The UK Conservative Party, widely expected to replace the Labour government at the next general election, yesterday announced that it would continue issuing two million speed camera tickets each year. Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Theresa Villiers announced plans to tweak the current photo enforcement system while rejecting calls to scrap the devices altogether. “It’s time to put a stop to Labour’s cash cow camera culture,” Villiers said in a speech to the Conservative Party convention. “Ladies and gentlemen, a Conservative government would not fund any new fixed speed cameras because they are not the best way to make our roads safer.”
A freeze on the existing number of cameras would still leave Britain with 1.2 speed cameras for every 10,000 in population — more than nearly any other country in the world. The proposal allows for an expansion in the total number of cameras as long as local officials meet certain requirements when adding devices.
“If local authorities want new cameras they’ll have to prove nothing else works better and they’ll have to find the money themselves,” Villiers said.
The Tory reform proposal would also require the publication of a complete annual report with statistics on the performance of each speed camera. Speed camera partnerships would be dissolved. The Conservatives also promised to end the Department for Transport’s pro-speed camera marketing and advertising campaigns and replace them with support for alternative road safety strategies.
“The truth is the fines [speed cameras] generate are blinding Labour to the proven merits of other better ways to keep our roads safe: like education, like vehicle activated signs, like traffic police,” Villiers said.
The promise of a new focus drew optimistic support from advocacy groups fully opposed to the use of automated ticketing machines.
“If this policy becomes a reality, we hope that a return to intelligent and proper road safety messages might begin to repair some of the last seventeen years of damage,” said Claire Armstrong, co-founder of the Safe Speed Road Safety Campaign. “Focusing on the wrong road safety policies and messages prevent the correct ones from being implemented. We must ensure that road users understand the need to be responsible for all their actions, and that they are encouraged to seek ways in which to improve their abilities, skills, knowledge judgment and attitude.”
The Association of British Drivers was particularly pleased by the pledge for greater transparency.
“We are delighted that the Conservatives are breaking ranks with contemporary, negative thinking on safety and congestion,” ABD spokesman Nigel Humphries said. “For too long, badly thought out policies have obstructed our roads and penalized safe driving, and the mandarins in both town halls and Whitehall have been able to fob off legitimate objections by keeping the data they have collected under wraps.”
Lord Andrew Adonis, the current Transport Secretary and Labour Party member, called the Tory speed camera plan “a total muddle and mystery.”
[courtesy thenewspaper.com]
Man, the “free” world is turning into the biggest sissies on earth.
UK, Canada, the US. Wow
Just get rid of them!
Right is right, and wrong is wrong.
Brits need to stand up and let their voices be heard, if they want these speed cameras gone.
Write every conservative MP candidate and let you feelings be know.
People power!
Sorry about the typos. I can’t seem to edit and fix them.
BTW, is it just me, or does that necklace look like it was borrowed from Wilma Flinstone?
She’s kind of hawt, in a british sort of way.
Write every conservative MP candidate and let you feelings be know.
Good luck with that. The Conservative party is, if anything, more surveillance-happy than Labour could ever hope to be. Labour, at least, has to pay lip service to civil libertarians**; Conservatives are expected to be tough on crime, and saying no to cameras is not a winning strategy for them. You might, at best, get the speed cameras traded for street surveillance models.
Of course, it’s kind of moot at this point.
** Anti-governmental forces in Europe are more likely to be leftist, mostly because there actually are extreme leftists in Europe.
It may not be easy to scrap existing cameras in the short term as many of the cities that got into this cash business have contracts with their operators which may have punitive clauses attached to unilateral terminations of their agreements.
Conservative or Labour, it makes no difference.
Most of our laws come from the EU and, to be honest, I prefer it. I trust the EU more than our politicians. If we could have a society like the Netherlands, I’d be an extremely happy person.
Good luck not increasing speed camera let alone discontinuing them. The money going into government coffers is as addictive as any drug.
Looks like the British have to choose been the status quo and even worse.
I have always believed that every ballot needs to have “None of the above” as as choice. If “None of the above” gets the most votes, hold the election again with the original slate of candidates ineligible to run. That would put an end to choosing between bad and worse.
Once they’ve had that first hit of pure speed-camera money, there’s no going back.
off topic, but curious–Katie, what is it about the Netherlands you like? David
@1998S90: you need to get out more.
“Brits need to stand up and let their voices be heard, if they want these speed cameras gone.”
Most people in Britain don’t give two shits about politics, their community and even their next door neighbour, let alone about trying to do something positive for the country like get rid of speed cameras.
Britain’s population long ago gave up the notion of living in a free country. It is now dominated by more CCTV and speed cameras than any other country on earth, policies where you can be arrested, jailed and not charged with anything for 3 months, and it is now ‘run’ by a fat one eyed scotsman who NOBODY VOTED FOR.
If the Tories (conservatives) get into power not much will change. The ‘idea’ of Britain is something sold to tourists and investors – the reality is a selfish country where people take what they can and give nothing back.
On a more positive note, if you are a petrolhead you can take a ferry from Liverpool to the Isle of Man in the Irish sea where there are no speed cameras and no speed limits! Hoorah!
EDIT *And before anyone has a go at me, I am British and I moved out of the country.*
“She’s kind of hawt, in a british sort of way.”
Which is to say: Not.
most western two party countries are like this
the govts. know they can do what they want
whoever you vote for you’ll get the same thing
TonyJZX:
most western two party countries are like this
the govts. know they can do what they want
whoever you vote for you’ll get the same thing
Right on the money, Tony!!!
I have a similar saying in my home country, the U.S.A. :
“Democrats and Republicans – first-world prosperity for themselves, third-world prosperity for the rest of us…”