This week there has been a lot of talk in the press about Gordon Brown being questionned about the motorcycle driving test centre fiasco – how we’ve barely got any now (test centres that is) and how people taking their motorcycle test has dropped dramatically as a result.

The PM saying how important the motorcycle industry is in this country.

Now an Early Day Motion is being put forward and as motorcyclists we are being encouraged to contact our MPs to get them to sign it so that a Private Members Bill can be put forward to look into the whole sorry affair.

As with many motorcyclists I am happy that this is at long last being looked into and taken seriously but in the overall scheme of things, in election year in the UK, how much does the motorcycling affiliation of your local MP or the party he represents, matter to you?

That’s the question being asked in a poll on the Riders Are Voters Facebook Page

Opinion is surprisingly divided.

For my part motorcycling is a huge part of my/our life, everything else fits around that so to have something threaten it is something we take very seriously.

For lots of other people we know this is the same, but for others that ride motorcycles for convenience or say for fun on a sunny day it is less important and they would simply let it go with barely a backward glance. These people have other issues that are important to them when they consider who they vote for.

But that’s not the end of the story, even for us.

In 2007 we had our Ural sidecar outfit – Boris – stolen from our house by one of the local youth gangs, taken right across town, apparently undetected, where there are lots and lots of CCTV cameras, taken to their own estate and set fire to. The Police know who they are, we know who they are and indeed this week the next generation of the same gang are likely responsible for a fire that claimed the lives of two pensioners in the town because they set fire to their mobility scooter that was parked outside of their sheltered housing flat, allegedly because they dared to challenge these youths.

Do you think that’s important to us and other local motorcyclists?

You bet it is.

So crime becomes an issue that is important to us, it involves our personal safety and whether or not our personal property is safe from theft and worse.

Rather controversially it seems to some people, we don’t vote.

Why?

Because neither of the main parties policies are that different from each other. Also we don’t trust MPs to actually do what they say they will do and it is apparently acceptable policy to tell the electorate what they want to hear to get elected and then be selective about how little of those promises they implement when they are elected. As a country of people it seems we are pretty apathetic about making them stick to their promises.

I mean, a large proportion of MPs have been stealing from us under the guise of their expenses claims and we have let them get away with it. Whether it was right or wrong according to the rules laid down they surely need to think whether its morally right to claim for the same mortgage twice, for example.

So to bringing it back around to whether I would vote for a candidate based on their motorcycling policies, no I wouldn’t, not because I don’t vote but because I don’t trust them to do what they say they will do.

I would prefer it if motorcyclists in the constituences where MPs with a track record of supporting us would vote for them and then once all the dust is settled and we see who we have to work with then we start educating them about motorcycle issues.

Just my opinion, I would be interested to hear yours and why not join the Riders Are Voters debate by clicking here