Disappointed by @NorthantsPolice this morning. I am not a huge fan of e-scooters but seeing the zeal of this pair picking on this lad this morning, has made my mind up about them. The scooters, that is. A little thread... @CHAIRRDRF

This is all about context, team. This junction’s right outside a school. That’s a toucan crossing, heavily used at this time of the morning. Those are Zig Zag lines, and that is a Police car parked not only on them, but obstructing the footway. Blue lights on. It must be serious.

We cannot elicit such immediate and urgent Police support, to deal with the parents abandoning their cars the other side of the junction. In fact, the PCSO said it’s all fine. I’ve never seen anyone being pulled over for breaking the 20mph limit on the racetrack past the school.

See the park there? Officers eventually came to deal with with our report (with film) of people vandalising a horse chestnut tree and abusing us for asking them to desist, but couldn’t be bothered to go after them, ambled back to their car and drove off in the other direction.

It’s a known location for drug dealing and ASB, a problem Police admit they’ve moved off the council estate up the road. Uniformed presence there is, however, scarce. But an e-scooter shows up and changes the whole tenor of things.

It’s all against this context that, like shouting ‘SQUIRREL’ to a toddler, PCs nationwide seem to be excited about catching themselves an e-scooter rider. We’ve seen tweets, including with a trophy scooter atop a flatbed lorry. It’s become a cause célèbre, cheap to look hot on.

I’m really not all that fussed about e-scooters as a mode of transport. I’ve signed up for the Northampton trial out of curiosity but not actually ridden one yet. It’s not my thing. I don’t really want them on footways, but this guy was on a designated cycle route.

He could’ve been driving a(nother) car, instead. What poses the greatest latent risk? What’s worse - for congestion, pollution, and road safety? I find it hard to have a downer on the e-scooter, even if instinctively I feel it’s not for me.

I would also rather not have police transfixed by this matter, ruthlessly pursuing naughty e-scooter riders at the expense of more significant crime. It’s a diversion.

In any event, if, as I suspect, someone has reported this guy’s daily commute as intelligence, why didn’t the officers park somewhere sensible, take a walk, and stop him on foot, at the toucan crossing? Why all the blue lights, otherwise illegal parking and hubris?

Even if it was a chance stop, it’s the proportionality that gets me. In a community, at a location, where dangerous motoring offences are rife, two officers and a car, are engaged nicking a guy on a scooter posing limited risk, obstructing a toucan crossing and footway to do so.

Meanwhile, when it comes to other offences, police forces demonstrate that they exercise considerable discretion, from dodging mask enforcement to telling cyclists off for swearing when someone punches them. This push on e-scooters feels like playing for the crowd. Soft target.

Maybe if I also saw the parents in cars speeding, texting whilst driving, driving on footways, parking across junctions and on yellow lines every day, being pursued with the same zeal as that young lad on his scooter, I’d consider it more proportionate. But I don’t.

For those who don’t care much for scooters, this is not a case of ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’. Rather, it’s the thin end of a wedge. This is something for people who are ‘anti’ active travel, to hang their hats on. It’s becoming almost a proxy campaign against non-car travel.

Where I had no strong opinion, what I’ve seen today leaves me hoping e-scooters are legalised, reasonably, and soon. Not because I like them, but because I don’t like what the current situation is inviting others to do.

Focus on harm.

Priorities and proportion.

Please!