Scotch Mist

Mull It Over

Tobermory

Here are a couple of photos (taken by my buddy Jimbo) during our recent road-trip to Scotland.
We drove up from the Midlands to Glasgow for a few days. I'd spent a while working there last year when the stockbrokers I worked for (yeah, I know...) got taken over by a multinational bank. What a great, vibrant city. So many ace bars, restaurants & art galleries. We bumbled around, doing the culture bit, and getting drunk.

Then we headed up to Oban and got a ferry to Mull, which was fantastic.

And that's despite the fact, as a Wolves fan, the only bar in Fionnphort was run by a West Brom fan. Although that nearly ruined the whole journey, it was still great. Didn't take any CDs for in-car entertainment, but I picked up some Led Zep and Johnny Cash in Tobermory, which was a result. At least it banished any lingering thoughts of "Mull Of Kintyre". McCartney, you twunt.

Next stop was Edinburgh, which had some more great galleries, bars, and restaurants, and some over-priced clubs playing appaling music. Can't have everything, I suppose. But there were lots of beautiful women there. I must also thank Simon the fireman for his hospitality there, and the use of his X-Box.

Anyway, the reason I mention it now is that I've just been fined £60 and had 3 points put on my driving licence, courtesy of Cumbria Constabulary. I was doing 84mph on the M6. If you're not familiar with Britain's motorways, there's practically no traffic after you pass Liverpool, so it's not like I was doing 14mph over the limit outside a school.

Anyway, whatever, I've bitten the bullet and paid the stealth tax.

There are plenty of websites that show that speed cameras (a) are there to make money rather than save lives, and (b) increase, rather than decrease, the likelihood of accidents. See Speed Cameras Dot Org and the Association Of British Drivers, for example.

As ever in Britain, there's one rule for the powerful, and another for the us.

For example:

Head Of Middlesbrough CID, Adrian Roberts, escapes prosecution because he was uncertain who was behind the wheel when he was caught speeding. As Lord Mackenzie, former head of the Police Superintendents' Association, says, the defence would have been justified if it related to a shared, company car.

The BBC report that a journalist caught Kate Brunstrom exceeding the speed limit in Colwyn Bay by 19mph. She's the daughter of a Welsh police chief who is notoriously obsessed with speed limits. He recently described a 71-year-old as a "yob" for daring to challenge a fine.
She escaped prosecution.

Last month, Welsh MP Elfyn Llwyd was allowed to continue driving, despite accumulating the maximum 12 points on his licence. Here's a letter that was sent to a local paper, The Western Mail:

SIR - The decision to allow MP Elfyn Llwyd to carry on driving with 12 penalty points on his licence raises several questions ("MP escapes ban despite fourth offence," The Western Mail, June 3).

Firstly, on the basis of Mr Llwyd's defence that a driving ban would cause "exceptional hardship" to his constituents, does this mean that all MPs can now ignore penalty points?

Secondly, does his argument that driving is essential in his job as an MP mean that those of us whocannot drive due to disability cannot become MPs?

I wonder what fellow MP David Blunkett would have to say about that.

John Sanders
Penylan, Cardiff

And there's more...

Avon & Somerset police only prosecuted only 1 in 400 smokeys caught speeding last year. As the ABD say, it's necessary for emergency calls to be answered at speed. But, [we're] "sure the majority of those officers were driving at speed safely, but members of the public are penalised for doing the same thing".

Meanwhile, Chief Constable Steve Thomas (in charge of traffic in Greater Manchester) was recently clocked doing 104mph on the M6.
He retorted that "On the day in question, the driving and road conditions were good, and I was part of a group of around 15 cars all doing around the same speed. I considered that my manner of driving was safe".

Me too, motherfunster.