Ker Farking Ching - The Great Speed Course Con

Last Friday I wrote that police have more than doubled the amount they collect from running speed awareness courses since 2010.

It also appears that police are so keen to sell these courses, that they are conning motorists by failing to make clear how drivers could inadvertently leave themselves uninsured by taking part in them.

The Telegraph reports that insurers have admitted they treat speed awareness courses the same as penalty points, and it is now feared that failing to declare taking part in course could invalidate drivers' policies.

The courses, which cost between £80 and £150, allow drivers to avoid penalty points on their licences. However, campaigners claim that this lulls many motorists into a false sense of security that they do not have to declare the course to insurers, in the hope their premiums will not rocket for a speeding-related offence.

However, insurers usually operate a “catch all” clause in their policies about keeping them informed about factors which may affect your driving, and failing to declare a course could lead them to cancel cover in the event of an accident, experts said.

Ian Belchamber, a campaigner who runs an anti-speed camera campaign in Dorset, said:

“The police’s actions are potentially resulting in people driving uninsured because they haven’t told motorists to tell their insurers about the speed awareness course. 

I would make sure your insurer knows you’ve been on a course regardless of whether they specifically ask for that information. 

If you are involved in an accident and the insurer looks into your history and sees you’ve been on a speeding course they could say ‘You didn’t tell us about this, you’re not covered’.

The police don’t want people to know this because they make a lot of money out of the courses.”

The Telegraph can confirm that two companies set up with close links to the now-defunct Association of Chief Police Officers are now entwined with the organisation’s successor, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC).

An NPCC spokesman said Suzette Davenport, the chief constable of Gloucestershire Police, sits on the board of the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS), which registered a £44 million turnover last year for providing safety awareness courses.

A director of NDORS is Meredydd Hughes, the former chief constable of South Yorkshire, who was responsible for road policing at Acpo until he was caught speeding at 90mph in a 60mph zone in 2007, and stepped down from the role.

He is also a director of another company in the sector, Road Safety Support.

Ker Farking Ching!

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Ker Farking Ching - Speed Awareness Courses Fund The Police

Following on from yesterday's article about Bedfordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner (Olly Martins) wanting all drivers who travel at more than 70 miles per hour to be fined in order to raise money for the police, the Telegraph reports that police have more than doubled the amount they collect from running speed awareness courses since 2010, despite a warning from ministers to stop raising revenue from speeding offences.

While the money collected from speeding fines goes to the Treasury, police forces are able to keep what they charge for running speed awareness courses, around £100 a time.

The vast majority of motorists prefer this option over a fine, because they avoid having points added to their licence and thereby keep their insurance premiums down.

In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the number of people attending such courses, as forces across the country recognise the financial benefits. In 2010 the number of people attending National Speed Awareness courses was 447,724, but by last year that figure had more than doubled to 1.19 million.

Ker Farking Ching!

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Ker Farking Ching - Speeding Fines Used To Raise Revenue

As loyal readers know, Nanny and her chums love to use fines as means of raising revenues.

Hence it should come as no surprise at all to learn that Nanny's chum, in the form of Bedfordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner (Olly Martins), wants all drivers who travel at more than 70 miles per hour to be fined.

Olly proposes turning on speed cameras permanently across stretches of the M1 motorway network, catching everyone who exceeded the limit.

Motorists would then be forced to pay a £100 fine as well as having points added to their licence, or could opt instead to attend a speed awareness course, costing £90.

Is this concern about speeding driven (pardon the pun) by a desire to improve road safety?

Is it fark! 

It is in fact being used as a means of raising millions of pounds in revenue for the police.

Olly is quoted by the Telegraph: 

“If motorists do not like it then they can always stick to the speed limit.”

The catch all phrase of those who are blind to reality, and who use the law to drive their own personal agendas.

Olly claims that he had been forced into suggesting the scheme, because his force was at financial breaking point and fining speeding drivers could help Bedfordshire retain 25 officers it would otherwise be forced to lose.

It will raise £1M!

When the police, council or government use fines as a means of raising revenue to pay for themselves the concept of impartial law enforcement, innocent until proven guilty and commonsense fairness is thrown out of the window.

The police will now be incentivised to use other means of raising revenue, and for new laws to to be passed that people can break and be fined for!

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Monday Chuckle - The Joy of Speed Guns

Start the week with a laugh (click the picture to see full sized image).

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Fontastic News For Huhne

On the subject of speeding, if only Huhne had been aware of this gemusing debacle by Nanny he might have not had to lie his arse off.

My funny bone was severely tickled by the announcement by the Crown Prosecution Service that speed signs on sections of the M42 had been breaking Nanny's rules about speed signs for the last six years.

It seems that the font was wrong and that the signs (erected - can I say "erected" before the watershed? - by Nanny's Highways Agency) showed mph numbers taller and narrower than they should have been, failing to comply with Nanny's own traffic regulations.

Needless to say lawyers now want any penalties which were handed out over the course of the six years the signs were in place to be quashed, arguing they are not legally enforceable.

Police have stopped using the signs as a means of enforcement and dropped prosecutions it was intending to pursue on the stretches of road affected. However, before they stopped prosecuting speeders (or rather "alleged" speeders) at least 11,000 motorists had already received fines and convictions since the first of the signs went into operation in 2006. 

 

Funnily enough Nanny's Highways Agency said it was first made aware of concerns about three years ago but believed they did conform to the regulations; ie Nanny ignored the fact that she was breaking Nanny's own rules!

 

Why would that be?

 

Ker Farking Ching!

 

Anyhoo, if anyone is reading this in Huhne's cell block please pass him a copy of this article.

 

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Speed

I am gemused to see the all too predictable reaction from the anti speed lobby, to government plans to increase the speed limit on motorways from 70mph to 80mph.

Seemingly, if the anti speed lobby is to be believed, when this happens we will enter a nightmare world of carnage, death and mutilation on Britain's motorways.

OK, here in simple terms is why the anti speed lobby are wrong:

1 It's not speed per se that kills, it's bad driving.

2 People die and are injured in accidents on the road, even when the car is travelling at under 30mph.

3 So long as there is good visibility, a safe road surface, a safe distance between cars, alert drivers, roadworthy cars etc then the speed of the car is pretty well immaterial to its ability to stop safely in the event of an oncoming visible hazard.

It's not speed that kills, it's bad driving!

So enough of this nonsense, and let people drive on the motorways unfettered by speed restrictions (in times of clement weather and good visibility).

Prosecute those who tailgate.

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Speed

I am gemused to read that, according to statistics published by Nanny's Department for Transport, many speed cameras have not cut accident rates, but may even have increased them.

Our local councils, proving once again that they are the enemies of the people, have been a tad reluctant to publish the full data on each speed camera in their area.

Why?

Cos they make a nice fat little profit out of fining those who "speed".

However, the government has told them to all publish the data, as motorists have a right to know whether local speed cameras are justified. Needless to say, the councils will ignore this request.

Here are a couple of examples:

A speed camera was erected (ooh there's that word again!) on the A329 in Little Milton in 1997 (despite there being no collisions or casualties for five years).

Over the next five years there were five collisions and ten casualties.

A camera was installed on the A1134 Newmarket Road in Cambridgeshire in 1997 following five minor casualties.

In 2010, when 1,027 drivers were caught breaking the 30mph speed limit, there were seven injuries, two of them serious.

As noted, councils are the enemies of the people!

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Royston's Big Brother

I am somewhat disturbed to learn that Royston, a town in Hertfordshire with a population of 15,000, has installed sets of police cameras on every road leading in and out of the town which record the numberplates of every vehicle that passes them.

The system then checks the plates against a variety of databases, studying them for links to crimes, and insurance and tax records, and alerting police accordingly.

Is Royston such a dangerous place?

Ermm..no it isn't..there were in fact only 7 incidents of vehicle crime in the town the other month.

Details of the cars' movements will stay on police records for 2 years, or 5 if the car is connected to a crime.

Why does Nanny need to keep details of a non criminal car's movements on her systems for 2 years?

Who has access to this data?

Will we see details sold on the the media (as seems to be the norm these days)?

As we saw in the recent riots the police seem to like to use CCTV for "post crime" clean up, rather than crime prevention. One has to ask, how do these things really make people feel any safer?

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Prats of The Week - Warwickshire Police

Ooh err missus, it has been a wee while since I have awarded my prestigious and internationally renowned Prats of The Week Award.

Time therefore to get awarding!

This week it goes to Warwickshire Police.

For why?

Well my old muckers, they recently had an "initiative" to bring in some extra manpower to help them run speed traps.

Who did they bring in?

Why, Boy Scouts of course!

Yes, you did read that correctly, the police used the services of 1st Shipston Scout pack (aged 10-14) to help them catch speeding motorists.

The Scouts spent a day in January using a laser speed gun with three police officers and three police community support officers, on duty at the traps at Shipston-on-Stour Warwickshire.

The 24 motorists caught by the Scouts were offered the choice of accepting a verbal and written warning about their actions, both delivered by the Scouts, or the standard punishment of a £60 fixed penalty and three points on their licence.

Is it me, or is there something decidedly creepy and unpleasant about granting a child the right to admonish an adult in this manner (shades of 1984 and "thought crime" accusations leveled by children against their parents spring to mind)?

The most "amusing" part of this whole scheme was the response by a spokesman for Warwickshire Police to media enquiries.

For reasons that only Nanny can explain, the key issue as viewed from the perspective of the police seems to be the fact that those who took part wore "high viz" jackets (over to you on that one Tonk:)).

The spokesman said that all those involved wore high-visibility jackets, and the speed checks took place on roads offering 'clear visibility' to drivers and those taking part.

So that's OK then!

Well, I suppose as the Scouts already have their own uniforms it is (in Nanny's eyes at least) just one simple step to drafting them into the police.

Warwickshire Police, well deserving Prats of The Week!

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Prats of The Week - CPS

Goodness me, the week is almost over and I have yet to award one of my prestigious and internationally renowned "Prats of The Week" Awards.

This week it goes (somewhat belatedly, as the story is a tad past its prime) to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

For why?

Ask Michael Thompson, who was recently prosecuted at the behest of the CPS.

What did he do?

Way back in July 2010 he was driving through a police speed trap in the Grimsby area, and flashed his headlights to warn fellow knights of the road about a mobile police speed gun.

The police flagged him down and charged him, peding CPS approval.

Note, he wasn't prosecuted by the CPS for speeding but for warning other motorists.

Nanny's chums at Grimsby Magistrates' Court have fined Mr Thompson £175 plus £250 costs plus a £15 "victim" surcharge ("victim"? what "victim"??), on the basis that he was wilfully obstructing a police officer in the course of her duties.

Mr Thompson is of the view that it was his civic duty to warn others.

Here's my view, the CPS and police are fooling no one with this prosecution. The theoretical purpose of speed traps etc is to ensure that motorists adhere to the speed limit.

Therefore if motorists know that there is a speed trap they will slow down, thus ensuring they keep to the speed limit and satisfying the alleged purpose of the speed trap.

However, the reality is that speed cameras and traps are a nice little earner for the state and local police forces (cameras have raised £100M in fines since they were introduced in the 90's). The reason for the prosecution was that Nanny was furious that one of her ways of making money out of us was thwarted.

Ker farking ching!

Mr Thompson should be praised for his actions!

The CPS, well deserving Prats of The Week!

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The Joy of CCTV - Ker Farking Ching!

I see that a new speed camera, amusingly called Asset (advanced safety and driver support for essential road transport), may be deployed in the UK.

Asset, aside from being able to spot speeding drivers, will also spot those who are not wearing seatbelts and measure distances between moving cars to identify tailgating.

The development of Asset is being funded by the European commission, and is currently being tested in Finland.

Deployment across all of Europe (including our "island haven") is expected to be complete by 2013.

The question is, will Nanny and her "beloved" local authorities be able to resist using this camera as a means to fill her much depleted coffers?

Ker Farking Ching!

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I Feel The Need For Speed!

I see that Nanny is about to cut the national speed limit from 60mph to 50mph, in her view this will reduce the number of deaths on the roads.

As her Roads Minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, said:

"..we are killing 3,000 people a year on our roads, it would be irresponsible not to do something about it...."

Well I wonder precisely who the "we" are that he refers to?

Doesn't he get the point that "responsibility" comes from the individual, and should not be imposed by the state?

Anyhoo, as to whether these 3,000 corpses a year are as a result of someone doing 60 on clear sunny day on an open road, or some prat doing 50 on a fog bound lane 1 metre away from someone's exhaust pipe remains a mystery that Nanny will not enlighten us about.

I am sure that by cutting the speed limit to 50, the 3,000 deaths per annum will magically stop!

That aside, here is rather an interesting factoid about Nanny's plans. Nanny will change the speed limit, but will not change the signs (a white circle with a black stripe).

Why would this be a problem?

Well, you see, local councils can if they wish apply to keep the speed limit at 60. Thus leaving the motorist a tad confused.

The good news for Nanny though is she will use this change to erect (can I say erect at this time of day?) more speed cameras, with a view to catching all who flout her new rules. Those who are caught will of course, kerrching!!, have to pay a fine.

A nice little earner by anyone's standards!

By the way, in case any of you are thinking that I am griping over this because it means I can't drive my sports cars at 60 down country lanes anymore, fear not.

I haven't driven since 1996, and do not own a car!

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The Dangers of Ladders

The Health and Safety Gestapo are at it again, pass the sick bag!

This time they have decreed that anyone on Nanny's payroll who intends to mount (can I say mount?) a ladder, needs approved ladder training.

Fair enough I suppose, if we are talking high ladders. However, the Gestapo have decreed that you need training even when the ladder is a mere 3 feet (or is it foot?) off the ground.

Failure to comply with this edict results in a fine of £5K.

There is a small irony here though, what sort of ladder only goes up 3 feet? The ladder used to install roadside speed indicators....

Lancashire County Council made an attempt to improve road safety, by installing electronic speed indicators which shame drivers into slowing down.

Thirty of the devices lie waiting to be put up on their roadside poles, but the council has found that it does not have enough staff qualified to go up ladders to install them.

Health and Safety Executive’s Working at Height Regulations 2005 (amended 2007) have been used by Nanny to stop Nanny putting up more speed indicators. Last year about 350 road deaths were ascribed to speeding. In the same period 14 people died after falling off ladders.

Lancashire used to have three roadside speed indicators, which were erected (can I say erected?) and maintained by the police. Policemen are qualified to go up ladders, but they are not qualified to teach other people how to do so. Now the police have decided that they are too busy to look after them.

Hah!

Nanny has hoisted herself on her own petard!

A Nice Little Earner

Aha now we know why Nanny is so keen on speed cameras.

Not for our safety...it's the money stupid!

It seems that the Treasury took more than £15M from the fines paid by drivers caught by speed cameras in England and Wales in 2005/2006.

Government spokesman in the House of Lords, Lord Bassam, said receipts from fines totalled more than £114.6M.

Some £99.5M of that was "directly attributed to the prevention, detection and enforcement of offences".

The surplus?

Guess where that went?

To the Treasury.

Lord Bassam says that the "sole purpose of speed cameras is casualty reduction".

BOLLOCKS!

Sleepwalking To Dictatorship

I am pleased to see that I am not the only person in this country who worries that we are sleepwalking to dictatorship.

Deputy chief constable of Hampshire, Ian Readhead, recently told the BBC's "Politics Show" that Britain could become a surveillance society with cameras on every street corner.

Mr Redhead said that CCTV was being used in small towns and villages where crime rates were low.

He also expressed concerns about the retention of some DNA evidence and the use of speed cameras.

Quote:

"I'm really concerned about what happens

to the product of these cameras,

and what comes next?

If it's in our villages,

are we really moving towards an Orwellian

situation where cameras are at every street corner?

And I really don't think that's

the kind of country that I want to live in."

He has hit the nail on the head. Nanny often says that if you are doing nothing wrong, then you have nothing to fear. However, she fails to address the issue as to what happens with the surveillance footage of innocent law abiding people?

The more you are watched, the more you will modify your actions. You only have to see the effect of that pile of shite "Big Brother", on the retards that enter the Big Brother house, to know that people change their behaviour when being watched.

CCTV intrudes into our lives and affects us negatively.

There are up to 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain - about one for every 14 people.

The UK also has the world's biggest DNA database, with 3.6 million DNA samples on file.

Scary isn't it?

Why do we need to be so closely monitored?

Nanny Hates Hamsters

Those of you who are fans of the BBC car programme Top Gear, will have been undoubtedly sad to see the news of Richard Hammond's (The Hamster) recent accident whilst test driving a jet powered car.

Fortunately it seems that he may well make a full recovery.

However, in Nanny's world, expressions of sympathy and sadness for injuries incurred when driving a "naughty" car are forbidden.

This nasty little side of Nanny was discovered a week or so ago by Stephen Ladyman, the road safety minister. Ladyman, all due respect to him, actually had the temerity (in Nanny's eyes) to express sympathy for The Hamster's accident and to announce that he was "distressed" that critics had used presenter Richard Hammond's 300mph crash in a jet-powered car as an excuse to attack the programme.

He went on to say that The Hamster was an "adventurer", and that the programme did not encourage speeding among young men.

Nanny finds this sort of expression of sympathy and free will to be unhealthy in a government minister, as such Ladyman was dropped from launching National Road Safety Week.

The organisers of the forthcoming event are bleating, like the spineless sheep that they are, that his defence of the show glamorised speeding.

Mary Williams, chief executive of national road safety charity Brake, squawked:

"We are alarmed and disappointed that our road safety minister is taking the time to defend Top Gear

which quite blatantly glamorises fast cars

and in fact knocks the government's very own speed enforcement.

Research quite clearly shows that drivers' attitudes can be influenced by the messages similar to that which Top Gear can promote.

We also feel that distress was an inappropriately strong word to use,

given the distress suffered by families affected by road death and injury caused by speeding drivers".

In other words she is very happy that The Hamster had an accident. It seems that compassion is reserved only for those who follow the rules as laid down by Nanny.

Nice people in Brake aren't they?

Brake also has a bee in its bonnet about Top Gear "mocking" speed cameras.

That figures!

Feel free to send them an email via this link brake@brake.org.uk

Nanny Bans Speed Cameras

In a rather bizarre twist of fate, Nanny has decided to ban one of her own "Nannyist" safety measures.

She has decided to halt the installation of 500 new speed cameras, as she awaits a review of their effectiveness.

The review will be carried out by University College London.

Road safety group Safe Speed has been banging on, for quite sometime, about the fact that fewer cameras meant fewer deaths.

Safe Speed said Department for Transport figures showed the growth in fixed and mobile speed camera sites grew by under 1% for 2003 to 2004, compared to 33% between 2002 and 2003.

Founder Paul Smith said that was the "true reason" road deaths fell last year. He went on to lambast Nanny's obsession with speed cameras, pointing out:

"Speed cameras are a dangerous distraction to drivers, police and local authorities alike. In almost every case there's something else that's more important to road safety than strict speed limit compliance."

Nanny's colleagues have privately admitted that the fall in road deaths may be simply the normal recovery that would be expected after a peak in crashes known as "regression to the mean".

Cameras can be installed only where there have been a spate of serious crashes. Under the law of averages, it is unlikely that the number of crashes would continue at the same rate.

Mervyn Stone, Emeritus Professor of statistics at University College London, said:

"I am deeply sceptical of the data that has been concocted to support the increase in cameras."

In other words, Nanny has lied to us about the effectiveness of these cameras.

The reason?

Speed cameras provide Nanny with an exceptionally easy source of revenue.

Let's go back to the days of having a man walking in front of the vehicle with a red flag.

Nanny's Satellite

Nanny gets a little jumpy these days if she can't see what you're up to.

To some extent she has already addressed this problem; by her extensive use of CCTV, speed cameras and her proposed ID card scheme which will contain all manner of data including your medical history.

However, Nanny doesn't feel that this is quite enough.

Therefore she is planning a new innovation, a satellite spy in the sky which will monitor motorists speed.

That doesn't sound too bad does it?

A satellite that monitors speed cannot really do any harm, can it?

After all, what is the harm of merely watching?

The attention seeking morons who submit themselves to Big Brother don't seem to be harmed by it, do they?

However, watching becomes dangerous when an element of control is added.

Nanny plans to add that control factor, by fitting cars with a speed limiting device that will be controlled by her satellite. When Nanny's satellite decides that you are speeding, it will automatically apply the brakes.

How reassuring!

Drivers in London could be among the first to have the devices fitted. They would be bribed to attach these devices, by being offered a discount on the congestion charge.

Nanny's plan follows a six-month trial in Leeds which used 20 modified Skoda Fabias. Academics at Leeds University, who ran the trial on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT), say that lives could be saved.

The test forms part of a two-year research project into "intelligent speed adaptation" (ISA), which the department is funding at a cost of £2M. Results of the initial trial will be presented to ministers this week.

Edmund King, of the RAC Foundation, said limiters might make motorists less alert:

"If you take too much control away the driver could switch on to autopilot."

Unfortunately that is exactly what Nanny wants, a nation of dumb arsed morons who do not think for themselves; ie Big Brother contestants.