Driving a bargain?

Anyone notice the latest grubby little scheme by this shabby Government to screw a few more bob from the motorists? The plan, apparently, is for the police to issue on the spot fines of £60 and points on a licence for a whole host of trivial motoring offences from changing stations on the radio - which could be seen as driving without due care and attention or careless driving or whatever - to fender benders where it would normally be exchange details and on your way.

The fines, less a commission, no doubt, to some private outfit that made the requisite donation to party funds, will go to the Treasury. It is yet another example of how the ever more politicised police are being turned in to tax collectors.

With New Labour's obsession with targets, league tables and performance indicators, which have all but taken over from providing a real service as the priority for any area of life under the dead thumb of Whitehall, the police would be fools not to take advantage of the easy pickings on offer to boost their crime and detection figures.
It makes shooting fish in a barrel look difficult.

But why stop there. The Government could save a fortune and rake in the readies with a simpler, more honest approach. They could downsize, or as we would say, sack, thousands of policemen and close hundreds of police stations by replacing them with a premium rate number. People call at £1 a minute to report a robbery or whatever and an automatic crime number is generated and, for a small fee - have your credit card ready - could even be passed directly to the insurance companies - how efficient is that, cut out the middleman completely.

As for motorists, why not decide in the budget how much you want to squeeze from the serfs of the road and then get ERNIE, when he is not doing premium bonds, to churn out the requisite number of licence plate numbers at random each month and if your number comes up you are charged with whatever offence is the special that month and have to cough up £60.

Simple really.