Never did I ever believe I’d have anything in common with Dynasty actress Joan Collins.
No, we aren’t both partial to turnips. I also have no clue about her views on whether Harry comes to the Coronation or not. Or why millionaire superstar Al Pacino is charging fans £2,250 for an audience with him when he comes to the UK next month.
But I’m foursquare with Dame Joan when she vents her anger at the dangerous cyclists who nearly sent her flying on the pavements of London the other day.
Urging London mayor Sadiq Khan to take action, she wrote about a road closure on Instagram adding: “…that didn’t stop a masked cyclist with no lights and weaving onto the pavement from crashing into me, almost knocking me over…Why don’t you do something…?”
It isn’t solely a London thing. Having worked in many of the UK’s cities I’ve had several near misses with cyclists weaving in between members of the public in pedestrian areas instead of using cycle lanes or, shock horror, the roads. Worse still, I’ve been with older friends, aunts of a similar age to Joan, and even kids left shaken by the inconsiderate nature of some cyclists’ behaviour.
The Highway Code’s rule 64 makes clear it is forbidden to cycle on the pavement.
The vast majority of cyclists are respectful of that message. So this isn’t an attack on them. Best wishes, in fact, to TV presenter and responsible cyclist Dan Walker as he recovers from his mishap last week.
But lots of us have either witnessed or had the experience of errant riders leaving pedestrians terrified or injured.
At 89, it is more of an issue for the likes of Dame Joan than it would be for me (I’m younger than I look).
The frustration, however, is the same. Just as we motorists are hammered when caught straying outside our
lanes, the Local Government Act of 1988 (which states the maximum penalty for cycling on the pavement is a £500 fine) should be more rigidly enforced to protect the rest of us.
Jason Arday is more than my hero of the week. He is an inspiration for our time.
His story is humbling. He couldn’t speak until he was 11. He couldn’t write until he was 18 and he was pretty much dismissed after being diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay. His family were told he’d need lifelong support.
But, now aged 37, he has become the youngest-ever Black professor at Cambridge University. The secret? His mum used music to nurture his language skills and a friend helped him to read and write in his late teens.
Aged 27, he wrote a set of personal goals on a bedroom wall at his parents’ house.
One read: “One day I will work at Oxford or Cambridge”.
He also now has two Masters qualifications and a PhD.
As the great Nelson Mandela once said: “It always seems impossible until it is done.”
You don’t need to be a dad of two girls, as I am, to have raised an eyebrow at that picture of Johnny Depp’s daughter, Lily-Rose, posing for a magazine last week. The snap replicated the notorious ‘naked dress’ worn by Depp’s ex, Kate Moss, in the nineties. It brought to mind a 2015 pic of a stern-looking Jose Mourinho beside his lightly-dressed daughter Matilde. I’d have been the same.
Boxing really is in trouble, isn’t it? Jake Paul used to make my kids giggle on the Disney Channel a few years ago. Tommy Fury is an ex-Love Islander.
When both men can command more social media numbers for a fight than some of the greats who thrilled us for a living, the game might well be up. Experts reckon Sunday’s match-up will end up being the first billion-viewer bout. Should that happen the real fighters might as well pack up and go home.
