http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18840110
I have responded to this to point out that statistics do no support the argument that speed is the cause of accidents- sleep deprivation, drink, drugs, inexperience, poor road layout, lack of separation between cars and cycles, no footpaths, etc etc are causes of accidents. Recently there have been several reported cases of people driving down the wrong lane/ direction on purpose or by accident. Some of the roads with highest casualties are used by European immigrants / US service people etc who are not familiar with our roads. Before they take such drastic steps on rural roads they need to consider the condition of highways, painting white lines on the edge of roads, repairs, hedge cutting etc and analyse the cause. Logically if we all go at 20mph there will be far fewer serious accidents but we can see (even government) that it does not make sense.
Do people observe 30mph in built up areas with school kids waiting on the road side when i travel in the morning? Many do not, and while i enjoy making progress when conditions are suitable it makes me angry when i see cars going 40mph plus in small villages with kids, bikes, etc on the edge of the road so how about focussing on what matters- speed appropriate to conditions which can change with traffic load, time of day, weather conditions and so on?

I wonder who is going to enforce these wonderful new limits? There are barely any police on the roads and speed cameras are easily avoided with a modern sat nav system.

I live in an area that has a few 20mph zones dotted around at random , these are universally ignored except at school in/out times on a weekday. Those times the speed was rarely above 15mph anyway due to the inconsiderate parking around the schools.

Plenty of other areas around my way are 30mph zones that you cannot go above 15-20mph anyway due to the gigantic poorly maintained speed humps.

I thought the country was in the st with no money left to do anything and cutbacks galore, if this is truly the case can't we just leave things alone for a few years until we can afford to do it properly?

This is insane, it'd turn a harmless Sunday afternoon braap around the hills into a potential license loser. Or a actually going somewhere on a normal road in a safe and consistent manner into a license loser. 40mph national speed limit, WTF?

I give up. I really do. Safer cars, shorter stopping distances, better tyres and brakes yet further reduced speed limits....

As ever I feel like the focus on speed is all wrong and it's really more about driver education.

If people aren't expecting tractors or cows or whatever I think the answer isn't to tell them that they should be doing 60 instead of 70 the whole way round.

Look at these editors pick comments on the BBC site. Too many people now think sensible driving is measured soley in how fast people drive. This to my mind is the real problem.

I have already written to my MP protesting about this proposal. I think if we all do this and an orchestrated campaign we just might win the day.

I agree...opposition to this must get further than this forum. There is an e-petition on the HM Government direct-gov website already;

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/36145

this or a similar petition needs to get signed by as many Pistonheads members as possible.

The alternative is allowing only road-safety campaigners and nincompoop luddites from the Campaign to Preserve Rural England to excercise any political leverage on the consultation process.

If this became law we'd be stuck with a system that put 3-6 points on your license for going 60 on your favourite B road and potentially banned you for going 70.

Just signed but there are still only 24 signatures - PHers are you there?

I just advised the ABD of the petition. They will circulate to their members.

The reason is simple, we elect people to represent our nation and when we actually petition to shout at them how we want the nation ran, they ignore it and do whatever the most suited agenda require them too, so people got tired of putting names on a list which is ignored.