From the BBC website

Cycling fury at beheading 'joke'

Hundreds of people have complained to the press watchdog about a
newspaper column which they claimed encouraged the beheading of cyclists.

The Press Complaints Commission has had 200 objections to comments by
The Times columnist and former MP Matthew Parris.

Rhyl Cycling Club in Denbighshire, which lost four members in a crash
two years ago, accused him of being vicious and ignorant.

Mr Parris has now apologised for an article he said was meant to be funny.

In his column on 27 December, he wrote: "A festive custom we could do
worse than foster would be stringing piano wire across country lanes
to decapitate cyclists".


Under the headline "What's smug and deserves to be decapitated?" he
wrote of cyclists' "brutish disregard for all other road users".

He also said that "the lynching of a cyclist by a mob of mothers with
pushchairs would be a joy to witness".

A Press Complaints Commission (PCC) spokesman said: "We have probably
had about 200 complaints about it and we are currently in the process
of considering whether there are any issues under the code."

He said that, based on last year's figures, 200 protests would place
the article among the commission's three most complained-about stories.

The column prompted outrage at Rhyl Cycling Club, which lost four
members when a car skidded out of control in icy conditions near
Abergele on 8 January, 2006.

The four cyclists were killed almost two years ago

Thomas Harland, 14, Maurice Broadbent, 61, Dave Horrocks, 55, and
Wayne Wilkes, 42, died while on a practice ride.

Club president Bill Twigg said: "From a club that lost four cyclists,
anything that brings more conflict between cyclists and motorists is a
bad thing.

"If it wasn't for the first sentence, I could have dismissed the
article as bad journalism."

Mr Twigg accused Mr Parris of "vicious pig ignorance".

Roy Spilsbury, vice chair of CTC Cymru - the Welsh arm of the
Cyclists' Touring Club - said he was "closely associated" with the
deaths of the four Rhyl cyclists, and had written to the PCC to complain.

In his complaint, he wrote: "Less than two years ago four members of
Rhyl Cycling Club, ages ranging over three generations, were killed on
a public highway.


"Messages of sympathy arrived from the four corners of the world - and
the world's press reported the personal tragedies involved with
appropriate sensitivity.

"That Parris believes that such people should be beheaded beggars belief."

He added: "Parris and The Times editor must be held to account. If
necessary, through due process of law."

The article prompted dozen of complaints from Times readers, and the
newspaper has printed a response by triathlete Alison Steed, who said
she knew of fishing line being stretched across roads at head height.

She wrote: "What may seem a joke could end up killing someone - and
for what, because you don't like cyclists, or cycling?"

A spokeswoman for The Times said Mr Parris was out of the country.

But in his latest column, Mr Parris, who was a Conservative MP from
1979 - 86, wrote: "I offended many with my Christmas attack on cyclists.

"It was meant humorously but so many cyclists have taken it seriously
that I plainly misjudged. I am sorry."