Historic vehicles to be redefined

You're probably not aware, but.... actually..... American statists, collectivists, and lie-beral greenieweenies (whose REAL agenda isn't anything to do with pollution or GW mitigation, but rather LIFESTYLE CONTROL) actually propose that the US adopt the EU's "enlightened" bovine scatology. You don't have to be IN the EU, to be affected by its anti-human rights power grabs.

i've been reading this thread with a slightly heavy heart, i've always suspected the historic class couldn't last forever, but I always suspected i'd just end up paying road tax on my old 63 landy, rather than having my enjoyment limited by milage/permission etc

lets get this thread back on a positive tilt, for anything to get exposure, it needs to have a decent hook line, lets have suggestions for a campaign.....

keep britains classic cars free range ?

as you can see, I need some help!

#edit. we all know online petitions etc do naff all, so is this a chance for retrorides to team up with ace advice/magazines to put a "campaign" into motion, eg, a spin off website, window stickers to raise awareness

to be honest, neither do i!

With a little effort and some humour, it might just pick up it's own momentum..

i should be in middle management with all the delegating i'm about to do...

some witty soul needs to come up with a short sweet and catchy slogan

some web dude needs to register a suitable domain and set up a simple page with a summary of the threat posed, and a plan of individual action (first thought is a link to theyworkforyou and a template for a letter to your MP stating your concerns about affect on vehicle value, loss of hobby, restriction on freedom of choice and travel, increased costs to the tax payer to enforce etc)

some arty talent needs to design a nice window sticker

some sticker making dude needs to knock out a few hundred for purchase by retroriders, and list a few on ebay

we all buya few and put them on all our cars

some retro riders with suitable vehicles get the cardboard masking tape and spraycans out to put a larger message on their cars

we keep it positive so that retrorides, ace advice, mr sticker and most importantly those people that choose to carry the message are not painted as...tax dodgers/lunatics etc etc and gain only good publicity

area 52 is probably the best possible example of what an interest in older and interesting vehicles can do in "the big society" (god i hate that phrase!!!) as in bringing together like minded people from all walks of life to participate in something bigger than it's individual parts, exchange skills and all without the need for someone to be making money off the back of it, and this is reflected in differing ways by all the other workshop collectives, and finally by this well managed board.


world domination

Over at ACE we have been trying to build this kind of movement for the past seven years.
It has moved on form us being called Scaremongers and Jerimiahs to a slow realistaion by people that the 'Iceberg' is out there and we are all heading towards it.

The problem we have had is that there just has not been enough people who want to put a hand on the pumps and get involved.
We have had some sucess with the press.
The articles that Kev did for CC are a good case in point, but the 'Industry' have been conspicuous by their silence.
The problem is that, when you have the few guys on the Admin team banging on about this on forums and doing press releases when we have something to say you get peaks of momentum and then it just fades away again.
If a campaign is to be mounted it really needs bodies, and that is what we are short of at the moment.
The commitment is not lacking from us on the team, it's just the number of people that are required to build a 'Movement' that would get listened to.

I'm glad that people are getting 'Interested' but we need to turn that interest into action.

If anyone wants to get involved please pm myself or Kev (Aceadvice), we'd love to talk to you.

Cheers

Steve Wallace
The ACE Admin Team.

Seeing as this will also hit all the mods and rockers, it might be worth getting them in on the act

(imagine tens of thousands of bikers decending onto whitehall to show their frustration)

I'm soooo glad to see that the FHBVC are supporting all of us in this and that all the classic car/modded car mags have been onto this for ages, supporting the views of their readership. </sarcasm>

OK enough of a dig at the establishment - so we now have the proposal, so what can we do about it in reality? We can converge on Westminster - but that isn't going to do anything except raise revenue for the congestion charge. Protests just p1ss off those who aren't directly affected and petitions are as useful as chocolate tea pots.

Who is voting on this? And did we vote for them? The FHBVC haven't supported my views for some time, yet there isn't an alternative currently (how are they funded exactly?) - and most of the members of the bread-and-butter classic car clubs will be opposed to this assertation that we only drive our cars a limited number of miles... idiots.

So thats the question - what can we do to stop it?

That's the big question...
How do you build a 'mass' movement from the ground up.
the foundations have been laid with ACE, we have many contacts with various other bodies who are woking withiin this field, particularly ETO who are one of the biggest.
We have direct lines to VOSA and DVLA (As shown by their responses to our questions on monocoque and chassis mods), that llevel of respect is very hard to earn.
What needs to be done now is to get the word out much more widely.
This is where other prople come in, we can carry on with what we do best, which is the liason with the relevant parties and sifting the FACTS from the RUMOR and ensuring that informaion gets to magazines and out to the general enthusiast, but there just are not enough hours in the dayy to deal with getting the message out generally to the people who make the rules.
People like Phillip Hammond, the Transport minister and local M(E)P's need to be made aware of (Y)our concerns.
We have been in contact with Mr Hammond and his predecessor Lord Adonis, but we are one voice and the one that they would 'Expect' to hear from.
They take more notice of a large number of voices.
Put together a letter to them, make it constructive and let them know how worrying this process is, don't just shout and b*llock, explain things.
Tell them how it affects you and how it affects the hobby in general.
Write to the editors of the mags you read and ask them if they are aware of the impending legislation and try to get them on board.
The 'movement' can only be built from the ground up, don't sit back and just congratulate other people for doing things or say 'Someone shoud so something, get involved.
The more people who are involved, the more the 'Powers' are forced to listen.
We may not get the process stopped, but we can certainly get our concerns considered.
SVA/BIVA only came about because people campaigned to get modifications to the original Type Approval regs back in the late seventies (Yup, it's been going on that long). ;D which, if they had gone through, would have included a crash test as part of the regs.
We didn't get the process stopped, but we got a 'framework' where the hobby could continue.

I think you're well past the "I'm a tad worried" phase over there.

To be effective POLITICALLY (as opposed to effective in the "inside cricket" liason niceties - to borrow a baseball expression), you need to absolutely go on jihad. Smart, organized, and above all - scrupulously legal - jihad.

ACE can play "good cop", that's one prong of Norm's "Two Prong Strategy". ACE should continue liasing, continue the low-key backroom chatter, continue hushed technical conversation with bureaucrats. That's all necessary and good stuff, and essential to the overall strategy. Join ACE and support its goals in this regard.

Now then, "Prong Two": Flipping meltdown, righteous indignation. Not constructive to bridge-building or Kumbaya songsinging. Not willing to compromise. Not willing to brook any impingement on personal mobility or personal property rights. Was Winston "constructive" with Herr Goering's Heinkels? No, he was not. You shouldn't be either.

I would love nothing more than to be at the epicenter of the ensuing shitstorm. But that's how POLITICS works. Oh, the horror of it all: POLITICS. But POLITICS is in your everyday lives anyway: your marriages, your jobs, your council policies, your formal education, blibber-blabber. So, get over it. Or lose your rights.

You will not succeed quietly and meekly. You will be slaughtered POLITICALLY if you try that tack.

You want to win? or you want to lose?

I'm not at all clued up on the human rights act BUT,,,isent this going against OUR human rights? The right to choose what you travel in,when you travel.
Would be nice to put together a big movement who all chipped in for legal represantion at the human rights court.
I'm no leader,i havent even a gcse.But in my simple small brain thats the way to go.Play them at they`re own game.