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What do you do when loads of drivers get nicked for speeding?

Simple: you suggest that since so many people are breaking the law, maybe we should abolish the law!

At least, if you're the self-entitled wanker called Hugh Bladon (founder of the Alliance of British Drivers), that is.

'If a lot of people are being caught it may be that the speed limit on that road is ridiculously low.  The speed limit needs to be reassessed to see what the normal speed of the road is. The limit should be set at the speed that 85 per cent of drivers take the road at...'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6846749/Britains-busiest-speed-...

Sent this e-mail to the Alliance of British Drivers today:

Subject: FAO Hugh Bladon

'Good afternoon,
I read with interest the comments attributed to Mr Hugh Bladon in the Daily Mail article referenced below:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6846749/Britains-busiest-speed-...

Mr Bladon is quoted as saying:

'If a lot of people are being caught it may be that the speed limit on that road is ridiculously low.  The speed limit needs to be reassessed to see what the normal speed of the road is. The limit should be set at the speed that 85 per cent of drivers take the road at'.

Would you be kind enough to :

1.  confirm for me that the words above were indeed spoken or written by Mr Bladon?

2.  if the answer to 1. is 'yes', would you please provide references to when Mr Bladon has advocated the repeal of the Theft Act 1968 on the grounds that a lot of people are stealing (3,591,000 offences of theft reported to the police in 2018)?

Thank you so much.'

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35 comments

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brooksby | 5 years ago
2 likes

I'd always though that the ABD was one of those odd projects like the Christian Legal Centre, where it is presumed to be a big membership organisation and gets called on for opinion pieces but - in this case - is actually just Mr Bladon with some posh business cards... 

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hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
0 likes

Okay, I'm conflicted with this.

If a law is routinely broken by a sizable proportion of the population, then it suggests that the law isn't effective and should be changed to become more relevant. I'm not convinced that speed alone makes that much difference to how someone drives (except for their kinetic energy when crashing) and I'd rather be sharing the road with someone paying attention and driving quickly than someone driving slowly and not paying attention.

However, I don't think we should be increasing speed limits without putting more traffic police onto the streets and fixing the lax enforcement of general driving offences.

What we need is more giant hands to remove vehicles that stop on yellow box junctions.

Avatar
alexb | 5 years ago
7 likes

On the plus side, this would set the speed limit across most of London at about 10mph. Result!

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ktache | 5 years ago
7 likes

Knife crime too.

I believe that the fine should be set as a proportion of income, as several othe countries do, may just act as more of a deterent.  And no insurance should be several years of minimum premium, not as at present less than one.

Avatar
mike the bike replied to ktache | 5 years ago
2 likes

ktache wrote:

Knife crime too.

I believe that the fine should be set as a proportion of income, as several othe countries do, may just act as more of a deterent.  And no insurance should be several years of minimum premium, not as at present less than one.

 

Court fines in England are already related to the guilty party's income; basically, the more you earn the more you pay.  And it's no good pleading that you have a dozen children or exceptionally high outgoings, the court doesn't take those things into account.

Savings and other possessions are normally exempted from the calculation but may be included in unusual cases, eg the guilty party has no income but substantial assets.

There was a recent case of a professional footballer being fined £5000 for some relatively low-level traffic offence, so the system seems to work.

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