(in two senses....)
From "On The Road":-
"A new police unit in Northamptonshire aims to catch motorists who give speed cameras the V-sign. Drivers face a maximum £5,000 fine or six months in jail for public order offences. The £100,000 unit will have four officers on motorbikes."
Well, we knew the spoil-all-motoring brigade to be pompous, humourless, hostile, tyrannical single-issue fanatics with over-inflated egos but at least it is amusing to have them demonstrate it themselves.
I recall that in Prussia you could be heavily fined for "treating an officer for contumely". After two world wars for "freedom" we seem to now plumb similar depths.
What, by the way, precisely are these public order offences? Is just the V-sign in question, or would, say, the American single finger, or putting a tongue out, count. I ask because I find expressing my total loathing and contempt very good for my blood pressure, which I am supposed to watch in the interests of my safety!
I trust some local hero is taking up the question of waste of taxpayers money, and of four policemen doing something obviously of no practical use, who would be better employed on the beat.
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This has got to be a wind up.
How could they prove it - you could say you were about to scratch your eyebrow with your middle finger. Sounds like a hoax to me - if not then bring it on.......!
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Or a double nostril pick
:=>)
Jonathan
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Alex. L. Dick wrote:
> "A new police unit in Northamptonshire aims to catch
> motorists who give speed cameras the V-sign. "
West Sussex Rozzers have numerous photos of me riding towards their cameras with one less digit raised.
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mus be worth getting copies of these under the data protection act ?
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One would hope it was a wind-up, but perhaps it was not made clear that the item was copied from the journal of the Association of British Drivers, under
"news briefs".
On another page Mr Brian Gregory reports on attending a seminar in Northants, on "Nottinghamshire Safety Camera Rollout" introduced by one Supt. John Feavyour (who appears to be a real headbanging bigot and who tried to choke off ABD from the whole highly loaded and biased affair - which was sponsored by that highly disinterested body, speed camera manufacturers Truvelo).
A summary was given of a number of points made, among which it is clearly stated "Soon four motorcyclists will be linked to the vans to stop, detain and even charge those making gestures at the camera van".
In the context it is clear that the statement was either made directly by the Northamptonshire anti-motoring police, or at least by someone whose statement was allowed to stand by them. So if there was any wind-up it was one with police participation.
By the way, it's time all those who are not ABD members, were!
For details, enquiries@abd.org.uk
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I think Gaulieter/Commisar Gregory from Northampton plod has missed something here.
Whilst plods do in the course of there normal duty receive some abuse from the public, this is the first time any of them have needed protection from abusive gestures in the form of motorcycle mounted plod.
Is it the case that Northampton based traffic plods burst into tears more easily or is it that the abuse is such that they fear for their safety.
Perhaps the good Gaulietier/Commisar has failed to realise that most drivers whether they are speeding or not all probably feel the police should be out dealing with the toerags and low life that make other aspects of life more depressing rather than hiding in bushes or on bridges in the hope of finding someone over speed limit.
An abusive gesture is the easiest way of showing ones displeasure.
Lets hope the level of abusive continues at a level where the motorbike plod cannot keep up.
Perhaps Gaulietier/Commisar Gregory will then recomend the setting of concentration camps or gulags to deal with those that make abusive gestures.
as ever
Mark
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Sorry
I meant Gaulietier/Commisar Feavyour.
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Are we sure they are plod in the vans ? I read the article in one of the broadsheets, it was pretty vague on this point. More than likely its a poor sucker
in an uniform earning £3.75p an hour (one of Tony's "Real Jobs") in a scheme thought up by some pillock in a Best Value dept. that ends up costing about ten times what it would to put real coppers in..
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No jokes about gulags ... my maternal grandfather probably ended up in one...
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Sorry Dai
Mine did as well, he was from the bit of Poland that the nazis kindly let Uncle Joe administer before they invaded it.
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there really must be a good case to complain about misuse of police resources, sadly complaint machinary is pretty substandard, so somebody with a lot of money would need to challange it in court...
i suggest we all organise a day out and drive past two fingers in the air, boy would I put up a good defence...
still they seem to be ever on the look out for new ways of persecution, shame they carnt go after muggers/thiefs/etc
very very bad senior management in plod service thats the problem
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Anybody know where the V sign came from ? Does anybody care ?
It comes from the days when the great, good and rich used to occupy themselves with trying to duff up the french. As always, technology advances controlled who was going to win the war. At this time the fearful weapon was the English Longbow. Punch through the French Armour like it wasn't there.
As a further point of interest, the french had been winning because tehir armour was lighter allowing greater movement and stamina, but the longbow was kind of a thorn in the side.
Consequently, the French army was a bit bothered. When they captured English bowmen, they weren't sure what to do. In such a mobile war there was no room for prisoners, but offing them would have resulted in your captured comrades being similarly treated. So they decide to cut off those two fingers and prevent them using a bow.
The French Generals spread the glad tidings around the troops that this had happened to about a squidrillion english bowmen and therefore there was nothing to fear.
So they trotted down to battle early opne morning, which essentially involved lining up at either end of a field and waiting for the General to finish his fried eggs or croissont, depending on the side.
Whilst waiting at this moment, the English bowmen held up those two fingers in order to indicate that the French Generals had been exagerating, the french soldiers had a smidgen of a problem, and the likely outcome could be predicted. i.e. you nice french people with the shiny armour are somewhat ¨
%¨@%¨@.
Purportedly a true story, although I wasn't there.
As an encore, do you know where the word "Trivia" comes from and why it came into its current meaning and use ?
M.
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Well,
Trivium is a medieval course in grammar, rhetoric and logic. Trivialis means ordinary, commonplace - hence trivial. If you combine the notions, I suppose you get to a load of mixed, commonplace facts.
One of which is that the trouble with the longbow was firstly that the bowmen had to be trained from an early age, and that secondly when he had dysentry, which was all too often, he was too weak to do much damage. Whereas more hand-gunners could be trained if required, and as long as he could get the match to the touch-hole he was dangerous.
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It appears to be true. A fine of up to £5000 seems draconian for such a trivial 'offence'. Yet again we see the full force of the law used against drivers, when anyone else would get a ticking off at worst. Let me ask again - WHEN ARE WE GOING TO STOP MOANING AND MARCH ON DOWNING ST?
Let's uproot the cameras, get rid of the 'road safety' measures and let the traffic flow!
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Hmm
I was rather hoping it was a p*sstake not a sad reflection on the obviously crazed mind of a senior traffic plod.
My old geography master who fought in Burma with the Gurkha Brigade and controlled the school CCF, to which I belonged had a dictum to deal with situations such as these;
"fix bayonets and charge"
as ever
Mark
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What an entertaining read....... thank you. Fully support the erudiate and articulate arguments and hereby doff my cap to Mr Dick. Power to free speech especially when so beauifully wirt.
HOWEVER. Just to clarify the vast majority of the Archers at Agincourt were from the western celtic fringes, one of them was in fact Dafydd Gam ap Llewelyn a close follower and former sworn enemy of Henry V. Just remember the Celts, the countless thousands of Scots, Irish and Welsh that were slaughtered on battlefields the world over to preserve our right to moan about speeding policies.
By the way the French had a neat way of shoing their disdain during battles of flashing their buttocks at the enemy.........now there's a thought.
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If there is a protest against speed enforcment can the PR be better than the Fuel tax debacle.
I don't know if anyone watched the excellent, iconic and historically relevant
documentary "7 days that shook Britain" what this showed the disunity that prevailed in the ranks. The PR faliure of the front men including Brinley the human kite (which way is the wind blowing today ??). The Police didn't have to lift a finger for this fight. Blair was clearly rattled and there was a faliure to" fix bayonets and charge" which would have tested his mettle.
This Documentary will be studied in time as milestone in the collapse of the democratic process on such issues.
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I understand that there is a childrens toy on the market called a "supersoaker" that, if filled with a mixture of gloss paint and thinners, pointed at these speed camera things and fired will deposit an impermeable barrier over the lenses thus preventing their operation.
Just a thing I heard you understand. Oh - and I don't condone such behaviour either. Terrible.
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bin bags sellotaped over the top is easy to do, and doesnt risk a prosecution for damaging the thing...
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the problem is taking on the government propaganda machine with so many of our resources and so much of our money behind it
it would be important to get some good press relations etc people on board
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Sorry, you're a little mixed up. Brian Gregory is the man from the ABD, who had the courage to go into the nest of vipers. Stout chap!
(See first message for the baddy!)
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Sorry, now I'm addled! Fifth message, my second.
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