MAG still fighting helmet law
No one likes a quitter
WHATEVER you think of the Motorcycle Action Group's opposition to the helmet law, you have to admire the group's resolve.
More than 40 years after helmets were mandated in the UK, the group is still fighting the requirement to wear them, albeit this time on behalf of cyclists.
The group restated its stance on the motorcycle helmet law as it came out in opposition to what it sees as a similar threat faced by cyclists.
Lembit Öpik, MAG's Director of Communications, said: "In 1973, British motorcyclists suffered a hammer blow to their liberty with the introduction of a mandatory helmet law. Over the last four decades we have never wavered from our principled position of opposing this authoritarian regulation.
"It's not because we're against safety; rather it's because we're pro-choice. At the heart of any truly free society, citizens have the right to make personal decisions about their welfare and the level of risk they're willing to entertain.
"No government has the moral authority to forcibly impose its opinion about what's best for citizens, because such a move is counter to the very freedoms which democracy exists to uphold. As such, we offer our full support to Britain's cyclists in opposing the mandatory wearing of helmets.
"This is a symbolic test of the liberty. A defeat on this would be a catastrophic failure of politicians to respect the personal liberty of the people."
A MAG spokesman added: "The threat has arisen as a result of the Advertising Standards Authority's Directive to Cycling Scotland, requiring them to feature cyclists wearing helmets and refusing to authorise a television advertisement which showed a rider without a helmet, claiming that to do so would be 'socially irresponsible'."
