Thanks guys, it's nice to have positive feedback.

I think people are probably right, he was looking for me to give way. It's such a common courtesy in the UK, that people get angry if you don't do it. However, there was no traffic behind me, so car or bike, I wouldn't have given way as he would be able to complete his turn as soon as I'd passed Moreover, I'd moved into the centre lane to pass a bus: I wasn't go to wait so the bus would pass me again, leaving me awkwardly in the middle of the road with a double decker between me an the curb and having to move back behind it to chew diesel fumes for another 2 km.

Of course, there wasn't going to be a collision. I ride assertively, but if it came down to it, I'd have given him ROW on the "might is right" principal.

If there had been cars behind me, I still wouldn't have stopped on the bike. The drivers behind me would not have perceived me as courteously allow another driver in, but as a bicycle in the wrong lane holding up traffic. But if there'd been traffic in that lane, I would have stayed behind the bus.

joan

p.s. it's hard to describe this without using "right" and "left" lanes, but as we drive on the left in the UK, that would have confused things.