Hip hip hooray it's new parking rules day today!Under Nanny's overhaul of parking regulations, a new era of "remote enforcement" is being imposed upon her hapless subjects.
As from today, Nanny's "beloved" and "respected" local councils will be allowed to use CCTV cameras to detect parking offences.
Drivers will not even know that they have been caught until a letter arrives up to 14 days later, by which time they may be unable to gather evidence to defend themselves.
Guilty by default!
How nice that Nanny has been able to overturn centuries of British jurisprudence at the stroke of a pen, without the slightest whimper from anyone.
Have we all gone to sleep?
Cameras can be used only in areas where it is too "difficult or sensitive" for an attendant to operate, ie a fast-flowing road (are there any?) or a busy junction.
Nanny is even renaming the "Parking Attendants".
Can you guess what her new, "non sinister" "non Orwellian" name for them will be?
Civil Enforcement Officers!
I don't like that at all...give a little man a big title (and uniform) and he will act like a right git.
The Civil Enforcement Officers will be given powers to post tickets that they do not have time to finish writing before motorists drive off.
The AA quite rightly has noted that thousands of innocent drivers will receive penalties from attendants seeking an easy way to meet performance targets.
Nanny's councils make over £1BN out of this little scam (a surrogate council tax).
Some councils are planning to require simply that the attendant record the number plate and tax disc number, no evidence whatsoever will be required for a fine to be issued.
Rosie Winterton, the Transport Minister, said:
"Parking enforcement must be fair, clear, consistent and based on robust evidence. We want to increase public confidence in parking. Parking rules exist to help beat congestion and improve road safety.
With more than 30 million vehicles on Britain's roads, just one vehicle parked in the wrong place can cause traffic jams. It can also put other road users in danger."
I agree, unfortunately Nanny's local councils use parking fines to supplement their council tax take. Fines should not be issued by the same organ of the state that then utilises the revenue.
That principle was was worked out, and agreed upon, back in the 17th century; it would appear that Nanny is now seeking to abandon it.
Why not eliminate the need for officers and simply fine us all up front, given that in Nanny's Britain we are guilty until proven innocent?
Happy New Parking Rules Day!
Kerching!!....Nothing else needs to be said.
ReplyDeleteNanny will not be happy until all her mindless drone workers pay all their money to her and she gives them pocket money each week....Well, only if they've been good mindless drone workers....You will be assimilated; resistance is futile.
Another blow against free society. We must rebel against this tide of repressive legislation. I say refuse to pay, take the jobsworths to court, fight it all the way - I have done just that on many ocassions with the idiot council and won! Don't just piss and moan about it - fight them, tie them up in court, make the pencil squeezers sweat for the money, otherwise we might as well give up and just chuckle away on this site and others about how idiotic this country is becoming while we we are turned into little more than worker bees to be milked by the state.
ReplyDeleteNumber 6 states the truth yet again, "We must rebel against this tide of repressive legislation"
ReplyDeleteIf we don't who will?
I'm not suggesting for one moment that bloggers on this site necessarily represent some sort of elite, but almost everyday the responses we see show that we are an argumentative and critical bunch who, between us, usually manage to shoot down Nanny's increasingly idiotic ideas.
Why then do we confine ourselves to witty, erudite and scathing comment?
When do we say 'ENOUGH' and start to retaliate?
*I am, incidentally, still trying to get my head round No6s surreal image of Nanny milking a bee; 'though I suppose, in overall terms, bee-milking is no more futile than most of what Nanny orders.
Ms Winterton, if she actually said "Parking rules exist to help beat congestion and improve road safety." is either not thinking things through in relation to government policy or lying through her teeth.
ReplyDeleteEvery sngle action of trans
port policy and much of the taxation that they promote is about revenue generation and population control by social re-engineering. It has never had any connection with congestion reduction or safety, indeed for the former changes have at best been neutral though the majority have been deliberately negative.
As for safety, given our apparent pre-occupation with 'risk' these days, one might give them the benefit of the doubt BUT since they have no clue what they are talking about and merely pander to pressure groups (that they often at east part fund themselves). If she really wants to improve either of those things parking fines are not the tool of choice and indeed most 'fines' are likely to occur for 'infringements' - like overstaying by a few minutes in a designated parking area - which have no bearing at all on congestion or safety.
They lie, we are suckered once again.
I will begin to believe these messages ONLY if and when government ministers give up their limos and travel with their entourage on public transport paying their own fares without an option to claim them back on expenses.
Oh, and if a few of them learned to drive and so be in a position to have a valid opinion about the most often used form of transport I could be a little sympathetic to their philosophizing about how the rest of us should interpret our freedom to travel in a way we choose.
Grant
Grumpy,
ReplyDeleteEr, yes bee milking is just another one of nanny's 'inculsion' policies so that bees do not feel 'excluded' from the milk producing economy.
To fight back all I can say is join one of the parties that stand for freedom, be they UKIP or Liberterian party.
On a singular level, fight the bastards every inch of the way by refusing to obey their idiot diktats and challenging every action they take via the courts, use the 'uman rights act against then whenever possible but just don't let the bastards get away with enforcing any of their idiot 'laws.'
Rebel, someone says. You organise it and I'll be there.
ReplyDeleteMine's a Barrett Light .50 and a thousand rounds of Raufoss.
Cheers.
I agree Grumpy although I find on most days an obvious and simple counter-action comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw today: "The AA quite rightly has noted that ..." it reminded me that the RAC seldom attack such anti-motorist schemes (although I would prefer a more active verb than 'to note' / pen push).
Solution: I never choose the RAC.
BA / BAA may decide it's convenient for them to fingerprint customers to make their airport design simpler.
Solution: Don't fly with BA.
Charities may work hard to wrap lamp posts with padding so that people don't have to look where they're walking.
Solution: They don't get my donations.
Next week TVLA Enforcement Officers will hit me with their usual threats-and-intimidation campaign.
Solution: Throw their letter in the bin and ensure I don't do anything that helps them earn their monthly-harassment bonus.
I could go on but hopefully you get the idea.
However, standing back from it all, it's important to realise that this state and its nannyism hasn't come about by accident or pure bad luck.
People have consistently voted for this government and the concomitant life style for some years now. It's a combination of democracy and the Law of Cause and Effect. We're seeing the inevitable effects.
That combination is difficult to overturn at the citizen's level - short of open revolution, but I'm absolutely convinced that any philosophy or regime that's blatantly unjust, unsustainable and unnatural (what the ancient Taoists referred to as: "the scourge of artificial goodness and fairness") eventually fails with painful consequences.
Yes; there are actions that can, and should, be taken here and now. However, with the writing on the wall, my efforts are focused primarily on where we'll be in two or three years' time, and how I limit my exposure to the painful consequences.