Monday 7 June 2010

No need to increase income tax

I drove to Manchester yesterday and saw many cars breaking the speed limit. I saw one cyclist who happened to cycle past red traffic lights but for the first time in many months of driving I was not affected by motorway roadworks. I came home in the late afternoon and as I was on the m60 passing the junction for Old Trafford I noticed a huge queue on both exit slip roads. This was nothing exceptional as there was a match on. However one sports car drove past me at roughly 100mph but then had to join this queue. I must confess to an element of Schadenfreude but there was not much misfortune of others because this driver went straight past the stationary traffic and pushed in at the slip road.

There are not many times when you can break the speed limit on Morecambe roads but when I walk my dog in the late evenings I would guess that more cars than not are breaking these limits. There must be thousands of laws that are broken every day. We don't need to raise income tax. Let's just fine the people who break the laws.

Change the world

2 comments:

  1. "Let's just fine the people who break the laws."

    Let's include a cost-benefit analysis first. I don't have a problem with increasing penalties for bad driving - which includes other matters besides speeding e.g. using a hand-held mobile while driving. But there is a cost in monitoring for such offences and some offences are easier to detect than others.

    I also take the view that the most appropriate penalty for driving offences is disqualification. A driver caught seriously exceeding the speed limit on a French motorway might well lose their driving licence on the spot.

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  2. Thanks Anonymous. You make good points.

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