Safe Speed Forums

I believe there’s allot of skulduggery going on with the latest report, that’s why its taking so long to come out. Did you notice Ladyman said that they had held off the introduction of 500 new cameras until they could show proof that cameras are working. Maybe they know what the report is going to say already, but need to make it impressive enough to justify more cameras.

It was nice to see the majority of the audience booing Ladyman at the start, and then told to quiet down .

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Precisely. If the TG researcher used the expression 'Golden Opportunity' then I'm certain that he/she was just making encouraging noises and didn't really expect a serious debate to break out. Furthermore, even if Paul did get on the show to do the lap in the Suzuki, the undercurrent of wit and light hearted banter that runs throughout the whole show would almost certainly smother anything serious he had to say.
The moral seems to be, use TG to have a light hearted dig sure, but leave serious debate to Paxman or Trevor McDonald et al.

That being said, I still think that limited and light hearted though it was, the TG interview probably still advanced our cause more than the Trevor McDonald show did.

My feeling is that as and when the opportunity arises TG need to be fed the right briefing so as to clearly cover a single point. Where it went wrong last night was in flitting about and lightly mentioning practically every stock camera related topic but none of them in any depth.

Light-hearted humour can be an extremely effective way of communicating a serious and / or complex issue. Look how Bremner, Bird and Fortune have used satire to make probably the strongest case against Blair I've yet seen on television.

If Clarkson had been properly briefed on (say) RTTM then he could have stuck with that single issue using wit and humorous analogies to drive home the point and leave Ladyman looking completely ridiculed. For example, the "Gnome" idea we've mentioned before would have made great tv and got the RTTM principle across perfectly, as it's just the sort of thing that the TG team do best.

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

We know that much for sure, the interesting bit will be seeing what could have caused it to take so long.

One interesting thing is that the 2004 Road Accident Data has appeared on the ESDS system this is nine months ahead of when it has appeared in the past. We know that fatalities and KSI dropped across the board in '04 so perhaps they have included part (or all) of year five to make year four look better.

Gareth

Clarkson missed an even greater opportunity than the RTTM topic.

I was screaming at the TV when the minister said, if you don't speed you won't get caught.

Clarkson should have retorted with, 'that's assuming that they are accurate, and they're not, ask Trevor!'

Innocent people have everything to fear if slip and reflections can add 7mph to a speed reading on an LTi.

It must have really p*ssed off Toontown2000 for a Government Minister to give credibility to the program.

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Speed camera policy Kills

Thought Ladyman looked very nervous.

Thinking about that section of TG, it seems to be a pretty naive piece of PR by Ladyman/his advisors.

It shows how extreme camera policy is doesn't it? Send in an Alfa driving 'ordinary bloke' (Ladyman (wearing trainers! Groovy!)) with points on his licence, trying to sanitise and cool down the debate with a bit of a human side, but basically reinforcing the philosophy.

But it doesn't work. As someone's already said, SCP folks will be groaning, we were groaning, no one will be appeased.

As a govt rep you either promote your evidence with unblinking scientific conviction or you admit its all a bit silly. By criminalising 'speeders' you remove any moderate middle ground.

It was alright.

Big hand to Clarkson and TG for making a start.

Theres a balance between full on grilling and examination of issues and stats...but late at night when nobody sees or...

what we saw last night when some of the issues were raised but to a far far wider audience.

The snowball is rolling.

I wonder if he spun the car off deliberately: if hadn't it would have proved that 80mph can be safe, and might have undermined his position.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/08/803.asp

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Speed camera policy Kills

Well, I thought JS did quite well considering the target audience.

Mr Ladyman was definately squirming....

My favourite part was the parting shot about "you owe me 60 quid", and the cut to the gatso flashing him!

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"Are you sh**ing me?"
"John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute."

When is the repeat...or have I missed it already?

BBC2, tuesday, 7pm

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Less Kodak, more Kojak.
In times of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

In a slight defence of Ladyman, there wasn't a Gatso by the track - it would be far to dangerous to have a solid post next to a track designed by Lotus for specifically testing the high speed performance of cars. The Gatso flashing was a composite sequence designed to get a laugh - you cannot believe everything you see on TV.

I think it went fairly well, given that it is a light entertainment program not a serious debate, and the questions were raised and seen to not really be answered. What I do find worrying, but it did come across very strongly, is that the new Report into speed camera effectiveness has a predefined conclusion, and is not a genuinely open investigation into the subject. But what do you expect from this government?

I have a slight feeling most of us figured that out for ourselves But thanks for pointing it out anyway.

If it was a composite I couldn't see the join so hats off to TG for making it very convincing. It had me fooled entirely. Doh.

/slinks off under rock to be embarrassed in solitude....

Any luck? We need that transcript.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

for shame, would've made a great headline if he'd ploughed into that instead of the tyre wall....

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

ps. does any one know how to grab the teletext 888 subtitles??

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code