GATSOS OVER-READ YOUR SPEED

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So, more discrimination against non-smokers. We don't get smoke breaks at work, either.

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I agree with this, how come smokers get to take more breaks at work than me!!

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Because people like you want to enforce your opinions on others and do your best to stop them enjoying a ciggy whilst they work !

Simple really.

Tin hat on...awaiting response !!!!

spokey wrote: kbannon wrote: Anyway, apparently smoking outside it is now one of the best places to socialise and indeed is the best place to pull whilst on a night out! So, more discrimination against non-smokers. We don't get smoke breaks at work, either.

I agree with this, how come smokers get to take more breaks at work than me!!

kbannon wrote: Anyway, apparently smoking outside it is now one of the best places to socialise and indeed is the best place to pull whilst on a night out!

So, more discrimination against non-smokers. We don't get smoke breaks at work, either.

WRT smoking, Ireland introduced a ban in all enclosed workplaces (there are a few exceptions) last year. The publicans (a category many policitians fall into) predicted doom and gloom and that the country would implode in a matter of weeks.

Initially a few pubs tried to ignore the ban and got an official warning and they fell into line. The publicans still whinged that they were suffering from drastically falling profits (something most people would agree were too high as drink prices had risen sharply in the last few years).

Anyway, nowadays, smokers must go outside. Many pubs manage to organise a sheltered &/or heated area where people can sit whilst smoking & drinking. The only real drawback of having smoke free air in pubs is the fact that you can now smell all the farts, etc.

Anyway, apparently smoking outside it is now one of the best places to socialise and indeed is the best place to pull whilst on a night out!

In response to your smoking arguement Peter, why should I have to leave my favourite pub or resturant just because you've bought into the passive smoking lobby ?

I hear what you say, but to be honest, if you want to clean the air up so much how come you drive around in a large engined BMW ?, would a clean little smart car be more ideal ?, or an lpg conversion etc etc.

I guess its your choice to drive a large engined BMW, is it right that you should force others to breath the exhaust fumes of your choice ?

Get the idea ?

All in jest Peter, but I'm sure you get the point, anti smoking is just a fad, they seem to be getting bored with that now, and are starting on booze.

Nigel wrote: mell wrote: i got mail yesterday from dundee police,65 in a 50 hidden cam,gutted!! I'm sorry to hear that Mell, thats a fair way over, so if you can please take advice, you could even try Gary, he cant get it cancelled but may be able to help you deal with it. I've just noticed in the local rag that a young chap has just been banned for doing 70 in a 40, thats sounds very bad on the young chaps part, but what they dont tell you is up until a couple of months ago that was a 70 limit, its a dam dual carrageway, speed limt has been lowered due to whinging villagers who buy a house on a trunk road and then decide they dont like traffic !

ask on www.traffic-answers.com they were invaluable when it came to my misdemeanour

15 over is on the borderline for a standard 3-point £60 fixed penalty, if theyd clocked you at one more mph youd be staring at 6 points

mell wrote: i got mail yesterday from dundee police,65 in a 50 hidden cam,gutted!!

I'm sorry to hear that Mell, thats a fair way over, so if you can please take advice, you could even try Gary, he cant get it cancelled but may be able to help you deal with it.

I've just noticed in the local rag that a young chap has just been banned for doing 70 in a 40, thats sounds very bad on the young chaps part, but what they dont tell you is up until a couple of months ago that was a 70 limit, its a dam dual carrageway, speed limt has been lowered due to whinging villagers who buy a house on a trunk road and then decide they dont like traffic !

Peter Fenwick wrote: spokey wrote: Peter Fenwick wrote: I do believe the government have done some worthwhile things since they have come into power. Such as? I'm not trying to be flippant here, I'm really interested, because in my own life, I have not seen anything that they have done, of which I approve or have thought "good idea". But perhaps I am missing things. The fact that the economy is in relatively good shape for one. Compared to Europe and America, Britain's economy has faired really well in over tha last few years despite all the ups and downs. The pound remains strong and interest rates are low.

The economy is not really in good shape: Gordon Brown inherited an economy in good shape, and managed not to cock it up for about 3 or 4 years. However, I for one am bricking it, as I see the effects of taxation and spending on government bureaucracy, rather than boosting things that will actually sustain themselves. I fear that when it eventually does implode, it's going to make the boom and bust years look like a walk in the park. Employment is only high, because the civil service has swollen so much.

Peter Fenwick wrote: I for one think ASBOs are a good idea, as well af Family tax credit, not to mention the impending ban on smoking in places that serve food. Also the introduction of community security wardens and banning Fox Hunting.

Ah, well, I'm fairly libertarian, you see, and I think that the idea of banning hunting is far too interfering. But that's an emotional issue, so I'll leave that alone.

As a passionate non-smoker, I see the ban of smoking as another invasion into our lives.

As to ASBOs, they are a tool that makes it sound like they're doing something, I personally can't see it working. And they are also indicative of the state encroaching on our lives: "do as mommy says or daddy will spank you -- except he won't because we've also made spanking illegal".

I don't qualify for family tax credit (or any other blooming benefit) and the whole mechanism of getting benefits is far too complicated and there are far too many hoops and hurdles. This is great for Gordon, because he makes it difficult to get the money and he can justify a huge army of bureacrats to manage all these bits of paper.

Peter Fenwick wrote: I also don't think that the NHS is as bad as people say. OK it is never going to be as good as private care, but then how could it? They managed to deal with my mothers cancer very well and she certainly has no complaints.

I think the NHS sucks lemons, and it's very expensive for what we get. I think they might do a better job if they didn't have so much form-filling to contend with, and that has definitely not improved under Saint Tony. But anyway, new Labour did not invent or implement the NHS, so that isn't exactly an achievement of theirs.

Peter Fenwick wrote: Crime is on the decrease, although I admit there remains a problem with behavior caused by binge drinking, but in general it is going down. Although this is not scientific, I have been a victim of crime on five occaisions, non of which have been when the present govenment have been in office.

I think it's unjustifiable to say that crime is on the decrease. There is no clear statistical evidence to support that assertion. It is easy to muddy those waters by not keeping a consistent measure, and just recently the government changed the way they measured crime.

Every time I have been a victim of crime, it has been under this government.

Peter Fenwick wrote: I think Tax on company cars was long overdue, although I don't think people who need a company car like reps should pay anything like as much as people who have one purely as a perk.

I think we have too many motoring taxes already, the one that upsets me the most is my fuel card: I pay about 70p/l in duties to Gordon, then because the company gives me a fuel card, I pay tax on that tax. And I pay VAT on that tax. And I pay road tax and the roads are not being kept in shape and the money certainly isn't being spent on providing a decent alternative. But I don't have a company car...

Peter Fenwick wrote: Don't get me wrong there are some things i don't like and that I feel very strongly about

And I agree with you on all of those!

Peter Fenwick wrote: I don't think the current government are great by any stretch, but IMO they are better than the lot we had before.

I'm not even comparing them to the previous government in the UK, I'm comparing them to governments I've been exposed to around the world, mostly in the third world. Unless it was pretty much a dictatorship, where the people's opinion didn't matter at all, I don't think I've ever seen a government so vacuous and achievement-free.

Let's look at it from your side:
* ASBOs
* Foxhunting ban
* Community Support Officers
* Banning smoking in restaurants
* Alleged drop in crime
* Failure to destroy the NHS
* Managed the economy
* A tax credit (or many, complicated ones)

Hardly a stellar list of achievements after 7 years in power with a crushing majority, is it?

Now consider:
* Banning parents from smacking their children
* More taxes
* More national insurance
* More bureaucracy
* More bureaucrats
* A prime minister who regularly takes freebies from dodgy people
* A prime minister who regularly reinstates people who do things that should end their political career
* A prime minister who is far more concerned with his perception in the rest of the world and with being the lapdog of Dubya, than with people and issues in the UK
* And of course, the minor issue of taking us into a wholly unjustifiable war

I doubt that even Alan B'stard would have gotten away with all that!

Anyway -- I can't see us meeting in the middle of this one, so feel free to launch a rebuttal and have the last word, but I promise not to prolong this.

Edited by spokey

spokey wrote: Peter Fenwick wrote: I do believe the government have done some worthwhile things since they have come into power. Such as? I'm not trying to be flippant here, I'm really interested, because in my own life, I have not seen anything that they have done, of which I approve or have thought "good idea". But perhaps I am missing things.

The fact that the economy is in relatively good shape for one. Compared to Europe and America, Britain's economy has faired really well in over tha last few years despite all the ups and downs. The pound remains strong and interest rates are low. 

I for one think ASBOs are a good idea, as well af Family tax credit, not to mention the impending ban on smoking in places that serve food. Also the introduction of community security wardens and banning Fox Hunting.

I also don't think that the NHS is as bad as people say. OK it is never going to be as good as private care, but then how could it? They managed to deal with my mothers cancer very well and she certainly has no complaints.

Crime is on the decrease, although I admit there remains a problem with behavior caused by binge drinking, but in general it is going down. Although this is not scientific, I have been a victim of crime on five occaisions, non of which have been when the present govenment have been in office.

I think Tax on company cars was long overdue, although I don't think people who need a company car like reps should pay anything like as much as people who have one purely as a perk.

Don't get me wrong there are some things i don't like and that I feel very strongly about, speed cameras for one, along with the misguided view that a large proportion of accidents are caused by people speeding. 

I was never a great supporter of the war in Iraq and I certainly don't like the way we jump when America says so.

I don't think the current government are great by any stretch, but IMO they are better than the lot we had before.

Edited by Peter Fenwick

I do believe the government have done some worthwhile things since they have come into power. The reason why a lot of people think they haven't is because they pay too much attention to the rubbish printed in the newspapers.

The problem with complaining about speed cameras is that you are complaining about being caught breaking the law. Whether you like it or not if you break the law you will get into trouble. The problem isn't with the speed cameras themselves, it's with idiotic speed limits are totally out of date (not referring to the 30 limit)

I have heard about the Freedom party.

All I would say about this is that when a lot of people talk about freedom they are only looking at it from one side. For instance a friend of mine was angered when i told him that the company I worked for were going to introduce random drug testing at work as a deterent. He said it was an infringment of my civil liberties.

However is it not an infringement of my civil liberties if one of my colleagues chooses to come to work 'high' and causes an accident?

This is just one example which came to mind.

B7VP, the reason asked the slightly flippant coment about your political alegence is that you frequently fill your posts with material which is either blatantly political or with strongly political overtones.