings of an entente cordiale in that.
•Harriet Dennys is away