Safe Speed Forums

'Hypocrisy' of speeding middle-class motorists

Speeding motorists are hypocrites guilty of “middle class anti-social behaviour” who believe they can get away with breaking the law, one of the country’s longest serving chief constables has claimed.

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
Published: 10:26PM BST 08 Aug 2010

Exceeding the speed limit or going too fast for conditions was reported as a factor in 4,187 deaths and serious injuries in 2009 Photo: DAVID ROSE

Julie Spence, the outgoing head of Cambridgeshire police, says drivers consider speeding as acceptable and change their minds only if they lose a child in a road accident.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, she claims that the biggest problem perceived by the public in her county is speeding drivers in rural areas and illegal parking by parents outside schools.

“Speeding is middle-class anti-social behaviour,” she says. “People think we should be able to get away with it. They wouldn’t tolerate lawbreaking by somebody else but they do it themselves without thinking.

“It all seems OK until something tragic happens, like their child dies because of a road traffic accident.”

Mrs Spence, 55, says that while anti-social behaviour is usually defined as rowdy youths or vandalism, “for too many it is the antics of drivers who refuse to accept that speed limit signs apply to them.

“Driving without care or consideration for other road users is probably among the worst kind of anti-social behaviour in its truest sense, because serious offenders can, and do, kill,” she says.

Mrs Spence, an outspoken police chief who has claimed that much of police time is spent on “social work”, says many social problems in the past decade stem from a “have-it-all” society.

“Easy credit, drink as much as you can, have it when you want, buy this, buy that and buy the other,” she says. “This irresponsibility costs — you play while others pay — and I think we have got to the point where we need to have a little more responsibility.

“With the public purse in such dire straits we need a responsible public who don’t cost public services unnecessarily.”

Mrs Spence warns that cuts to police forces could lead to an “anorexic” service. In voicing fears about the impact of the Government’s austerity drive, she is following Sir Hugh Orde, the head of the Association of Chief Police Officers, who became the first senior officer to suggest that front line policing could be undermined.

But it is her criticism of motorists that is likely to cause controversy. Many motorists who are caught speeding complain that they are “soft” targets used to produce funds — speeding fines raise about £100?million a year — and that the police should be targeting serious criminals instead.

Exceeding the speed limit or going too fast for conditions was reported as a factor in 4,187 deaths and serious injuries in 2009, according to the Department for Transport.

Mrs Spence’s comments on the potential impact of spending cuts are the most outspoken yet by a serving officer. Chief constables fear that their budgets could be cut by up to 25 per cent in the autumn spending review. “That scenario is 'undoable’ — just not achievable if you want any semblance of a police service,” says Mrs Spence.

The effects of the cuts are magnified in smaller county forces such as Cambridgeshire, which has a £130?million budget and 2,500 officers and staff.

Mrs Spence says some of the better-funded forces have to take a bigger proportion of the cuts to save the 16 whose funding is under the national average.

She also suggests that officers would be willing to take a pay cut, or a change in their rates of overtime and allowances, if it meant saving jobs.

“Talking to officers and staff they do not like it, but they’d rather jobs were kept and pay was reduced,” she says.

“Everyone understands the economic climate we’re in and they recognise they have a role in trying to support the country out of it.”

Mrs Spence is critical of the Government for scrapping Labour’s Policing Pledge, which sought to lay down minimum standards. She says it is like “new lions going into a pride and killing off all the young” — in this case “anything that has a Labour tag”.

However, she welcomes moves to cut back on the number of regulations imposed on police, including those relating to health and safety. “You have to allow officers to come up with their own adult decisions about their actions,” she says. “It shouldn’t be something that is subject to health and safety.

“The ultimate thing I said to them was just think of yourself as members of the public, who invariably stop at the scene of an accident and so some tremendous things.

“If they were a public servant they would be going through, 'Can I do this, can I do that?’ No, actually you just do it.”

...she claims that the biggest problem perceived by the public in her county is speeding drivers in rural areas and illegal parking by parents outside schools...

Speeding is middle-class anti-social behaviour...

Exceeding the speed limit or going too fast for conditions was reported as a factor in 4,187 deaths and serious injuries in 2009

Accidents are only caused by going too fast for the conditions.

Chief Con Mick Giannasi, of Gwent Police, said casualties had almost halved over an eight year period due to the use of speed cameras

There is a lot of curiously mixed up thinking reported above but I should like to comment on


This is manifestly not true. One of the most common accidents is caused by someone pulling out in front of a vehicle going along perfectly safely. This is unrelated to speed and totally due to lack of observation.

Exceeding the speed limit or going too fast for conditions was reported as a factor in 4,187 deaths and serious injuries in 2009

'Hypocrisy' of speeding middle-class motoristsBy Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent - Published: 10:26PM BST 08 Aug 2010

Speeding motorists are hypocrites guilty of “middle class anti-social behaviour” who believe they can get away with breaking the law, one of the country’s longest serving chief constables has claimed.

Exceeding the speed limit or going too fast for conditions was reported as a factor in 4,187 deaths and serious injuries in 2009

Julie Spence, the outgoing head of Cambridgeshire police, says drivers consider speeding as acceptable and change their minds only if they lose a child in a road accident.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, she claims that the biggest problem perceived by the public in her county is speeding drivers in rural areas and illegal parking by parents outside schools.
“Speeding is middle-class anti-social behaviour,” she says. “People think we should be able to get away with it. They wouldn’t tolerate lawbreaking by somebody else but they do it themselves without thinking.
“It all seems OK until something tragic happens, like their child dies because of a road traffic accident.”

Mrs Spence, 55, says that while anti-social behaviour is usually defined as rowdy youths or vandalism, “for too many it is the antics of drivers who refuse to accept that speed limit signs apply to them.
“Driving without care or consideration for other road users is probably among the worst kind of anti-social behaviour in its truest sense, because serious offenders can, and do, kill,” she says.

Mrs Spence, an outspoken police chief who has claimed that much of police time is spent on “social work”, says many social problems in the past decade stem from a “have-it-all” society.
“Easy credit, drink as much as you can, have it when you want, buy this, buy that and buy the other,” she says. “This irresponsibility costs — you play while others pay — and I think we have got to the point where we need to have a little more responsibility.
“With the public purse in such dire straits we need a responsible public who don’t cost public services unnecessarily.”

Mrs Spence warns that cuts to police forces could lead to an “anorexic” service. In voicing fears about the impact of the Government’s austerity drive, she is following Sir Hugh Orde, the head of the Association of Chief Police Officers, who became the first senior officer to suggest that front line policing could be undermined.
But it is her criticism of motorists that is likely to cause controversy. Many motorists who are caught speeding complain that they are “soft” targets used to produce funds — speeding fines raise about £100?million a year — and that the police should be targeting serious criminals instead.

Exceeding the speed limit or going too fast for conditions was reported as a factor in 4,187 deaths and serious injuries in 2009, according to the Department for Transport.

Mrs Spence’s comments on the potential impact of spending cuts are the most outspoken yet by a serving officer. Chief constables fear that their budgets could be cut by up to 25 per cent in the autumn spending review. “That scenario is 'undoable’ — just not achievable if you want any semblance of a police service,” says Mrs Spence.
The effects of the cuts are magnified in smaller county forces such as Cambridgeshire, which has a £130?million budget and 2,500 officers and staff.

Mrs Spence says some of the better-funded forces have to take a bigger proportion of the cuts to save the 16 whose funding is under the national average.
She also suggests that officers would be willing to take a pay cut, or a change in their rates of overtime and allowances, if it meant saving jobs.
“Talking to officers and staff they do not like it, but they’d rather jobs were kept and pay was reduced,” she says.
“Everyone understands the economic climate we’re in and they recognise they have a role in trying to support the country out of it.”

Mrs Spence is critical of the Government for scrapping Labour’s Policing Pledge, which sought to lay down minimum standards. She says it is like “new lions going into a pride and killing off all the young” — in this case “anything that has a Labour tag”.
However, she welcomes moves to cut back on the number of regulations imposed on police, including those relating to health and safety. “You have to allow officers to come up with their own adult decisions about their actions,” she says. “It shouldn’t be something that is subject to health and safety.
“The ultimate thing I said to them was just think of yourself as members of the public, who invariably stop at the scene of an accident and so some tremendous things.
“If they were a public servant they would be going through, 'Can I do this, can I do that?’ No, actually you just do it.”

Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent Daily Telegraph - Julie Spence wrote:
Mrs Spence, 55, says that while anti-social behaviour is usually defined as rowdy youths or vandalism, “for too many it is the antics of drivers who refuse to accept that speed limit signs apply to them.
“Driving without care or consideration for other road users is probably among the worst kind of anti-social behaviour in its truest sense, because serious offenders can, and do, kill,” she says.
Is she really now trying to equate a few mph over the limit with anti-social behaviour as from 'youths' also denigrating another whole section of the community) and levels them and drivers with vandals ?

...What we are really seeing is a rearguard action by police chiefs against the stated declaration of Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, to "end Labour's war on the motorist". In many ways, these two police chiefs prove Mr Hammond's point. Exceeding the speed limit is not, of itself, "the worst kind of anti-social behaviour", as Mrs Spence would have us believe. It depends on the circumstances. Driving at 39mph in a residential area is more dangerous than driving at 90mph on a clear, dry day on a motorway. Yet driving at 70mph on a motorway in the pouring rain may well be within the speed limit but is downright stupid and reckless.

If Mrs Spence means that bad driving is anti-social, then most of us would agree with her. Yet an excessive reliance on speed cameras has resulted in fewer police patrols, which means the appalling drivers we all see weaving in and out of traffic do not get pulled in often enough because fixed cameras cannot record such behaviour. These are also the people least likely to have licences, insurance, to pay any fine or observe any ban. They are emphatically not, by and large, members of the law-abiding middle classes...