Speed traps - do you believe them?

After some 57 years of blameless driving - I've been recently booked for supposedly exceeding a 20 mph and a 30 mph limit by 5 mph - very, very annoying because I've never intentionally broken a limit - ever. This is not me being a goody twoshoes - just that I've never seen the point - my contention has always been - GET UP EARLIER! ALLOW ENOUGH TIME!

Firstly - I have a problem with these radar / laser speed guns - in that we have to take our accusers on trust that they are being honest and not fiddling somehow. Even when working perfectly - as they all work by the laws of Physics and the speed of light - they can only ever prove your speed for a fraction of a second. 

Though the Law of England has changed a bit since the 13th century (mostly in secret!) - being accused on the say so of a single "bailiff" breaches clause 39 of Magna Carta - yet these gadgets are operated by one person - or automatons - fixed and calibrated by the accusers.

While we've all been too busy paying the mortgage and buying stuff for theives to nick - utter bastards have loaded the dice against us!

If you are entrapped by one of the speed measuring gadgets - you are automatically bang to rights guilty according to your accusers - the police and if you have the temerity to question - you'll probably find the Magistrates even worse! It's all a big game to them - to extract money.  They will threaten you with ever increasing fines too! No wonder so many people just throw in the towel and pay this extortion.

Police and highways seem to work in cahoots too!

Many roads around me have multiple changes of speed limit for no apparant reason - except it makes money!!!

Bear in mind that in general the police do sweet fanny for most of us - suffer a break-in, car theft etc., the most you're likely to get is a crime number. 

If you're unlucky enough to be involved in an accident - you will be interogated as a criminal - at fault or not and your vehicle likely searched. 

I've met a few very helpful - even traffic police! and try to keep an unbiased view but the plastic jobsworths make it extremely difficult. 

My eldest daughter's one time husband was a policeman - swore to love, honour, cherish and foresake all others - when he was busy shagging elsewhere any time he could - then he and his police mates made my daughter's life misery while the divorce and split went on - had her arrested and imprisoned in cuffs - utter, utter LYING BASTARD! 

However; top marks to the 6 or 7 unarmed police I saw on telly running towards the danger when that guy stabbed people on a train - proper policemen.

I HAD TO ATTEND ONE OF THESE TODAY!

FIRSTLY A NOTE OF COMPASSION FOR THE TWO PRESENTERS - GODKNOWS WHAT YOU ARE PAID FOR TROTTING OUT THIS DROSS - BUT IT'S NOT ENOUGH!

THEIR SCRIPT WAS PREPARED BY THE MINISTRY OF BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS INFORMATION!

I was quite surprised to realise that I was the only one of 20/25 attendees that disputed the charge of speeding - everyone else accepted that they do indeed speed regularly and were thus bang to rights guilty. Several admitted that they thought themselves lucky to be offered this course rather a fine and points on their licence - as they'd been travelling faster than booked.

The course was scheduled to last three friggin' hours - what - may you ask - will be dreamed up to fill them? Hmm... it cruised along reasonably well with each presenter doing a little section separately - rather in the manner of a Butlins Red Coat trying to summon up enthusiam for Minehead on a rainy day - the need for speed limits (Oh REALLY?) then a friendly test - which I knew all the answers despite not looking at a Highway Code for about thirty years! 

But then they showed a video of a supposedly "educational test" - it proported to be a pukka demonstration of vehicles driven at different speeds and their equally suppositional stopping distances. O.K. I fully realise the implications of ½mv² but simply showing a car hitting a box while an actor's foot is braking - doesn't do much for me!

Not a single empirical parameter! We were all asked to take it on trust that it wasn't fiddled.

For me to take that "test" as a proper scientific experiment - I would want to see the track delineated - much better recording of the vehicle's speed - and the amount of pressure applied to the brakes (all other things being equal). To be fair to the presenter - she agreed that you can't argue with Physics and that the film was made to make a point and not necessarily accurate.

Oh well, that's alright then!

Couple of blokes sitting nearby were jolly chaps and we all had a damned good banter! Cheers if you look in! Especially the bellringer.