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On Monday, Prime Minister David Cameron gave a long talk at the London Gateway, a warm-up speech for the G8 Summit. He plugged bike parts maker Hope Technology which he visited in April.
“When I talk about exports, it’s not about the trade surplus I’m thinking about; it’s people like the ones I met in a bicycle parts manufacturer up in Lancashire," said Cameron.
"They’ve got a map of the world up on their office wall, and they can proudly point to all the 40 countries they’re exporting to. They started that company less than 25 years ago and now they employ about 95 people, and it only came about through hard work. It’s a company called Hope Technology, and they give me hope because these are the British people: resilient, enterprising, creative, hard-working."
Back in April, Cameron told Hope Technology’s co-founder Ian Weatherill “There is a huge clamour for cycling – it’s a growth industry – and I will be looking with an enthusiastic eye to see what we can do [to help cycling].
“With more backing of the industry from the Government I can see it (cycling) quadrupling in the country,” he said.
However, such "enthusiastic" support for cycling doesn’t tend to be backed up with the sort of cash required to boost cycling levels to those common in the Netherlands where spending per head on cycling is far higher. Enthusiasm for motorised road transport continues unabated. In another part of Monday’s presentation Cameron said his Government had a "very aggressive and packed Roads Programme."
