I seriously, SERIOUSLY doubt fake license plates are that much of an issue as you claim. Anything to back this up? The BBC report about the ‘one third actually pays’ – bit would be nice. I seriously doubt those two-thirds get off because of their cunning.

BBC article here (clearly I didn’t remember it correctly for which I apologise):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6568813.stm

Another BBC article about, in your words, ‘evil furriners’:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4292645.stm

Also, you never drive when you’re really, really drunk. Half a dozen pints and a few whiskeys at most. And i’m sure that whenever you do mug someone in the streets, it’s a big, fit guy and not some fragile old lady either…

I very, very rarely drink when I know I going to drive and I never drive when ‘over-the-limit’, period. It also goes without saying I’ve never mugged anybody.

As I said:

When I get caught I pay my fine and take my points – it’s a fair cop.

Hardly ‘wallowing in self-pity’ is it?

Agreed Lewis made mistakes, but that would have left him 8th. From that position he would have been able to move back up the field to at least 4th which would have been enough. He only lost because of the gearbox problem, just bad luck, which all drivers have to contend with.

Lewis Hamilton made a bad mistake in China too…that as much as anything cost him the championship.

Mechanical failure is unfortunate but Ferrari have had their car problems also.

With regards to the fuel rule. If those teams broke the rule they should be disqualified.

With regard to the fuel issue I think the teams involved should be punished but not disqualified and I agree Ferrari would probably have made more fuss…but that’s not the way I would want McLaren (or anybody else for that matter) to behave.

Much as I would have liked Lewis Hamilton to win (and make history in the process) I think Kimi Raikkonen is the legitimate champion this year.

I don’t think this fuel issue affected the final positions on Sunday, certainly not in comparison to the mistakes that Lewis Hamilton made himself.

I’m also sure that Lewis Hamilton has a long F1 career ahead of him and am almost certain he will be world champion one day.

Well done Kimi Raikkonen you deserved it this year! 😀

So you don’t speed then?

Speed cameras are only an issue to drivers who will not stay within the mandated speed limit.

Yes, I can’t argue with that.

My (poorly put) point about complexity was whether speed cameras are the best way of reducing road accidents.

I habitually speed, and am the first to admit it, but never dangerously so…and I know that’s only in my opinion and that you will probably disagree.

When I get caught (twice in 1999) I pay my fine and take my points – it’s a fair cop.

If a law is going to have the respect of the public it must be seen to be a law for everybody.

Not just those who can’t afford specialist lawyers to get them off the hook on an obscure technicality.

I agree, I don’t think it is right that that happens but I would suggest for every wealthy person who gets off on a technicality there are thousands who are not traced because their car is not correctly registered or who have a cloned registration (that leaves some completely innocent person to prove, at some considerable expense, it was not them who was speeding).

Just to the West of the village and NE of the Warrington roundabout,was a practice RAF/USAAF bombing ground during World War Two.

Live weapons? That sounds a bit dangerous!

About three-and-a-half miles west of Lavendon there is a huge bomb-dump (see satellite photo below).

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=52.186786,-0.773463&spn=0.005762,0.021501&t=h&z=16&om=1

Presumably it was used in support of the RAF/USAAF bomber offensive.

I’m wondering……short of buying another kit is there a way to order individual parts or part trees?

Years ago some model manufacturers used to put a form in their boxes so you could request replacements for any parts that were missing or badly formed.

I take it Academy don’t do this…or are you too honest? 😀

It is a complex issue. I think the reason we have ‘speed’ cameras is because this is all that they are able to detect. As has already been pointed out it would be better if we had some ‘driving-like-an-idiot’ or ‘drunk-in-charge’ cameras instead. They are also not an excuse for reducing the number of police traffic patrols that seem almost non-existent these days.

My real problem with the camera mentality is that they tend to punish those who are ‘willing’ to be punished. A recent BBC news item stated that only about a third of those who are caught pay the penalty…and of course it’s the (more) ‘law-abiding’ third that pay.

Those who do not register their car (or falsify their registration), those with ‘cloned’ registrations and those with non-UK registrations simply do not pay the penalty and the police find it ‘uneconomic’ or impossible to track them down. Many of these drivers will also have no insurance or MOT and of course do not pay road tax.

If a law is going to have the respect of the public it must be seen to be a law for everybody.