In the news

Think of the money they can save not needing to staff to have driving licences. Minimum wage is less for kids.

thoughts go out to our Danish Forumengers..
following recent news in Copenhagen
GF works there, located here..

Were they ever not fucked?

Once you have your canti’s just right, there’s no way you’re taking that wheel off again unless you have to.

Guessing things are still tense in Kellyanne Conway's home...

You can still got a full bikr in a Ford Fiesta.

You can still got a full bikr in a Ford Fiesta.

And yet Ford Fiestas are ranked lower in terms of driver visibility, pedestrian impact safety, fuel efficiency and driver safety aids than almost all of VW groups current crossovers and mid range SUVs (I only compared petrol engines below 2l).

Kind of reminds me of the antivaxers who say that you are more likely to die from Covid if you've had four doses of the vaccine. Sure, the data does imply that, but doesn't take into account that only the most at risk of Covid are given 4 jabs.

Same goes for SUVs. If you look at the category of cars, there are undoubtedly safety and environmental concerns but when you look more closely, there are other reasons for this...mostly linked to engine power and vehicle weight etc. Heavy and powerful cars are not exclusive to SUVs and have similar rates of accidents and pollution. In other words, a 14% higher rate of accidents in SUVs compared to other cars does not mean that is happening because they are SUVs. Its happening because some SUVS are powerful and heavy.

It also doesn't help that a lot of the research is old, as are opinions. For example there are only 3 SUVs in the Which? list of worst rated cars for driver visbility sold in the UK right now...most are hatchbacks.

Erm...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62034278

No doubt the same gammon that frothed about XR / Insulate Britain road blocks.

Yeah was just thinking that

Its going to be interesting how the Government deal with this, given these people are highly likely to be there core voter demographic, or at these there voters are going to be on there side.

I seem to remember that when this happened in 2000 it was successful in achieving a decades-long freeze in fuel duty.

I think we'll get some police action for show but ultimately gov't will roll over and cut fuel duty / some other giveaway.

Do they have to do anything? How is it a protest if it's just a slight variation of your normal activity? Reduced speed probably improves general traffic flow and saves fuel.

And yet Ford Fiestas are ranked lower in terms of driver visibility, pedestrian impact safety, fuel efficiency and driver safety aids than almost all of VW groups current crossovers and mid range SUVs (I only compared petrol engines below 2l).

I’m actually quite aware of that, even our 1.25 engine despite being underpowered is thirstier than the newer more powerful cars.

However, we decided against a new or even second hand car as we’re just contributing to increasing the number of vehicles on the road as well as pollution.

The spokesperson refused to deny a claim that Johnson used to refer to
Pincher as “Pincher by name, pincher by nature” before making him
deputy chief whip. (See 10.26am.) Asked about the claim, the
spokesperson said: I’ve seen those unsubstantiated source quotes and I
don’t intend to respond to them.

When it was put to the spokesperson that the quote was not
unsubstantiated, but something that Dominic Cummings, the PM’s former
chief adviser, seems to have heard first-hand, the spokesperson
replied:

I’m simply not going to comment on content of what was or wasn’t said
in private conversations.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/jul/04/keir-starmer-labour-brexit-policy-boris-johnson-chris-pincher-uk-politics-live

I’m simply not going to comment on content of what was or wasn’t said
in private conversations.

This is becoming a stock answer that boils my piss. They're elected to serve the people, what they say matters be it in private or public.

They're elected to serve the people, what they say matters be it in private or public.

And also why it should be a criminal offence for an MP to use anything other than a logged/monitored messaging system to conduct government business. None of this "oh no I lost my phone with my whatsapp messages on" bullshit.

Late to party. Ignore.....

That has always surprised me of the UK, other countries in Europe have multiple police forces that would be happy to stop and fine anyone that is not following the traffic code. Here we can rarely see any enforcement outside of speed cameras and bumps… it is quite silly as traffic police pay for themselves in fines and really contribute to safer roads… can’t also quite believe I made a comment in favour of policing but I think some drivers in the UK really need some strong words

traffic police pay for themselves in fines

[citation requested] ie I doubt that very much. Maybe start here?

Will read tomorrow, but I guess it probably shows that my statement is truly misguided 😅 Happy to be proved wrong 😉

Traffic police numbers have been cut heavily, partly because road deaths aren't a hot issue (politicians and voters want the emphasis on crimefighting) and partly because of the huge share of police budgets allocated to anti-terror since the Borough Market attack.

Since ANPR matured, traffic police have been very effective at finding criminals. So that's a large part of what they do. Many of their stops are prompted by a bleep from the database because a crime report has a vehicle registration in it. They also have to spend hours gathering evidence whenever there's a fatal accident. All of which doesn't leave enough time for stops prompted by bad driving, faulty lights etc. My motorbike number plate fell off a few years ago, and I rode around without one for two weeks, as an experiment. Finally I was stopped in Stockwell, but I had to provoke the officers by overtaking them on an empty road when they were bimbling along below the limit. I acted surprised and was extra super polite and they let me off and apologised.

The shortage is more acute in London because many motorcycle cops were put on VIP protection because of terrorism. It's become absurdly rare to see a police motorbike on traffic duty in London.

So this is a Golden Age if you want to drive drunk or high or run the lights or do 60 between the cameras or fit a loud exhaust to get the attention of ten year olds

It obviously will be sooner or later, but we need a sufficiently large scandal to happen first. So far they've got away with it...

The shortage is more acute in London because many motorcycle cops were put on VIP protection because of terrorism.

Is there some evidence of that , just curious. Afaik most motorcycle police were just traffic officers who had also passed the bike course, protection requires a firearms ticket which is a different kettle of fish so not easy to just reallocate people. only bikes I see doing escorts around town are Special Escort Group who have always been distinct from traffic. In fact priti Patel is outside and she’s in a two car convoy with no bikes.

It's extraordinary (or I suppose, given this government, just ordinary) how similar the gaslighting messaging is from Johnson and cronies about Pincher and about partygate.
Didn't happen.
May have happened but didn't know about it.
Ok, did happen but didn't know specifics.
etc, etc.
Lying cunts.

Yup.