Parris apologises

As I reveal on this BikeBiz.com story, the UK Press Complaints Commission has received 200+ complaints about the Matthew Parris garrot-a-cyclist joke.

Naturally, most of the complaints have been received in the last few days so the Parris article isn’t the most complained about feature in 2007…but had the complaints all arrived in December, the article would be the third most hated article of the year.

Parris has already apologised (”"I offended many with my attack on cyclists. It was meant humorously but so many cyclists have taken it seriously that I plainly misjudged. I am sorry.”) but should that stop the complaints? Exactly how much grovelling do we need to see before we collectively forgive Mr Parris?

Via The Times, I’ve invited him on a bike ride. A UK bike supplier will kit him out with a top-of-the-range bike and as much Lycra as he can stomach. Let’s see if he takes up the invite. As I said to the editor of The Times - who is a cyclist - I promise I won’t booby trap the route.