He would do better to channel his force's efforts into combating crimes such as muggings and burglaries, and making Birmingham a safer place to live.

But the fines from speeding drivers would help pay for that

You'd think by now that politicians apparatchiks and others, ie this bod, would have realised that trying to divert attention away from the real crises they should be trying to keep a lid on (or actually fix) simply isn't working, the general public is no longer content to be told what to believe or think by the controlled idiot box in the corner nor the mainstream press, millions more are waking up to what is really going on.

As for zero tolerance speeding, pray carry on if you think the fines will somehow provide funds to important issues (pause for laughter), watch the road casualties build up as people drive down urban roads with their eyes on the speedo in case they dare go over by 1 or 2 mph, instead of the constant all round observation that good drivers carry out all the time.

Speed itself is not the issue, its appropriate speed for the circs, we've all seen idiot (not always the usual idiots but many who should know better) driving through residential areas at speeds far too fast for the situation, but they wouldn't technically be speeding.

<< Whilst a limit is a limit, and it is perfectly possible automatically to fine everybody doing 31mph with no human intervention, it would be punishing people who are essentially trying to drive at the limit and are succeeding for any practical purpose. >>

Well, yes, but in absolute terms what is the point of telling us all the limit is 30 when we all know you really mean 33 ? Why not say 33 and mean it? I think the margin was originally added to avoid penalising anyone whose speedo was not that accurate. I don't think that happens very often today.

We all know that there is a shortage of local and central tax income to pay for essentials (the NHS we keep hearing about) so I don't feel bad about collecting money this way - provided it's done fairly of course.

'Trying to drive at the limit' - what is that, exactly? Is someone pushing?

Info from an article in today's Telegraph.

On the parkjng front, it should be an offence for operators of car parks with number plate recognition technology to allow the payment of the parking fee when a registration is entered which has not been detected by the cameras.

Whilst the leeway is entirely at the discretion of the individual officer, having no leeway at all is simply daft and, I'd argue, obstructive and even dangerous.

Say that someone accelerates briefly to avoid a potential collision or overtake a lane-hogger; why should that driver be punished?

That's the problem when a rigid rule is implemented to persuade everyone to behave sensibly. The rule has to be rigid in an attempt to be even-handed.

Another rule is the age at which young people may get a licence and start to drive. Some may make good drivers at 15; others should perhaps wait until 21 ....

Say that someone accelerates briefly to avoid a potential collision or overtake a lane-hogger; why should that driver be punished?

In the 1st case it's very unlikley to happen that you would be caught as you happen to speed up to avoid a crash. On the 2nd just go to the otherside of them.

I'd go a step further, the Police are keen to have the public on their side, to police society through concesus, however to prosecute every driver who drives just 1 mile above the limit would destroy such support. Who would be willing to support / assist an entity that considers 1 mph more important than catching thieves, or muggers, or dealing with knife crime, or people trafficking or modern slavery or prostitution or even bad driving etc.

Bad driving? Like going over the speed limit ;-)

I suppose this comes down to why people find it acceptable to break the speed limit in the first place. If you are concentrating (as you should) you can't speed yet it occurs all the time and people get very angry at threats to not letting them do so.