"Tom Crispin" wrote
[snip]
> Paul Boatang, as Home Office minister said,
> "'The introduction of the fixed penalty is not aimed at responsible
> cyclists who sometimes feel obliged to use the pavement out of fear
> of
> the traffic, and who show consideration to other pavement users
> when
> doing so. Chief police officers, who are responsible for
> enforcement,
> acknowledge that many cyclists, particularly children and young
> people, are afraid to cycle in the road... "
This surely must be one of the most memorably silly statements any
government minister, of any party, has ever made. It shows that the
man is not fit to be in parliament, let alone government.
Once a law is passed, IT'S THE LAW. It's the law for all. If the
caveats that Boetang says have to be made actually do have to be
made, then that tells us we have a bad law. There is no way, by
looking at random people on the street, to see whether anyone is
"responsible". Therefore any enforcement is guaranteed to be
arbitrary and capricious. That automatically ought to get you off,
if stopped, on civil rights grounds, and perhaps let you sue the
police as well.
Who knows what the various chiefs of police will actually do, let
alone the various policemen out in the street on their own. The
government does show occasional signs of megalomaniac
authoritarianism, but I doubt if even they will lower Boetangs
responsibilities to have him overseeing the police's law enforcement
efforts against pavement cyclists throughout the length and breadth
of Britain. Boetang's aims are irrelevant to what will actually
happen.
This reminds me of a quote I've seen about Wernher von Braun, the
rocket scientist. "He aimed for the stars, but sometimes hit London"
Jeremy Parker
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