Afternoon:
15°c
Lembit Opik rolls in with a cheeky little green crusade
Evening Standard09.09.08
MP Lembit Opik was once again at the centre of attention outside Parliament today - but without a Cheeky Girl in sight.
Instead the Lib-Dem took to the roads illegally on, or in, a Segway Personal Transporter as a publicity stunt for the machines.
He is backing calls to make them legal on British streets.
Mr Opik travelled from Westminster's College Green to the Department for Transport accompanied by Conservative peers Earl Attlee and Earl Liverpool, as well as other users who claim the Segway should be allowed to be used on public highways.
It is the latest unusual cause to be championed by Mr Opik. Previously he had campaigned for monitoring of giant meteorites heading towards earth.
Segways are virtually silent, create no emissions and can be charged up in less than eight hours from a wall socket.
Computers and gyroscopic technology mean that riders can balance on the machine's two wheels.
Mr Opik said: "The British Government seems paralysed with indecision. On the one hand, they say that the Segway PT isn't legal. On the other hand, they are unable to point to a single scrap of evidence in British law to show why it should be banned."
Labour's MP for Ealing North, Steve Pound, also supports the campaign. He said: "With high fuel prices, growing road congestion and the increasing threat from rising carbon emissions, the UK can ill afford to ignore new modes of transport offering a solution to these problems."
