I'm off to do my
speed awareness course in Bromley, so rather than blog while driving (that was a j.o.k.e) or while listening to the pearls of wisdom from the course leader, I'll leave you to it to discuss anything you wish. I will approve comments whenever I can.
We're going to have an increasing problem with the power-hungry. And, no, I don't mean MPs.
ReplyDeleteShould be able to get to well over 70mph in Bromley Iain.... a no road hump authority ;-)
ReplyDeleteI promise you one thing and that is if you stick to the speed limit you will find lots of impatient motorists right up your chuff making rude signs at you.
ReplyDeleteCan you ask these "experts" how to deal safely with this problem.
Just a quick point I heard discussed and mentioned and just wanted some opinion on, is Michael Portillo the Conservative Peter Mandelson?
ReplyDeleteIain [and gang..] PLEASE watch this !!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Rln05LZy0
Jack Dee and speed awareness..
Classic !!!
This is mildly diverting as well...
ReplyDeletehttp://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/2009/08/12/colberts-driving-tips-twitter-service/
Some useful tips for you there Iain, I think...
Just say no! Amphetimines are bad for you!
ReplyDeleteSeeing as Mandelson is sticking his head above the parapet. Would it interesting to list as many as possible, the list of dodgy dealings he has been involved with. A subject matter that may give your lawyers a few palpitations.
ReplyDeletePete-s
The Daily Mash is quick with the news as usual:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/mps-still-dicks-200908131979/
Charles, I always thought of Osbourne as the Conservative's Mandelson.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what everyone thinks of Trevor Ivory?
ReplyDeleteHe is the Conservative PPC for North Norfolk following Iain.
You can watch Trevor on Youtube, see his Twitter page:
https://twitter.com/trevorivory
Also he has a Facebook group I decorate:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2739978611
Saw you on Newsnight, last night, 'defending' Alan Duncan by attacking the messenger, not the message. Big mistake, in my opinion. Alan Duncan presents himself as a smug, self-satisfied fat cat.
ReplyDeleteHow do you think he plays with the electorate? He has undone a lot of the good that DC has been working to build. And, sad to say, you didn't do yourself much good, either.
Coffee House are exposing Brown and Mandelbum's lies about 'saving' 500,000 jobs.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/5259718/the-truth-behind-mandys-halfamillion-jobs-claim.thtml
Seems its more like 35,000 and all the extra spending will cost another 90,000 jobs next year.
Fraser Nelson is doing a good job in picking up on all of Browns economic lies.
Portillo? No he is not Labours Mandelson. How can anyone possibly conclude that? He is not even in active politics
I hope you're getting the train to Bromley, Iain. No excuse for a car for that journey.
ReplyDeleteIf you hadn't broken the law, you wouldn't have to be there. There are plenty of laws I don't like that I still have to obey.
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to bitch about the Course so much, why didn't you just take the fine and the points? Get off your high horse Iain.
I'm sure the usual idiots will say "it's only 7mph over the speed limit" or "it was 3 am - the roads were quiet". But I doubt those excuses would comfort the parents of someone you hit and seriously injure (or hold much sway with a jury, for that matter)
We've all seen the adverts; it's 30 mph for a reason.
Is the government sticking its nose too far into our lives?
ReplyDeleteWith doctors prescriptions for exercise, and instructions to go dancing and swimming, they probably are.
Discuss...
Interesting comment from Charles. I'd suggest that the difference between these two reptiles is that Portillo's loyalty is only to himself.
ReplyDeleteJust heard Nadine Dorries on Jeremy Vine whingeing on about how tough it is for MPs and how rotten it is that Alan Duncan's revealing remarks have been made public.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that MPs still don't get it, do they.
One caller made the point that MPs should try a spell of really living on rations, like our military in the pointless, costly, life-wasteful Afghanistan enterprise. Hear, hear to that! Perhaps MPs would be more careful about what they get our armed forces into.
And the "Poor us" whinnying from MPs turns so may people off the whole bloody lot of them.
Shock resignations throw by-election into confusion
ReplyDeleteLabour really are losing the plot...
Mandelson and Duncan have form. I remember a Newsnight interview years ago, shortly after the Tories lost an election (the 05 one, I think) when they were both being interviewed together. The hook for the interview was that Duncan was heading up some new rapid rebuttal outfit that had claimed to "out-Mandelson Mandelson" or somesuch. Mandy, being so smug and offensive that I thought he must have been drinking, said "I know Alan Duncan and I can assure you that he is no Peter Mandelson". Rather a bizarre statement to make and Duncan looked mortified.
ReplyDeleteThe left is out to get Alan Duncan. Show him your support on the Support Alan Duncan Facebook Group.
ReplyDeletehttp://is.gd/2f5cP
Shelagh Fogarty confirmed that the BBC could not have used these tactics and broadcast the clip, yet now that it is "out there" it is ok. Double standards again.
Alan spoke the truth. It may be unpalatable and not what people want to hear, but if that is are only principle when writing or speaking I want none of it.
Send a stron message to Team Cameron - keep Alan Duncan in the tent.
Is it just me but I fell let down. Not by the MPs but by Iain Dale. As I tuned in to Newsnight, I, like all, where ready to watch Iain but not for his permanence or even what he had to say but to see what 'crazy' tie he would have on. Sorry Iain your tie last night was not up to scratch.
ReplyDeletePatrick Cormack on Martha Kearney?
ReplyDeleteNot literally, of course.
How about a where's Oliver competition - prize to whoever can reference the most recent political statement or interview by Mr Letwin that isn't about his own expenses?
"We've all seen the adverts; it's 30 mph for a reason."
ReplyDeleteDo you believe everything you read?
"There are plenty of laws I don't like that I still have to obey." Pompous arse.
ReplyDeleteLaw? obey? Making a mistake is not the same as wilfully breaking the law.
Tailgating is not specifically illegal, no doubt there is some interpretation of traffic regulation that it contravenes - but tailgating is deadly dangerous and lots of people - probably your smug self - constantly tailgate and cause accidents.
But thee is no easy money to be made out of stamping out tailgating so it carries on regardless.
How do you look where you are going and watch out for hazards and at the same time constantly monitor the speedo to ensure you never never ever creep over the limit.
Everyone has crept over the limit and to say you haven't is a clear basic lie since the only way you can be sure is to be constantly looking at the speedo instead of the road and of course to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of every speed limit in the country.
Keep your boorish stupidity under your hat Mr Nick.
37mph at 3am . . . just about right for killing a person staggering home a bit worse for wear, or a knackered shift worker who's too tired to pay proper attention.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for speeding on motorways. on residential roads it's just dumb.
Why is nobody seizing on the fact that Germany and France have come out of recession today? This is political dynamite - the final destruction of Brown's claim to be leading the world out of recession, the final nail in the coffin of the credibility of the fiscal stimulus and of Brown's economic record.
ReplyDeleteAnd what do we hear from the party and the right wing blogs? Nothing.
We're missing an open goal.
I communicate from North Norfolk where Norman Lamb is impregnable; and I can tell you that Trevor Ivory is completely wet - if he doesn't know he's in for a towsing next May-June then he's a bigger twit than I thought he was
ReplyDeleteMiles
ReplyDelete"An average family car travelling at 35mph will need an extra 21 feet to stop than one travelling at 30mph"
"If a driver hits a pedestrian at 20 mph, the pedestrian has a 95% chance of survival. At 30 mph the survival chance is 80% and if a driver hits a pedestrian at 40 mph, the pedestrian's survival chances fall to just 10%"
The statistics speak for themselves. Look at the DfT (or your local council's) website.
Toole by name...
Alan Duncan is a very wealthy Prima Donna who loves being in the limelight, usually for the sake of it..If he thinks £64,000 (and it seems he does) plus reasonable expenses is living on rations then he needs getting rid of.....THAT`s why they people like him get treated like shit....Anyway whats he doing in the Tory party????/...Lib Dems seems more to his taste
ReplyDeleteHaving helped to stich up Davis in the leadership battle Dave couldn't really sack him could he?
ReplyDeleteConstantly Furious said...
ReplyDeleteIs the government sticking its nose too far into our lives?
Oh yes, not half. But thankfully it hasn't become mandatory to have a full rectal examination....
I see we now have a Dance Champion, thanks to Andy Burnham, in Arlene Phillips, late of reality TV and sometime BBC pop choreographer.
Why does NuLieBour does this to us, and why oh why do we allow these scum to ride roughshod over us. I've said it before and will no doubt iterate ad-nauseum, time for change and time for revolutionary change, time that the people regained their freedoms and were allowed to run and rule their own lives.
Good news about big John Hartson, Iain. He's now out of hospital after finishing his first course of chemo. Fingers crossed he'll continue to progress.
ReplyDeleteThough John Redwood was good on Newsnight. Showed that Vince Cable is not the sage of economic wisdom he pretends to be and had Angela Eagle in knots. Why don't the BBC invite him on more often when economic issues arise. Nobody speaks as clearly or intelligently as he does on these matters.
There is a great vid where a car hits a man crossing the road a 30 miles an hour. The process is repeated with the car going at 50 miles an hour. This time the car misses the man as he is still on the path and has not reached the crossing.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Nick
ReplyDelete'It was only 7mph over the speed limit'......'but I doubt those excuses would comfort the parents of someone you hit'.
Is he suggesting that those parents would be happier if you hit their child within the speed limit?
Surely it is bad driving that causes accidents not necessarily excessive speed. Most experienced drivers have a feel for the right speed and there are times when I will drive slower than the law allows because I deem a particular situation to demand it.
I have been driving safely, virtually every day for the past 42years. I can assure Nick that is not through luck.
Yes, you need laws for the idiots who cannot figure it out for themselves but all laws should be enforced with sense and discretion.
Uncle Bob: "Why don't the BBC invite him [John Redwood] on more often when economic issues arise. Nobody speaks as clearly or intelligently as he does on these matters."
ReplyDeleteAccording to his blog - http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/ - do frequently invite him but then withdraw when they find his opinion does not fit with their line !
Did the enterprise Tsar suggest that we need a Dance Champion?
ReplyDeleteWill it soon to be Baroness Phillips of Cringeworthy?
I attended a speed awareness course last year, and found it quite enlightened and very nearly good value for money. They vary, I gather.
ReplyDeleteOne problem though: the insistence on using braking distances originally measured using family saloon cars during the 1960s and applying them, unchanged, today. I've driven 1960s cars and I know how long they took to stop compared with modern cars.
On a different subject: Cameron has decided to defend Alan Duncan. I wonder if he remembers the dark days of John Major's struggles. Every time a member of Major's team committed some ghastly faux pas or was discovered in a compromised state, Major would begin by defending the said miscreant, cling on desperately for a few weeks, then cave in.
Far better for Cameron to learn from this and get rid of the dreadful creepy Duncan straight away, and have done with it.
I took a Speed Awareness Course in Bromley last December. The Traffic Officer who tested me told me I had "an over-cautious approach to speed" and that I should drive faster!
ReplyDeleteStill no defence of Daniel Hannan?
ReplyDelete"What Unites Daniel Hannan and Me
by Iain Dale
There has been much spluttering on left wing blogs about Daniel Hannan slagging off the NHS on Faux News.
Of course, like myself and many others, Dan is a strong supporter of the NHS, he just doesn't agree with the rich paying taxes and the money being used to keep the poor alive. This is obviously completely different to saying that the NHS should be scrapped.
The left has long defended the NHS, purely for political purposes. Its just political correctness gone mad.
Political parties are broad churches so there is no conflict between Hannan saying a foreign country's health system is better because it leaves the poor to die in the gutter and me doing somersaults trying to defend the indefensible."
I certainly agree with Ken at 11:12 AM who correctly identifies the problem of obeying the speedlimit almost immediately and inevitably inspiring the person behind into a furious tantrum accompanied by full-on tailgating lunacy. It would be nice to hear the anti-speeding people - and I am, for good or bad, inclined to obey the limits - address this important issue.
ReplyDeleteNewsnight:- perfectly happy with the "parents must be proud of you" remark. The creature opposite was plainly a ghastly little runt, and deserved the disdain. Not that that should be assumed to mean that Alan Duncan is OK. Mind you - he does come across as engagingly B'Staad-esque in that clip which is a big plus point in my book but I suspect he will frighten the children.
I have long considered the presence in high office of the laughably incompentent Eagle woman as a matter of serious concern. But does anyone, anywhere have a recording of Newsnight because I'm wholly certain that she referred to David Blanchflower (ex- Bank Of England bigwig of some description, I believe) as Danny Blanchflower (ex Tottenham geeeezaaaahh). I know it's a bit like steel-capping a blind puppy to get stuck into her but what the hell...
Does Iain Dale agree with Dan Hannan's comments about the NHS and does he endorse his views?
ReplyDelete