Alexei Sayle: Spare us a witty reinvention of the motor car...
Published: 08 January 2008
A few weeks ago, I went with the restaurant reviewer of another paper to have lunch at a place called Hibiscus, which had moved from Ludlow, where it had gained two Michelin stars, to Mayfair. He and I both found the food ludicrous and the atmosphere oppressive, but other reviewers, (including one from this newspaper, for example) raved, and the London listings magazine Time Out gave Hibiscus six stars out of five, the first time it has done such a thing.
Alexei Sayle: Car clubs are a good idea, except for the cars
Published: 11 December 2007
Last time I wrote about how I was now without a car of my own after Citroë* had taken back the long-term C6 and how, rather than buy something else, I had joined a car club. For those of you who don't know, these park cars at selected spots around the city and you book them on the internet for a set number of hours. For a price of around £4.95 an hour (which includes fuel, congestion charge, insurance and so on) I get the use of a Citroë* C3, on an '05 plate, which lives in the next street to me.
John Simister: If a speeding cop sees the light, then hallelujah!
Published: 11 December 2007
So the chief constable of South Yorkshire Police and speed-camera evangelist Meredydd Hughes has been found guilty of travelling at 90mph on a road with a 60mph limit. That it happened in North Wales, where chief constable Richard Brunstrom practises an almost Taliban-like intolerance of speed, makes the discomfiture doubly ironic. No, make that a treble irony, for Hughes was, until this difficulty, the road-safety committee chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers. Ha, ha!
Sean O'Grady: Split brain of the motor industry
Published: 04 December 2007
I attended the 91st dinner of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) last week – I have to declare an interest as I was a guest of the Ford Motor Company – and it was a slightly odd experience. Not, that is, because of the fine food and drink served at the Park Lane Hilton, nor, indeed, because of the frightening after-dinner speech given by James Woolsey, formerly of the CIA and obsessed with the "malignant" threats facing the West. I know the Wahhabites aren't much fun, but to hear Mr Woolsey talk, it's a wonder how any western businessperson or tourist manages to get out of Saudi Arabia with their hands still attached to their arms.
Alexei Sayle: No car, so now I'm an eco-driver
Published: 27 November 2007
So they finally came and took the long-term test Citroë* C6 away. Like a death-row prisoner in the US filing appeal after appeal, I'd managed to extend the original loan from six months to over a year. "I'm still filming my Liverpool documentary with it," I'd tell them, or: "I'm delivering vitally needed medical supplies to the Horn of Africa: sure you can have it back if you want but Unesco will be very angry."
The Cycling Column: We need a simple highway code
Published: 27 November 2007
A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a radio debate about redesigning the Highway Code. I was sticking up for the rights of cyclists on Britain's roads. It was a rather brief affair, and there wasn't time to get stuck into the detail of the upgrade to the Code that has been going on for several months. Instead, the 20 minutes were filled with cabbies ranting about banning cyclists from the roads and pedestrians complaining about drivers who fail to indicate.
Sean O'Grady: Wonderful, wonderful copen wagon
Published: 20 November 2007
I have to admit that I have not, until now, got round to alerting you to the existence of a new Daihatsu "concept car", which you see illustrated below. I spotted it at the Frankfurt show ages ago, and it was at the more recent Tokyo event, but it hasn't received much attention anywhere, which seems a pity. It will be, I'm both happy and sad to say, the replacement for the company's baby Copen model, which I'm joyfully running at the moment.
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 20 November 2007
Alexei Sayle: Sting in the tale of the Scorpio driver
Published: 13 November 2007
I was doing a photo session the other day for the Radio Times and when I came out of the studio I found my bicycle had been run over and the front wheel was all twisted. The magazine very kindly ordered a people carrier to take me and my mangled bike home.
Vince Yearley: Using four lanes is the best deal for everyone
Published: 13 November 2007
Forget what you learnt at primary school. Four does go into three – or at least it does when it comes to certain motorways.
Sean O'Grady: Forget the badge snobs, the lexus is a cut above
Published: 06 November 2007
It's almost 40 years since Car magazine ran one of its most sensational stories. With a cover picture of a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow sliding around all over the shop, Car informed its readers that Rolls-Royce's vehicles could no longer command the title of "best cars in the world". Rolls had been usurped by a Benz – the Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman. By common consent, one Mercedes-Benz or another has usually fulfilled the role of automotive apogee ever since.
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 06 November 2007
Alexei Sayle: Don't trifle with safety officers
Published: 30 October 2007
I have nothing against a great deal of modern health and safety legislation: making building sites less deadly, stopping the stuffing of children up chimneys or making food factories less poisonous is a noble aim and can to a great degree be achieved through the introduction of government legislation.
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 30 October 2007
Sean O'Grady: Why bigger can be better in town
Published: 23 October 2007
OK, what do you think makes a better town car: the tiny, made-for-congested-Japanese-streets Daihatsu Copen? Or the pug-ugly lumbering made-for-I'm-not-sure-what Peugeot 4007?
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 23 October 2007
Alexei Sayle: TV fakery? Nah, you're going to get the real me
Published: 16 October 2007
As I've mentioned before, I've been working on three one-hour documentaries for the BBC about my return to Liverpool after 30 years away. In a way, this type of factual programme – although supposedly free from artifice – can actually make you more egotistical than shows in the entertainment sphere. For example, in a movie drama it is the character you're playing who's up there on the screen, and if it's a comedy show then you have your comic persona to hide behind. But in a documentary it is you, supposedly the real you, who you are selling to the viewing public. It has the potential to be almost as fraudulent as being a politician.
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 16 October 2007
Sean O'Grady: All the home comforts, not too bad to drive
Published: 09 October 2007
I never knew you could plug a camper van into the mains. Did you? The revelation came to me in the Carlyon Bay Caravan and Camping Park, Cornwall. All I had done on taking delivery of our test vehicle, a new Volkswagen California camper van, was hop in it and drive down there, slightly dreading the idea of living in the thing.
James Daley: The Cycling Column
Published: 09 October 2007
The annual national cycling show comes to Earls Court in London this weekend, one of the highlights of the calendar for the die-hard biking enthusiast (especially if, like me, you have a passion for mountain biking, road biking, commuting – and a keen interest in just about every other aspect of the sport, too).
Alexei Sayle: Health and safety? don't get me started...
Published: 02 October 2007
There are two orthodoxies that dominate our modern society. The first is the almost religious belief that recycling can save us from further environmental catastrophe. I had been hoping to take advantage of this by converting my sandwich bar into a restaurant called Leftovers.
