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Drivers Clobbered: Fines Could Rocket To Fill Massive Gap In Ministers' Spending Plans


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HOLA441

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295374/Drivers-clobbered-Fines-rocket-massive-gap-Ministers-spending-plans.html

Motorists face being hit by a massive increase in fines to plug a black hole in the coalition’s spending commitments.

Officials want to raise the controversial Victims’ Surcharge, which is added to court fines for speeding and other minor offences, from £15 to as much as £30.

They are also forging ahead with Labour’s widely criticised plan – which Tory MPs had expected the new Government to axe – to levy the charge on parking tickets and other fixed penalty notice offences which do not even reach court.

This ‘double whammy’ would increase the cost of a parking ticket by 50 per cent, from £60 to £90.

Ministers say the money is needed to meet a coalition spending agreement to give millions of pounds in guaranteed funding to rape crisis centres every year.

Last night, critics demanded a rethink of the ‘unfair’ plan. They have attacked the surcharge as a ‘stealth tax’ on motorists, and say it should not be levied against crimes where there ‘is no victim’.

The Victims’ Surcharge was introduced in April 2007, and was supposed to hit everybody guilty of a criminal offence.

However, it currently applies only to those fined by the courts, such as motorists who challenge speeding tickets. They have to pay a mandatory £15 on top of every fine.

Earlier this year, the Daily Mail revealed the last Government’s plans to extend the surcharge to all fixed penalty notices, including parking offences, not wearing a seatbelt, and speeding tickets not challenged in court.

Last year, more than three million drivers alone were handed fixed penalties for speeding.

The only problem with this is that if people are driving less there will be less fines issued, so they aren't going to increase revenues, they may not even match current revenues.

The state has a problem, it's got no cash and is trying to be as creative as possible to increase taxes without being seen to increase taxes. This isn't a tax rise it's a fine, no it's just semantics.

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HOLA442
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HOLA443

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295374/Drivers-clobbered-Fines-rocket-massive-gap-Ministers-spending-plans.html

The only problem with this is that if people are driving less there will be less fines issued, so they aren't going to increase revenues, they may not even match current revenues.

The state has a problem, it's got no cash and is trying to be as creative as possible to increase taxes without being seen to increase taxes. This isn't a tax rise it's a fine, no it's just semantics.

take the hinty, drive less, spend less, earn less :)

lets shut this country down & force um to cut a better deal for the surfs - feck um

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HOLA444

more stealth taxing coming up to fill a black hole

won't work though

but will steal more hard earned cash from us :angry:

I got a speeding ticket last year (my first ever) in a 40mph area they changed speed limit to 30mph few days ago & put speed camera van, caught quiet a few, must have made hundred of thousands, this is extortion :angry: for the time being thats life but one day people will rise up to this, can't wait for that day.

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HOLA445
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HOLA446

Not done since 1984 so its not major thing.................i live very close to the Mersyside/Lancs border thus limted action by both forces. Also find that i obey in day time, after dark on back roads is where & when.

Mike

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HOLA447

Maybe people could just, you know, drive and park legally?

It is hardly a stealth tax, it is very easily avoidable.

Suprisingly all the people I know who drive sensibly manage to avoid it and all the ones who drive recklessly seem to have fines/tickets/bans mounting up....must just be a massive coincidence

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HOLA448

Re speeding fines - it's possible for careful drivers to get caught out but in general drivers shouldn't be speeding anyway. Speeding fines are almost the perfect form of taxation because if you drive properly you'll never have to pay them!

However I reckon easy pickings for the police and a prime candidates for increased fines should be noisy exhausts and non-regulation number plates. If the boy-racers in their Subaru Imprezzas that make such a horrible noise, not to mention bikers with screaming superbikes, which are even worse, were libale for a £1000 fine for excessive noise, they'd think twice about deliberately making their vehicle noisier. If they happened to be displaying a non-regulation number plate, maybe the thought of a further £1000 fine might make them want to change it for a legal one.

Suprisingly all the people I know who drive sensibly manage to avoid it and all the ones who drive recklessly seem to have fines/tickets/bans mounting up....must just be a massive coincidence
Agreed......I might be a wild and reckless leftie on internet forums but on the road I've always driven 'by the book'. That's done me OK for 38 years including a spell as an HGV driver - no fines, no penalty points. I won't get over smug, though - you never know what's round the next bend - which in itself is a compelling reason for driving 'by the book'.
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HOLA449

Suprisingly all the people I know who drive sensibly manage to avoid it and all the ones who drive recklessly seem to have fines/tickets/bans mounting up....must just be a massive coincidence

Daily Mail and Motoring Lobby - the Terrible Twins of Outrage and Entitlement. The idea of driving legally (or not at all) is not merely unacceptable, it's inconceivable: they can't think it! Like trying to tell them the Earth is round!

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HOLA4410

Daily Mail and Motoring Lobby - the Terrible Twins of Outrage and Entitlement. The idea of driving legally (or not at all) is not merely unacceptable, it's inconceivable: they can't think it! Like trying to tell them the Earth is round!

It's like some petrolheads bang on about civil rights and 'motoring libertarianism'. Driving isn't a civil right, it's a privilege you earn by showing you can meet a certain standard. If a motorist isn't prepared to continue maintaining that standard, then perhaps they shouldn't be driving.
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HOLA4411
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HOLA4412

Isn't it better to drive safely than adhere strictly to an arbitary limit?

Yes it is.

What the "if you just obey the rules all is well crowd" don't seem to get is that the rules are continually re-made so that they will be broken by the average motorist because the point of the rules isn't to get you to drive safely* it's to raise money for the treasury and give value to the paper currency.

What we have here is innocent people (In the classic who has been hurt? No one! sense) being attacked by the state just for a few extra quid.

Evil.

* you already drive as safely as you know how and so does everyone else - no one wants to die in a car crash.

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HOLA4413

Isn't it better to drive safely than adhere strictly to an arbitary limit?

Those who are incapable of the latter (without conscious effort) are invariably just as incapable of the former (no matter how strong their self-delusion).

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HOLA4414

Those who are incapable of the latter (without conscious effort) are invariably just as incapable of the former (no matter how strong their self-delusion).

I'm quite capable of driving at bang on 30 thanks, but it diverts my attention from the kids running into the road.

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HOLA4415

What we have here is innocent people (In the classic who has been hurt? No one! sense) being attacked by the state just for a few extra quid.

If I was the State ... any more of this and I'd roll my roads up and take them home. Not playing.

* you already drive as safely as you know how and so does everyone else - no one wants to die in a car crash.

Demonstrably inaccurate.

Injin, are you familiar with the concept of the "ned"?

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HOLA4416

so when your little cherub chases their Jabulani ball into the street without looking and I'm coming down the road in my HUMMER, would you rather I was focused on driving at 30mph and successfully doing so, or relying on my natural instincts and constantly scanning the paths, other traffic, pedestrians etc and driving at 35mph?

Are there any activities where adherance to specifics of the speed with which you carry it out are more important than complete focus on the matter at hand and drawing upon your natural instincts and years of experience?

I find my eyes flick and dart all over the place when I'm driving. In a split second; that cyclists right foot who I am passing, the guy over there on the right who's walking his dog, yes it's on a lead, and not turning towards the road, that bag blowing across, does it have something heavy inside? that lorry coming around the bend is slightly on my side of the road, is that car behind about to overtake? those two kids there, are they about to run across the road?

What I'm not thinking is OMG THAT SIGN SAID 30MPH, WATCH YOUR SPEEDO, WATCH YOUR SPEEDO, WATCH YOUR SPEEDO

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HOLA4417

I'm quite capable of driving at bang on 30 thanks, but it diverts my attention from the kids running into the road.

And how often does that happen?

If you're in danger of topping 30 in a built up area, hats off to you. You must live in a ghost town.

Luckily my old banger lets me know the exact speed by the terrible noises it emits. And the rate at which stuff (parked cars, dashed centrelines and so on) passes your peripheral vision when I'm looking out of the big window (a habit of mine, I do it all the time) can keep me within a couple of mph of a reasonable rate of progress, all the way up to the National Limit.

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HOLA4418

more stealth taxing coming up to fill a black hole

won't work though

but will steal more hard earned cash from us :angry:

I got a speeding ticket last year (my first ever) in a 40mph area they changed speed limit to 30mph few days ago & put speed camera van, caught quiet a few, must have made hundred of thousands, this is extortion :angry: for the time being thats life but one day people will rise up to this, can't wait for that day.

lol you'll be waiting a very, very long time I imagine.

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HOLA4419

If I was the State ... any more of this and I'd roll my roads up and take them home. Not playing.

Demonstrably inaccurate.

Injin, are you familiar with the concept of the "ned"?

hey!

The rider was "as they know how"!

That said if you are still driving "for fun" instead of work, shops and back and that's all and you don't live in the middle of ******ing nowhere you need a slap.

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HOLA4420

so when your little cherub chases their Jabulani ball into the street without looking and I'm coming down the road in my HUMMER, would you rather I was focused on driving at 30mph and successfully doing so, or relying on my natural instincts and constantly scanning the paths, other traffic, pedestrians etc and driving at 35mph?

Are there any activities where adherance to specifics of the speed with which you carry it out are more important than complete focus on the matter at hand and drawing upon your natural instincts and years of experience?

I find my eyes flick and dart all over the place when I'm driving. In a split second; that cyclists right foot who I am passing, the guy over there on the right who's walking his dog, yes it's on a lead, and not turning towards the road, that bag blowing across, does it have something heavy inside? that lorry coming around the bend is slightly on my side of the road, is that car behind about to overtake? those two kids there, are they about to run across the road?

What I'm not thinking is OMG THAT SIGN SAID 30MPH, WATCH YOUR SPEEDO, WATCH YOUR SPEEDO, WATCH YOUR SPEEDO

I'm a "terrible" driver in the eyes of the law, however, the reality is that the speed limit is the UPPER limit, perhaps you should drive at 20 mph in your hummer on a 30 mph road and then won't be so concerned if your speed fluctuates a little?

Your argument is crass.

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HOLA4421
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HOLA4422

Maybe people could just, you know, drive and park legally?

It is hardly a stealth tax, it is very easily avoidable.

Suprisingly all the people I know who drive sensibly manage to avoid it and all the ones who drive recklessly seem to have fines/tickets/bans mounting up....must just be a massive coincidence

+1

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HOLA4423

take the hinty, drive less, spend less, earn less  :)

lets shut this country down & force um to cut a better deal for the surfs - feck um

+10. Yeh and stop buying chinese iCrap stuff too. Together we can bring them to their knee's :rolleyes:

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HOLA4424

The rider was "as they know

Yerbut nobut. Exactly that, that was my point.

When they're not being dicks young working-class males would be my preferred choice of driver. Superb eye-hand/foot co-ordination (possibly because of the more direct neurological connections, as there's no question of a brain being involved :P ), can judge distances, gaps, stopping distances instinctively, has healthy appreciation of the hazards inherent in a world ruled by Newtonian mechanics.

Physically fit, big thick racing-driver's neck means steadier vision and so on, doesn't get bored to bloody death by the repetitive sameyness of it all, can fix the thing from scratch sometimes, given the correct tools. Doesn't dawdle, doesn't have domestic issues clouding his concentration, or causing mystery diversions. And so on.

But put a couple of mates in there with them, or give them the slightest sniff of blart, and all hell breaks loose.

Why they call it "joy"riding I can't fathom. Maybe it's an inversion, like "wicked", or "happy"slapping?

Driving like arseholes is probably their kicking back against not being allowed to tip up back at their mums' smelling of drink.

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HOLA4425

I'm quite capable of driving at bang on 30 thanks, but it diverts my attention from the kids running into the road.

Very good point.

One fine that I wouldn`t mind seeing increased is that for using a mobile phone while driving. I still see numpties blabbering away while "controlling" their vehicle with one hand (or less). What is it with these people ? Not only is it very well known that using a mobile while driving is an offence, but it should be blatantly obvious that it is a dangerous thing to do (well far more obvious and dangerous than doing 5mph over the limit).

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