So then ... I’ve been remiss in posting another to this. I have actually done one but when I tried to up-load it the internet link had crashed and I lost the lot. Hopefully I’ve learned from that now and with this one I shall do a draft in Word and then cut and paste it over. We’ll see ... ... ... ...
The whole idea of this blog was to be a record of my birding activities over 2011 but things are not going to be as heavily ‘birding’ as I first wanted. Yet again yesterday lunch time I was taken in to the local hospital with chest pains, and not for the first time either although it has been some time since it last happened. However, I was given the all clear and released after a couple of hours with orders to rest. That means no birding for a few days at least. And no, I still haven’t been down to the rec yet!
Last Tuesday we went off to Winsford to collect Bella pup. The route from here is the A444 and the M6 to Junction 18 and then local roads to the breeder’s house. As per usual there are road works on the M6. Currently the ones I know of are from just south of Junction 7 north to around Junction 12. OK, fine. This area is having the variable speed limit system installed. As with most road work areas there’s a speed limit, 50mph on this stretch and also there are some of the average speed cameras installed there.
So there I was plodding along at around the 45mph and guess what ... artics were going passed us so fast it made us feel that we were standing still. Indeed, as we came out of the road works one truck had overtake us and sped up to go past him. I stayed behind him for about half a mile at one point shaking my head in disbelief. This nutter was hammering down the M6 at just short of 70mph! Yes, I know, they are supposed to be limited to 56mph but this one was doing nearly 70mph. But hang on a minute ...
Surely he should have got himself a speeding ticket through the road works. OK, so he probably did and I have no sympathy for anyone who does get one. The argument about speed cameras and council making money from them doesn’t wash with me. All drivers know the speed limits and they have a responsibility to abide by them. None of us has a special dispensation that allows us to speed and get away with it. The current penalty is £60 and 3 penalty points on your licence. So then, that trucker paid his £60 and had his 3 points added, yes? NO!!!
The ticket is sent to the registered keeper of the truck and not the driver. That not-so worthy person will not hear anything about it at all unless they get a warning from their Boss to make sure they don’t get any more. The question is, how and why do they get away with it? The reason is that the truckers Boss finds it easier and cheaper to pay the fine than have the driver do it. They claim that they don’t know which driver was in which trucker at one time on one day. TOTAL COBBLERS!!! I used to drive for Interlink Express and I to pay the one speeding ticket I got then. While I was there I was allocated to a vehicle and remained with it until it was renewed 2 years when they bought 2 new ones. My brother is a trucker and also is allocated to a truck and it remains his until he leaves or the company or they given him a new one. And let’s face it, a lot of these truckers leave their depots early on Monday morning and don’t get back until the Friday of that same week. They can’t possibly keep swopping trucks during the week. But that’s not all ...
Trucks all have a tachograph machine installed in their cabs. For those of you who don’t know, these machines hold a paper disc and record the number of hours the driver has been driving and also how much non-driving work they do. There are limits to how much of both they are allowed to do in any one day or work-period with additional limits over a week. The discs also record the speed of the truck while being driven AND the drivers full name. The truck operator is required by Law to keep these discs for a certain period of time in case any investigation has to be held, for whatever reason.
So when a ticket does come in why can’t they give the authorities the details they have to hand? Maybe it’s because so many of the truckers are caught speeding that to pass on those details and have the fine paid and the points added to the licences of the drivers it wouldn’t be too long before they started losing their licences. So what? Now the argument of Law and avoiding it is lost, they turn to the usual blackmail, “If we lose all our drivers who will deliver your good s to the shops and fuel to the garages?” they bleat. What they don’t think about is to change the loading and routing of their trucks and the requirement for their drivers to keep to very tight schedules so that they don’t need to speed. If they do it’s always with more blackmail in mind. “OK, we can do that, but if will add to our costs and that will have to be passed on to our customers and then on to you the public.” See? You can’t win these people!
Well, that’s enough ranting from me for today. Silent Witness is coming on telly soon and I want to sit and watch it without distraction.
Oh yes ... Bill sent me another one ...
The teacher told him not to worry, to go home and use the questions as part of his homework so he could give the answer at the next school day. Once home ,the boy intrigued by Those words asks his dad. " ok " said his father, " first go and ask your mother if she would go to bed with Brad Pitt for a couple of million quids". Boy comes back and confirms that his mother said that she definetely would. " ok" ,said his father, " now go and ask your sister if she would go to bed with with Brad Pitt for a couple of million quids. Boy asks and comes back to tell his father that his sister would jump at the chance.
.." there you go son" ( his father said) " POTENTIALLY " we could be millionaires but " REALISTICALLY" we are living with a couple of whores.
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