Seeing Shiad Mahmoon hit the rogues gallery of notorious speeders, reminded me of Captain Ranty's attempt to argue that he could not be punished for speeding under the doctrine of being in lawful rebellion. To be fair, looking at some of the punishments metered out in this rogues gallery, I bet some of the miscreants wished they'd declared unlawful rebellion too !
Captain Ranty offered up a seemingly detailed and well researched argument of why he should not/could not be prosecuted for the speeding offence.
Reading through various ripostes to the proposal of his argument and the counter argument for lawful rebellion, the reality is, no matter how reasoned the argument in favour of it, it was never going to win, not before the court at least.
And reading the dialogue, is it/was it a valid argument ? couldn't say if I am honest. If I had nothing left to do in my life and was feeling a bit bored I am sure I could research it fully and come to my own conclusion, but no matter how pernicious speeding fines may seem, I think on the whole I have done quite well in my 33 years behind the wheel....not continuous I hasten to add, but I have clocked up a few miles, and in those miles I have clocked up a speeding ticket or two.
And on every occasion, yep I was unlawfully speeding. Normally the policeman/woman {delete as appropriate} when issuing said tickets, make you feel like a naughty child, and yet the last one I received, the police officer was so nice and so charming I nearly wrote to the Suffolk Chief Constable to tell him how pleased I had been with the service...... I didn't though.
Where every village in Suffolk is fixed at 30mph and with most built areas of Suffolk [and even the non built up] being a village, your chances of getting a speeding ticket are quite high.
The last time my vehicle was registered for going faster than the speed limit permitted, I was duly invited to a night class for the speed awareness course. Fantastic I thought. A night out, no fine, no points.....result.
The woman running the course, thought I had just admitted to microwaving a cat, when I happened to declare that I once drove on the German Autobahn at 145mph.
She seemed so disappointed when I told her I had broken no laws when doing so.
But having successfully graduated from the course.......now when PC Police officer stops me and says...... do you know wot speed you woz doin sir ?....... I can say yes officer..... I've been to night school for speed awareness......... and look I've got a certificate to prove it.
But looking at Captain Ranty's crusade on the speeding prosecution [part of a much wider campaign it seems] I'd have let the speeding one go, to be quite honest.*
I have a paid a total of £410 in speeding fines over the years and in 33 years covered around 495,000 miles. So overall that works out at around 0.08p per mile, twat tax. That works out at 0.0067p per litre, on my chosen brand of fuel.
Now there have been many occasions where perhaps/maybe/possibly {delete as appropriate} where the speed limit has been exceeded by me and I've not been caught.
So if one brave government said, we are not going to prosecute for speeding anymore, but we will add say 0.0067p to the cost of a litre of fuel instead, I would say that is pretty good value for money...... a lot better value, than the shit load of Duty & VAT we currently pay on fuel.
Now that idea would get my vote for sure......and to those of you out there who claim speed kills....... yeah, yeah, fucking yeah..... next you'll be telling me that wind generated power is the answer to all our energy woes.
My SoD... is this....
At the time it came out.... something different
but if only slightly dated now....
*[Captains Ranty's Crusade Postcript: He recently published an open letter to our illustrious PM - Dave I'm a Wanker Cameron . There are it seems two versions of this open letter available but I prefer this more uptodate one It is erudite, well articulated, unambiguous, and well constructed. It offers meaningful debate to DwC and most of all conveys honesty and integrity, something most of our politicians seriously lack......]
