As anyone who has followed British or Northern Irish politics in the last 25 years will know, ex-Labour MP Kate Hoey has some… let’s just say… forthright views on a number of issues.

A life peer – that’s Baroness Hoey to you – and former Minister for Sport under Tony Blair, the Antrim-born politician is known for her pro-Brexit, anti-LGBT, anti-immigration, pro-hunting stances, as well as recently cosying up to the more extreme elements of anti-protocol Northern Irish loyalism.

Hoey is also, she’ll have you know, a great friend of cyclists – she once said she wants “more people cycling”, for the record – who often has a funny way of showing it.

Way back in 2003, Hoey arguably coined that persistently repeated phrase “law-breaking lycra louts” (the world owes a great debt to her there) in an article for the Daily Mail.

And a decade later she called for bikes to be registered and for cyclists to pay ‘road tax’, after the then-MP for Vauxhall was caught driving her Mini through a red light. What was that about law-breaking, Kate? Maybe she was wearing lycra at the time...

Well, dear readers, I regret to inform you that the Baroness is at it again..

In an interview with GB News this week – another great friend of cyclists everywhere – she said: “I think there is a very well-organised cycling lobby in this country that will always speak out for the cyclist.

“And I’m afraid that we need some really strong people speaking out for drivers because quite honestly it’s a nightmare these days for a driver, especially now they have changed the Highway Code.”

Won’t someone please think of the drivers?!

I have to say, the thought of shouty, red-faced motoring groups like the Alliance of British Drivers growing in strength makes me slightly queasy…

While the ABU partied in the streets (sitting in their illegally-parked cars of course) after Hoey’s comments, some weren’t as impressed:

https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-26-april-2022-292233#live-blog-item-33561