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2008 Aug 28
NZ Speed Camera Van Causes Fatal Accident
A speed camera van in New Zealand has caused a fatal accident. The van was parked in a turning area which had been constructed to allow vehicles to wait alongside the road to turn into a farm entrance instead of having to wait in the carriageway of State Highway 1 near Tirau, North Island. A car wishing to turn into the entrance was hit from behind by another car, after the driver had his attention distracted by the speed camera van. The first car was shunted into the path of an oncoming car. A 65 year old man was killed and two children injured.
Displaying the same arrogance we see from British police, NZ Police refused to admit they caused the accident, and even had the crass insensitivity and gross stupidity to turn up at the same spot a month later. They were sent packing by farmers.
Labour Planning Sinister Network of Spy Stations to Track Cars Every 5 Seconds
A government document has revealed that road pricing plans would mean that satellites and roadside spying devices would track Britains 30 million drivers every 5 seconds, with data then being passed around multiple private companies.
The system can clearly be used for things other than road pricing, such as spying on people's movements and enforcing speed limits.
The plans have been condemned by Conservative transport spokesman Theresa Villiers who said the government had an 'appalling' record on data security, and described the plans as 'sinister'.
CNN's Glenn Beck Reveals How Green Activist Bullied BBC Reporter Into Rewriting Article
Proof that you can't trust BBC reports about climate change. CNN's Glenn Beck reveals how a green activist bullied a BBC reporter into rewriting a story:
Proposals to introduce congestion charging to New York City have been thrown out after state legislators blocked the proposal.
New York City council had wanted an $8 (£4) charge to drive into lower Manhattan.
As in Britain, the central government had attempted to bribe the city into introducing a charge.
Despite the government's constant bleating about global warming, the World Meteorological Organization have said that global temperatures have not risen since 1998.
Determined not to have their scaremongering predictions ruined by the uncooperative planet on which are obliged to live, 'experts' are now predicting 'a new record high temperature within five years'.
Place your bets now.
Scienctists meeting in New York have issued the following declaration, and called upon governments to reject climate change scare stories and scrap all CO2 related taxes.
Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change
"Global warming" is not a global crisis
We, the scientists and researchers in climate and related fields, economists, policymakers, and business leaders, assembled at Times Square, New York City, participating in the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change,
Resolving that scientific questions should be evaluated solely by the scientific method;
Affirming that global climate has always changed and always will, independent of the actions of humans, and that carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant but rather a necessity for all life;
Recognising that the causes and extent of recently observed climatic change are the subject of intense debates in the climate science community and that oft-repeated assertions of a supposed 'consensus' among climate experts are false;
Affirming that attempts by governments to legislate costly regulations on industry and individual citizens to encourage CO2 emission reduction will slow development while having no appreciable impact on the future trajectory of global climate change. Such policies will markedly diminish future prosperity and so reduce the ability of societies to adapt to inevitable climate change, thereby increasing, not decreasing, human suffering;
Noting that warmer weather is generally less harmful to life on Earth than colder:
Hereby declare:
That current plans to restrict anthropogenic CO2 emissions are a dangerous misallocation of intellectual capital and resources that should be dedicated to solving humanity's real and serious problems.
That there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity has in the past, is now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change.
That attempts by governments to inflict taxes and costly regulations on industry and individual citizens with the aim of reducing emissions of CO2 will pointlessly curtail the prosperity of the West and progress of developing nations without affecting climate.
That adaptation as needed is massively more cost-effective than any attempted mitigation and that a focus on such mitigation will divert the attention and resources of governments away from addressing the real problems of their peoples.
That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis.
Now, therefore, we recommend --
That world leaders reject the views expressed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as popular, but misguided works such as "An Inconvenient Truth."
That all taxes, regulations, and other interventions intended to reduce emissions of CO2 be abandoned forthwith.
Agreed at New York, 4 March 2008
With thte notable exceptions of The Spectator and the Sunday Telegraph, the story has gone virtually unreported in the inept British press, who have been so utterly brainwashed by government/green propaganda that most of them are no longer capable of questionning anything.
The Pope has spoken out against 'Global Warming' hysteria.
Pope Benedict XVI attacked climate change doom-mongers, and demanded evidence-based solutions to global warming, not panic based upon eco-dogma.
He went on to suggest than stories of melting ice caps and unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.
Last spring the Vatican hosted a climate change conference. We suspect the Pope's meeting with some environmentalists taught him a lot about them.
Med Hughes was given a 6 week driving ban and £350 fine for his offence of exceeding the speed limit on the A5.
No points were put on his licence.
In a statement he said “Drivers who know they are guilty should plead guilty rather than exploit process issues or spurious attacks on technology, and I am proud to have at least lived up to that belief.”, yet he considered it necessary to point out that “The weather was good, and the road surface dry. There was minimal traffic.” indicating that he knows full well that he wasn't actually doing anything remotely dangerous to anyone.
It yet another example of how senior police officers blather on about how 'terrible' speeding is without really believing it themselves, Med Hughes, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, and Head of ACPO Traffic Policing, has been caught doing an alledged 90mph on the 60mph limited A5 single carriageway near Chirk, Wrexham, North Wales.
Hughes was caught early on a Bank Holiday morning, when he probably thought the Talivan would be in bed — he reckoned without Richard Brunstrom's fanaticism.
The government's clandestine plan to introduce nationwide road tolls have been scuppered by the Scottish National Party who have vowed not to approve such plans for Scotland.
In a surprising, but refreshing, turn of events, the BBC have announced they have abandoned plans to organise a TV special on climate change called 'Planet Relief'.
The event was to have happened in 2008 but has been shelved after executives ruled that the programme was political in nature and went against the BBC's charter of political independence.
The BBC is in general grossly biased on the issue of climate change. Environmentalists and politicians who support MMWGT are given endless air time, whilst those who point out scientific truths are virtually ignored. News programmes frequently use images of car exhausts to accompany environmental stories without any justification in a clear subliminal attempt to brianwash the public. The issue of climate change seems to find it's way into many non-news programmes and is casually mentioned without any criticism, as if it is fact
We can at least be assured that there are some people in the BBC who do care about political bias and will not allow the corporation's power to be abused by political activists within it's own ranks.
The M4 in Gwent was closed by police for 11 hours after a lorry crossed the central reservation resulting in the death of the driver. Queues over 10 miles long built up, and police were still allowing drivers onto the motorway even when they knew it was closed.
The cause of this madness and callous disregard for thousands of drivers is a book called the "Police Road Death Investigation Manual" which seems to actively encourage the police to close roads for as long as possible with total disregard to any consequences.
“They seem to take joy in inconveniencing the public. If the police cannot conduct themselves in a better way than this then we should be looking for better police officers. The Welsh police force is adequately serviced so there can be no excuse.”
Brynle Williams, Conservative AM for North Wales
“I spoke to Gwent Police and they told me the delay was due to them following strict protocol. If that is the case then serious questions have to be asked about how police deal with these sort of things. There was a police car at the junction with its lights flashing but still allowing people to join the A48 to get onto the motorway. As soon as I got onto the A48 I got stuck and couldn?t go anywhere.”
Adrian Llewelyn Jones Former traffic police officer
The Times has reported the startling news that a car has been bought. What makes this otherwise insignificant event newsworthy is that the purchaser is one George Monbiot — environmentalist, Guardian columnist and arch anti-car campaigner. George has moved to rural Wales and discovered much to his surprise that they don't have buses that go past his house every 5 minutes, and taxis are few and far between, so he found he needed a car to get around.
On hearing that Monbiot's car of choice was a Renault Clio, Jeremy Clarkson said
"I just hope the bonnet doesn`t fly up because he`ll be killed — then where would the world be?"
Monbiot told The Times:
"I still feel pretty awful about it. The car is a last resort and I haven`t even used a tank of petrol yet."
(The Clio is in fact a diesel.)
Not able to resist meddling in his new habitat of Machynlleth, Monbiot has begun campaigning to have speed cameras installed.
He still believes there is no excuse for buying a 4x4 — an opinion which should make him very popular in rural Wales.
Meredyth Hughes, ACPO Traffic boss, wants to go back to the bad old days of hidden speed cameras.
He says speed camera partnerships no longer need to abide by rules, and that some forces are carrying out speed checks on roads where there have been no serious accidents, but that they simply 'believe' are dangerous (in other words where they can make most money).
And so roads policing continues to slide back down the slippery slope towards total anarchy.
While the government continues to claim it hasn't made up it's mind about road pricing, it has been revealed that it has already spent £500 million installing a system capable of supporting such a scheme.
The Highways Agency NRTS system, currently used to connect motorway signs telling you not to drink and drive, check your fuel gauge, and other 'useful' messages, is capable of handling the data needed to operate a road pricing system.
While the government continues to claim it hasn't made up it's mind about road pricing, it has been revealed that it has already spent £500 million installing a system capable of supporting such a scheme.
The Highways Agency NRTS system, currently used to connect motorway signs telling you not to drink and drive, check your fuel gauge, and other 'useful' messages, is capable of handling the data needed to operate a road pricing system.
Viscount Monkton has challenged Al Gore to debate global warming in the same venue as Darwin's theory of evolution was debated. The viscount's challenge reads:
"The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley presents his compliments to Vice-President Albert Gore and by these presents challenges the said former Vice-President to a head-to-head, internationally-televised debate upon the question "That our effect on climate is not dangerous", to be held in the Library of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History at a date of the Vice-President's choosing.
Forasmuch as it is His Lordship who now flings down the gauntlet to the Vice-President, it shall be the Vice-President's prerogative and right to choose his weapons by specifying the form of the Great Debate. May the Truth win! Magna est veritas, et praevalet. God Bless America! God Save the Queen!"
The petition against government plans to impose road pricing, set up by ABD member Peter Roberts, gained over 1.8 million signatures by its closing date.
An ex-cop who was formerly the boss of the speed camera operation in Warwickshire and now runs a private company flogging speed cameras, has revealed the extent of the financial scam behind speed cameras. Ensnared by Mail on Sunday reporters posing as representatives of an East European company wanting to set up a speed camera racket in their country, Tele-Traffic boss Jon Bond said "There will be so much money coming in you won't know what to do with it."
He also revealed how new government rules were designed to ensure as much money as possible went straight to the treasury.
Official: Less Than 5% of Accident
s Involve Breaking Speed Limit
The latest government report on road accidents shows that less than 5% of accidents involve vehicles exceeeding the speed limit.
The report ridicules the long proclaimed lie than 'one third' of accidents are caused by 'speeding'.
However, many journalists are being hoodwinked by the DfT who, in summarizing the report, have grouped 'exceeding a speed limit' with 'inappropriate speed for the conditions'. The latter depends upon road and weather conditions and has nothing to do with posted speed limits. It
is necessary to read the report in detail to discover the truth.
In an appalling move which must have many of Britian's great scientists of the past turning in their graves, the Royal Society has sought to suppress scientific debate on climate change by calling on Esso to stop funding organizations that are skeptical about climate change.
In response to this unprecedented politicalization of the once respected Royal Society, Patrick Moore, a founder member of Greenpeace has written this public letter:
Bob Ward
Senior Manager
Policy Communication
The Royal Society
6-9 Carlton House Terrace
London, England SW1Y 5AG
September 21, 2006
Dear Mr. Bob Ward,
I am in receipt of a copy of your letter to ExxonMobil in which you accuse them of misleading the public on the science of climate change.
I would be pleased to have your qualifications in science and to know how you have decided the question of human causation of global warming has been conclusively determined.
While I may agree with certain statements made by the IPCC, surely you and the Royal Society would respect my right to disagree with other statements or at least to call them into question.
You cite the IPCC as the authority yet surely you are aware that science does not work by committee or by "consensus."
Certainly the Royal Society would agree there is no scientific proof of causation between the anthropogenic increase in atmospheric CO2 and the recent global warming trend, a trend that has been evident for about 500 years, long before human-caused increase in CO2 was evident.
I am sure the Royal Society is aware of the difference between an hypothesis and a theory. It is clear the contention that human-induced CO2 e
missions and rising CO2 levels in the global atmosphere are the cause of the present global warming trend is an hypothesis that has not yet been elevated to the level of a proven theory. Causation has not been demonstrated in any conclusive way.
This is no doubt why the authors of the IPCC report use the word "likely" in their concluding statement "most of the global warming over the past 50 years is likely due to the increase in greenhouse gases."
Even more important, it is a fundamental precept in science that rigorous objection to "consensus" be encouraged in order to avoid "politically correct" conclusions that stifle dissent and intellectual exploration.
I say shame on the Royal Society - one of the world's top science bodies
- for allowing such a political "blame" letter to be sent. The correspondence smacks of a repressive and anti-intellectual attitude that can only harm our efforts to understand the true nature of climate change, both non-human and human in origin.
Please retract this letter and instead encourage debate and dialogue on this most important subject for the future of humankind and the environment
Sincerely,
Patrick Moore, PhD
An advisor to government and industry, Dr. Patrick Moore is a co-founder and former leader of Greenpeace, and chair and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. in Van
couver, Canada. www.GreenspiritStrategies.com
A second letter has been sent to journalists by Royal Society Vice-President Sir David Wallace. In it he asks journalists to ignore those skeptical of climate change. Journalists with integrity will of course do no such thing.
STOP PRESS
On 25th September, Bob Ward announced he was no longer employed by the Royal Society. If you know the truth about what is going on
here do please let us know.
2006 Jul 20
Parallel M6 Toll Road Scrapped
Plans to build a toll motorway parallel to the existing M6 between Birmingham and Manchester have been scrapped. The government wanted a private company to build it, but having seen the lack of commercial viability of the existing M6 Toll north of Birmingham, no-one was interested. The government, however, have proclaimed a plethora of other reasons why it was scrapped, including the ridiculous claim that building an entirely seperate road would cause significant disruption to the existing M6!
The government now plans to widen the existing M6 to four lanes each way, causing ten years of road works, congestion, and lower speed limits doubtless enforced by speed cameras to help pay for the cost of building the road.
As the saga of speed camera mis-manag
ement rapidly descends into farce, a campaigner has discovered that every single speed camera prosecution may have been illegal. 'Robbie The Pict' who campaigned for the abolition of the extortionate tolls on the Skye Bridge, has found that the Road Traffic Act 1991 required that the Secretary of State for Transport had to place before Parliament a 'Statutory Instrument' approving each type of speed camera or speed measuring device. No record of any such orders has been found.
The Road Traffic Act 1991 (Section 23) requires a degree in law to understand, and let's face it, even if this failure to follow legal procedure is true, our inherently dishonest government will find some pet judge to declare that it isn't.
In another blatant example of the lack of independence of the Judiciary, a judge has declared that parking fines are not fines.
He also declared that the National Parking Adjudication Service are independent, despite the fact that they receive 55p for every penalty charge notice issued.
Campaigner Robin de Crittenden has been arguing that the Bill of Rights (a law dating from 1689) makes parking fines illegal, and had called for a Judical Review.
A quarter of a million drivers may be entitled to cancellation of points, refund of £9M of fines, and compensation, after a court ruled that a speeding prosecution in Cleveland was illegal. Forms sent out by the police were illegally worded, and had not been signed by someone authorised to do so on behalf of the chief constable. The decision may have repercussions for every speeding prosection in Cleveland since 1998.
Dr Will Dehany who appealed against his prosecution said:
"I expected to win because the evidence
was pretty overwhelming. Everything was wrong about this case. I would not recommend that people try to get off speeding fines on technicalities, but this was not just a technicality, it was an abuse of police power. If I had lost today, it would have cost me about £1,000, and that's why nobody appeals, because only a fool like me is prepared to lose £1,000. I did it for the common man and for justice for motorists everywhere."
In the state of Victoria, Australia, the use of speed camera vans during late evening are to withdrawn
after a series of attacks on operators.
Making a Freudian slip of astronomical proportions, Police Minister Tim Holding (Labor) said:
"The Government condemns utterly any member of the public who tries to take the law into their own hands by attacking Tenix operators"
— making it abundantly clear who he thinks are the real criminals.
Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder (Liberal) made an equally amazing gaffe by admitting:
"The decision will leave a dent in the Government's revenue that will most likely be filled by the allocation of more speed cameras to busy roads at peak times."
Speed camera vans in Victoria are operated by a private company, Tenix Solutions, a division of Tenix. You won't be surprised to learn they also carry out parking enforcement — even if you're dead. No wonder people throw bricks at them.
In a refreshing turn around from the usual driver-bashing practice in the UK, three law lords have thrown out an attempt by police to prosecute a driver for warning other drivers of a speed trap.
Avon & Somerset Police had tried to do HGV driver Charles Glendenning for 'wilful obstruction', but Mr Justice Owen said there was no evidence that any of the drivers warned had been breaking the speed limit.
He went on to say that ‘some people might think the police ought to appreciate the
efforts of others to prevent speeding’.
The amount of public money wasted by the crown prosecution service in pursuing their petty vendetta was not revealed.
The latest hot air from the government is the claim that road charging is 'essential to reduce pollution'. Previously road charging was 'essential to
reduce congestion', but as their own surveys indicated nobody believed them, they've decided to try the emotive angle, claiming that pollution (of an unspecified type) reduces life expectancy by 8 months. Given that their own statement points out a difference in life expectancy between 69.3 years for men in Glasgow, and 85.8 years for men in Kensington & Chelsea, it is clear that whatever pollution they are talking about is of little consequence compared to other factors.
Plans to scrap old cars are mentioned, despite the volume of such vehicles being of no consequence — the plan is merely an attack on the owners of such vehicles.
They are also plan legislation to reduce home and office pollution, though details of what control freakery this will involve are not given.
Geoffrey Biddulph, the senior Home Office civil servant in charge of policing Britain's roads, has admitted that police radar guns are unreliable.
Thousands of innocent drivers may have fallen victim to inaccurate speed readings that may have resulted in th
em being fined and even deprived of their licence and job.
In a bizarre revelation that illustrates the lack of joined up thinking in the minds of those who govern us, Steven Ladyman, Roads Minister, has admitted that he uses a GPS based speed camera warning device in his car.
The Scottish Executive have announced that Tolls on the Erskine bridge west of Glasgow (map) are to be scrapped from 31st March 2006.
There was no such good news for users of the
Forth and Tay bridges, though a proposed increase on the Forth Bridge was rejected.
Plans are also to be made for a new bridge to replace the existing Forth Road Bridge which is suffering from corrosion problems.
Over 200,000 drivers in Scotland's big cities are rebelling over the 'decriminalized parking' scam. The government took parking enforcement away from the police and traffic wardens, and handed it to local authorities who in turn handed it on a plate to private enforcement companies. These companies are motivated purely to make a profit for their shareholders, they have no concept
of right and wrong.
Tickets outstanding are:
• Edinburgh 72,140
• Glasgow 71,315
• Aberdeen 57,000
• Dundee, 10,303
By stark contrast, in Inverness where parking is still dealt with by the police, there are only 294 tickets outstanding.
The government is threatening road safety by proposing to allow speed cameras to be camoflaged so as to make them harder to spot. This will only force drivers to spend more time looking out for them rather than paying attention to real hazards.
Worse still, they are proposing to allow cameras to be placed where there have been no accidents. They are giving the safety camera partnerships a licence to print money.
The proposals represent a serious step backwards and show that government simply cannot be trusted to keep its word.
Displaying a degree of common sense no longer found in Britain, authorities in Switzerland are taking a 9 year old girl to court after she caused a traffic accident.
A spokesman for the public prosecutor's office explained it was usual to deal with children involved in road accidents in this manner, as it shows them what they did wrong and prevents them from being involved in accidents in the future.
The ABD considers that the main purpose of this initiative is to generate publicity that will serve to warn other children that they must take care on the roads, and will thus help to prevent other accidents.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence clamorous to be led to safety by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary”
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