Tories Candid Cameras article in DT

[Flat in Fifth]

Good rant in the Daily T.

Can't post a link as you have to register. Registration is free though.

Go to www.telegraph.co.uk and there is a link way down in opinions section.

To give you a hint it starts

Daily Telegraph said:

Tories right to be candid about speed cameras Pity the poor British motorist. Every day, it seems, a new offence is dreamt up to trap him while he's driving too quickly or in the wrong zone, or parking in the wrong place. The Tories are quite right to attack this "war on drivers" and, in particular, the "cash-guzzling" cameras, to borrow from their simple, catchy phrasing. The latest government scam is to charge the motorist £100 every time he parks in a London bicycle lane. And what happens in London is bound to hit the rest of the country......

[Pigeon]

I think it's perfectly proper for people to be fined for parking in a bicycle lane, since they block it completely and force the cyclist out into the flow of traffic. If you parked in such a way as to completely block the part of the road designated for cars, you'd be fined sure enough...

[WildCat]

Was a very fine comment overall. The best bits ...


... the comment - "No doubt at all that too many cameras are there purely to raise revenue"

Plus

[quote=Daily Telegraph]

The Tories are more than justified in calling for an increased motorway speed limit to 80 mph[/]


....
and the final sentence concluding that the safety benefits from draconian law enforcement by technological gadgetry has been badly skewed for too long!

Made very pleasant reading - after the Independent garbage- Grrrrr!

and the Express proclaiming that super cam which never runs out of film, can monitor all six lanes of a motorway at once and can track you for up to two miles!

[Flat in Fifth]

The full rant is now in the DT archives so here it is:-

Daily Telegraph Opinion said:

Tories right to be candid about speed cameras (Filed: 04/08/2004) Pity the poor British motorist. Every day, it seems, a new offence is dreamt up to trap him while he's driving too quickly or in the wrong zone, or parking in the wrong place. The Tories are quite right to attack this "war on drivers" and, in particular, the "cash-guzzling" cameras, to borrow from their simple, catchy phrasing. The latest government scam is to charge the motorist £100 every time he parks in a London bicycle lane. And what happens in London is bound to hit the rest of the country. That is what has happened with the cameras used to crack down on bus-lane infringements. So far, the cameras have been restricted to London. They're now going to be switched on across the country, with a £150 fine for any private driver using a restricted bus lane, even if he just nips across it to turn left. This comes on top of the newly introduced £100 fines for yellow box misuse; and the greatest transport cash cow - the speed camera. Since they were introduced in 1992, these horrible things have brought in millions to the Treasury (£15 million last year alone) with millions more going to the 42 safety camera partnerships that administer them. Cameras are clearly revenue-raising devices, despite denials to the contrary by the likes of Richard Brunstrom, the head of North Wales police, whose force kept £1.7 million out of the £2.6 million raised by cameras in 2002. It is not at all convincing that they are any good at raising safety standards either. Most of us have braked suddenly when we see the little white dashes in the middle of the lane and the evil yellow box lurking in the central reservation. That sort of sudden braking is much more dangerous than barrelling along an empty motorway at a reasonable 80mph. Durham's chief constable, Paul Garvin, acknowledged this, when he refused to install speed cameras because they did not work; and Durham has 34 per cent fewer road accidents than the national average. Accidents, according to Mr Garvin, are almost always caused by other factors, especially drink-driving or drug-driving. And cameras, however devilish their technology, are still not as effective as traffic police at testing drivers for drink or drugs. So the Tories are right to suggest auditing all 5,000 speed cameras. The Government should tear down the vast majority of them - those that are not positioned at accident black spots, but at places where motorists are safe to break the speed limit by a few miles per hour. Those places are often the long straights of motorways; places that the Tories are again justified in opening up to a new speed limit of 80mph. The Government can always maintain that lower speeds mean fewer deaths and, of course, in absolute terms, they are right. If no car could go above three miles an hour, there would be very few road deaths; there wouldn't be much of a transport system either, though. The balance between Draconian electronic policing and smooth-running roads has been skewed for too long.

edited to add

Tom Utley also has another excellent if extremely restrained rant about Parking in "Wandsworth the Brighter Borough Today"

Actually just noticed another, follow the link in the top of the thread, login / register free and do a search on "Speed cameras can't read my thoughts"
By Harry Mount.

one ace quote "Speeding charges are dropped only in exceptional circumstances. Like if you're driving the Home Secretary to a speaking engagement in Exeter."




>> Edited by Flat in Fifth on Friday 6th August 11:26

[bryan35]

The tories have aready got my vote.
I don't even know what the rest of their policies are, but generally they are quite god with tax (affects my directly) and they are going to sort out this motorist victimisation b**l***s. Ignor the tree huggers, good stuff.
I think there's going to be a big awakening at the next election.