A letter in a a local paper tells us that North Wales police have sunk to a new low in motorist hounding by checking worshippers leaving a chapel on Anglesey last Sunday to ensure they were wearing seat belts.
In the same paper, there is a two page spread reporting on at least 1600 out-of-control yobs who are making the lives of North Wales citizens miserable.
Go figure.
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Well I will sleep much more soundly in my bed knowing that all those law breaking religious types won't be killing themselves in accidents tonight. I, like the Police, have little doubt all the "yobs" are not that bad really and anyway, why trouble them - As long as they're not driving that is...
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So wearing a seatbelt isn't to be encouraged?
If people are so stupid as not to wear one they probably shouldn't be driving. If they shouldn't driving then it's a police matter.
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James,
Do you wear a seatbelt when you sit in the back, without fail?
I think not.
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Consider the available options from the point of view of the average North Wales policeman, i.e., shall we;
1) wait outside the rugby club and stop the 6 foot wide ex-miners with the flat noses;
2) go down town and stop the rowdy gangs of drunken yobs;
3)wait outside the chapel and stop the godly folk?
Right, chapel it is then.
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James
I would say that your post seems very much - well, how shall I delicately put it? - holier than thou.... You *know* the point Alwyn is making. Similarly, on what basis does Dan "like the Police, have little doubt all the "yobs" are not that bad really and anyway, why trouble them" when Alwyn's local paper, with libel laws carefully in mind, feels able to print a two page article saying otherwise?
DD
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Are you SERIOUSLY suggesting that somehow visiting chapel excuses anybody from wearing a seat belt?
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Well, they do say 'Jesus Saves' - failing which there's always the airbag!
Or the windscreen.
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Well if dying means going to a better place, why are we opposed? Because we all should have total misery@?: Me, I only had this once and I'd have liked to enjoy it.
Dammit.
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I actually know of Traffic Officer who is a lay preacher. I think that AFM is missing the point here, Apart from Wrexham and Point of Ayr there are very few ex-miners in North Wales and yobs are generally snoring their drunken heads off at going home time in any given chapel.
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Let me translate from Alwyn's Welsh:
"Why were the police hounding god fearing, law abiding, SEAT BELT WEARING worshippers exiting chapel when there are 1,600 out-of-control yobs waiting to be dealt with?"
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For what its worth AFM probably has the solution. On a Saturday night the yobs are out at night and go home at 05:00 in the morning. The rugby players are done by about 00:30 with the odd one managing about 02:45 after the curry and taxi. The police next morning read the night book and wonder "Why isn't our life more exciting", so do the obvious and raid the Chapel at 11:30 for a bit of excitment.
I love North Wales and have had some of my best motoring and biking experiences there; but North Wales on a Sunday morning!!! Any one has the right to find something to do.
Bill
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Bit of a wider issue at stake here really. Why should the government ever have wasted time and money introducing a law that compelled everybody to wear seat belts, and taken the police away from important duties to enforce it? The law requiring seat belts to be fitted to all cars was sufficient, those who wanted to wear the things could (Like I always did even before legislation) and those who didn't want to wear them put no one at risk but themselves. Ditto crash helmets.
Or are we all so stupid and childish that we need nanny to hold our hands through life? Oh freedom, thou art a dying commodity.
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Tom
Freedom is when you can do anything other than that which the State has declared to be illegal.
Slavery is when you can do anything that the State permits.
Paradoxically a "Bill of Rights" takes us towards the second condition.
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What frightens me, Brian, is that over the last quarter centuary we have been moving towards a situation where everything that is not compulsory will be illegal. Further intergration with Europe will hasten that process, simply because there will be more people with the power to pass laws which govern our conduct. Polititians legislate just as traffic wardens write tickets. It is the reason for their existance.
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But of course this approach works because the Brits are reasonable, obedient people whose culture teaches authority must be observed. It can be questioned and grumbled at but must always be obeyed. People don't DO anything about what pisses them of enough.
Take a number of countries where I have lived where people look at petty laws and rules and evaluate them for themselves. If they don't make sense they just ignore them. Widely enough, and the rules become unenforceable. At least one country maybe more in the EU I can think of as an example. Traffic laws are a good working example.
Let the farmers do the same with their hunting. What's Blair going to do? Pull back the Army from Kabul to sort them out?
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Here, here, Growler (or is it "hear, hear"?).
Ian
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on the hunting issue can you imagine the whole of the quorn hunt including dogs horses and followers all in the car park at quorn local policing unit ( yes its no longer a police station! ). All waiting to be fingerprinted and booked. Theyre not claimants or assylum seekers and about the only time they get to see the inside of a police station is to report a crime. This is done not in the hope of actually getting anything done but a requirement so that the insurance claim can be processed!!
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Phillip,
That is exactly right. At a council meeting I asked a police officer why they often refused to attend what they sometimes see as a minor crime e.g. burglary.
She stunned us by saying "People often don't want us to attend; they just want a crime number for the insurance claim.
Astonishing.
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A policing unit? Why not the local Police Farce? I suppose if it had been still called a police station citizens would have been unreasonable and expected it to be manned by policemen and women who would be too busy patrolling the streets and dealing with breaches of the peace and lawbreakers to fill in all those forms, and would have kept interrupting to report stolen cars, break-ins, murders, rapews and other irritating interruptions. One or other of Mr Blunkett's committee's (see today's DT Opinion) would have had to go without its monthly reports.
Sorry, sometimes these things just get you. Poor police, thought they had a career and could make a difference, seems they're just another form of bureaucracy.
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3am here - the cars are screaming up the road outsdie my house at about 100mph (60km zone!) on their way back from the beachfront nightclubs. Lots of howling engines, squealing tyres and screeching brakes.
No sirens.
Guaranteed at 9am, when I go to fetch the newspaper, there will be a speed trap on the road...
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>>3am here -
Well go to bed then !!!
10pm here, thinking about whether or not to go out for a beer or two down at the beach.
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Mark (Brazil) wrote:
>
> >>3am here -
>
> Well go to bed then !!!
>
Insomnia attack! (actually waiting for a story to come in!)
> 10pm here, thinking about whether or not to go out for a beer
> or two down at the beach.
Don't drive back at 100mph!
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Shan't drive. Taxis here are so cheap it is not worth even thinking about drinking.
From here to the centre of Rio is probably a 40 minute drive at this time of night - that's be about 2 quid, maybe 3.
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crickey
Taxi from Nottingham centre to town 15 minutes away (or 5 in a taxi) - £15/£20.
The price of taxis these days is rediculous, but thats another thread!
M.
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Of course I wear a seat belt in the back.
Do you always wear yours in the front (assumes yes)
How is the back of the car different to the front. Only difference is you smash your head on the headrest/ head of person on front seat rather than going through the windscreen.
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Situation A passenger/driver has horrendous injuries or dies from not wearing a seatbelt which could have been prevented by simply clicking the belt.
Who is affected. Pesron who is injured/dies> there family but also
Emergency services rushing about (Increased risk of further accidents)
Hospital staff (increased burden on NHS) meaning "Nanny need to take even more of our pocket money.
Increased insurance claims ect
Cost of "a life" something like £500,000 plus cost to society.
All for something preventable or reducable. If this isn't plain sense what is?
It might be free choice not to wear one but there are costs to society in not doing so.
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