Sunday 4 January 2009

Campaigners my arse

A neologism of 2008, at least as far as I know, was 'to misspeak', a euphemism for 'to lie through one's teeth'. So I will say the Times misspoke in describing as 'campaigners' the UK Commission for Integrated Transport and it's congenital sibling the Motorists Forum, which are calling for cars to be fitted with automatic speed restrictors and tracking devices, in order to improve safety and - wait for it - save the planet from global warming.

Naturally - as a lover of liberty - the idea of having a satellite tracking device which controls the speed of my vehicle is about as welcome as a burglar shitting in my bed.

As usual, the government has set up 'independent' advisory bodies, full of stuffed shirts, who dutifully go about their business of kite-flying the control freaks' crazier ideas, to create the impression that ordinary people are banding together to call for such things. They are not independent of government, but the creatures of government. They represent not the public, but the cozy, inside world of the quangocratic state. The only motoring organisation I know of which represents my views is headed by Captain Gatso.

This report claims that in their tests,the users liked the devices, and believed it improved their driving, but (important but) who the fuck are these users? What kind of cunt would agree to take part in such a test?

The standard MO dictates that the devices would be voluntary - TO BEGIN WITH. Then they'd be compulsory, perhaps starting with beginner drivers, or perhaps the insurance companies would begin to demand them, and soon enough you'd have drivers who couldn't even imagine driving without the system in place, like those tossers who pass the driving test in an automatic finding themselves in a car with a manual gearbox.

To make myself clear, I do not like dangerous drivers, but the idea that driving faster than an arbitrary speed limit is automatically dangerous is as absurd as the idea that driving within a speed limit is automatically safe. The primary reason for the confreakist obsession with speed is that it can be easily measured.

2 comments:

Fractious Tart said...

The same arseholes who advocate this massive infringement of personal liberty are the same ones, no doubt, who will campaign for having all schoolgirls fitted with chastity belts to avoid unnecessary abortions, loss of life.
If the government was at all interested in saving lives then all they have to do is ban the sale of tobacco related products. OOPS, that would lose us billions in taxes though.

Trooper Thompson said...

It's the control they desire - the scientific dictatorship.

I wonder if it's occurred how much money they'd lose if no one got speeding tickets?