Hello bulletin readers!
This past week, I’ve been on my bike for Britain. But the policemen at the Embassy, where I tried to park it while I took part in a press conference, took some persuading that this perspiring bloke in a cycling helmet and green tee-shirt was His Excellency.
On Sunday 20 April, several tens of thousands of cyclists (the estimates range between 40,000 and 80,000, but whichever it was it was a lot) took to the roads of Budapest for the latest Critical Mass event (for details about Critical Mass see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass). Hungary may be a small country, but it can break records sometimes – not just the biggest Tesco store in the world, but the biggest Critical Mass gatherings too.
Why was I there? Especially since in London there are legal disputes between Critical Mass and the Metropolitan Police. But here these events are not controversial. President Solyom is a previous participant. And on this occasion the British Council in Hungary were handing out the previously mentioned green tee-shirts to participants and paying for Jason Hawkes, the renowned British photographer, to cover the occasion from a helicopter. (The “greenest” possible helicopter by the way, once they had tried and failed to hire a crane instead.)
The British Embassy worked with the British Council on this event because it links in with our objectives to combat climate change and build a low carbon economy. These are priority goals for British foreign policy - we have to reverse the proven trend towards devastating global warming. Critical Mass has a number of aims, including raising awareness on the benefits of alternative transport users and combating environmental pollution. It is clear that Budapest, among many other places, has a fast-growing traffic congestion problem that did not exist when I was last here 16 years ago. The bicycle is a healthy, cheap and environmentally-friendly alternative mode of transport. It would be good if this could be used more for transportation, and not just for recreation (as was widely the case last Friday when a transport strike forced many onto their bikes). This would also help Hungary to meet the challenging EU emissions reductions targets it has signed up to fulfil.
And of course it’s individual people that make a difference, not just government resolutions (important that those are). The thousands of people there yesterday may have individually just felt like a drop in a bucket, but the event ended up being a pretty big bucket.
Our participation generated some useful media coverage – there were a couple of related press conferences with local personalities, including the lovely (and very nice) actress Eszter Ónodi of “Valami Amerika” and many other films. Hopefully it will make a difference in raising awareness. I’m currently aware of the pain in my legs however – it’s a steep cycle ride back up the hill to where I live…