Live blog: ONS shopping basket 2018: GoPros in, pork pies out, Kwiatkowski wins Tirreno, Thomas 3rd, Brenton Jones’ rad helmet design + much more

4 thoughts on “Live blog: ONS shopping basket 2018: GoPros in, pork pies out, Kwiatkowski wins Tirreno, Thomas 3rd, Brenton Jones’ rad helmet design + much more”

1. “Road Safety Minister Jesse

   “Road Safety Minister Jesse Norman commented: “The penalties for holding and using a mobile phone while driving have proven to be a strong deterrent, and more and more people are aware of just how dangerous this is.”

   Total BS.  If the penalties are such a strong deterrent, why do I see dozens of people a day doing it.  Yet more spin and newspeak from the person responsible for government cycling and walking policy.  We’re as safe in his hands as the NHS.

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2. Agreed! What’s the point of

   Agreed! What’s the point of having fairly draconian mobile phone laws now that the great unwashed have worked out there’s basically no such thing as road policing any more due to police funding shortages and austerity?! 10 years ago you’d have a few days every autumn where the nights were drawing in where you’d see cars with defective lights before people got them fixed. Nowadays it’s a joke, I’ve seen loads of cars with no working rear lights at all except the high level brake light and the idiots don’t care. They know the chance of getting stopped by an actual police car is just about zero.

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   • StraelGuy wrote:

     Agreed! What’s the point of having fairly draconian mobile phone laws now that the great unwashed have worked out there’s basically no such thing as road policing any more due to police funding shortages and austerity?! 10 years ago you’d have a few days every autumn where the nights were drawing in where you’d see cars with defective lights before people got them fixed. Nowadays it’s a joke, I’ve seen loads of cars with no working rear lights at all except the high level brake light and the idiots don’t care. They know the chance of getting stopped by an actual police car is just about zero.

     — StraelGuy

     Actually I think a lot of the time drivers have their lights on for daytime running only, which means the front sidelights are on but not the tail lights, for a lot of cars. I see this regularly as well.

     But with regard to mobile phone use by drivers, I don’t think the penalties are in line with the risk. Using the penalty for DUI of a 12 month ban as a base line, surely the penalty for using a cellphone at the wheel should at least be the same. Given that using a cellphone to send a text while driving increases the risk of a crash by a factor of 23 (according to research by the TRL – it is on the website), then surely the penalty should be higher still, say 24 month ban and a compulsory retest.

     Unless the penalty matches the offence, people simply won’t take it seriously. And yes, the minimal traffic policing doesn’t help either. We can than Theresa May for the big cuts to police budgets remember.

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3. 26,000 people seam like a

   26,000 people seam like a large number given that there is little inforcement. these people must the permanently glued to their phones give how unlikely you are to see a road traffic policemen. 

   This number is clearly only the tip of the iceberg. 

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