Who Are These People?

See -

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=20842

And I’ll wager it may disappoint but it wont surprise.

Here we see proof, if any more proof was needed, that our current administration will sacrifice any democratic or legal principle when it needs to address its endless incompetences - in this case financial. Also, with its usual arrogance and craft, it has attempted to sneak this change past the checks and balances of our system under cover of darkness.

It’s quite simple, really. Motorists are having their ‘offences’ overturned in court and their costs are then paid for by the government. (Always remember that when it comes to paying out money in this type of scenario ‘the government’ gets the cash from you and me.) These cases are costing the government money. This government is good at wasting money and now has a large hole to fill, but it is particularly unhappy when it comes to giving it back to the man in the street – or in the car. The number of men in cars successfully challenging tickets is about one in four, or 400,000 which adds up to a tidy sum in returned costs.

But never fear, the ingenuity of this government comes into its own at a time like this and a simple solution has been arrived at – or fabricated, if you want to look at it that way. It works like this – don’t pay. Problem solved. Next! Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right that an innocent motorist should have to bear the costs of successfully challenging his unfair penalty? What has that got do do with anything?

And is it just pure irony that the organisation planning to implement this system is the Ministry of Justice. Have you read Orwell’s 1984? Gordon Brown must consider it a reference manual rather than an allegory.

They won’t waste time finding out why 400,000 motoring ‘offences’ are wrong and save a great deal of time as well as money. Fixing a problem at source really is not the forte of the Labour Party, after all. No, just make the innocent pay for the errors (or worse) of the police and other authorities.

And there is an additional benefit, of course. If you risk a fine of £50 - £100 but legal costs of several times that if you pursue a challenge even if you win, it would make sense to just pay up. Win – win for the government then. More money and fewer challenges.

Another tyrannical and oppressive ‘big brother’ decision – what else would we expect?

Tags: costs, motorists, offences

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