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[JamesV6CDX]

Going by the number of cases that pass through my courts

What is your role in court, Nige?

I'm guessing since the appeal's have already gone through Mags, you're in a Crown court?

[Entwood]

Going by the number of cases that pass through my courts

What is your role in court, Nige?

I'm guessing since the appeal's have already gone through Mags, you're in a Crown court?

Correct young man ... 3 days a week I'm an Usher in the Crown Court ...

also double as Jury Officer, Jury Bailiff, Court Recorder, District Judge Bailiff and general gopher

Pay is not brilliant but it keeps me off the streets and is very different to what I used to do...

Job has many roles.. from swearing in Juries and then looking after them, helping Vunerable Witnesses give evidence on video link, handling exhibits for Juries ( few months ago £25000 worth of cocaine in one bag ...   ), keeping order in the Public Gallery, chasing up misssing barristers and witnesses, etc etc etc    whatever needs to be done to help the Court run smoothly...

[albitz]

Sounds like interesting work Nige.

[hoofing it]

God it takes my disco to reach 75 never mind 96

[tidla]

I find £1.42 a litre keeps my speed in check more effectively than any other deterrent 

thats so true.

i remember the last fuel blockade in 2000 everyone crawled around at 30 spot on. anyone going quicker that that was obviously on the pink stuff. (price at the time 80p a litre?)

[feeutfo]

The pence per litre induced speed limit is very noticeable.

Guessing the desired 70 mph average among drivers in lanes 2 and 3 to equate to about £1.80 a litre going by the m4 ime. 


A case of drivers driving to "conditions" I guess...

[aaronjb]

I had notice that, too - as petrol prices go up, the average speed in the first 2/3/4 lanes goes down.. Which is annoying as that forces everyone who wants to go a bit faster into the one remaining lane :-/

Not as annoying as travelling at 1am and finding some pillock sitting in lane 3 of 4 at 70mph, though, while the other 4 lanes (the 5-lane wide bits of the M25) sit completely empty for miles  That should be an offence worthy of mandatory euthanasia if you ask me.

[Dishevelled Den]

In this interesting part of the Kingdom (where the average price is the highest in the UK - BBC News) it hasn't altered habits all that much.

Most drivers seem to be pressing on regardless with truckers, taxi drivers, 4x4 drivers and rep-mobiles being the most prolific.

Motorway speed isn't the whole story however.  Over the past 3 weeks I've been taking someone up to a large hospital where they're visiting their husband who is receiving treatment.

This involves 4 journeys per day into the main city - a place I seldom go, so I've had the opportunity to observe the behaviour of many drivers - more so than I have had over the recent past.

It's amazing to me that many of them don't seem to exercise any form of car control or forward awareness. Rapid acceleration and extreme braking (both fuel wasters) seem to be the methods employed in order to maintain some belief that they’re making progress to wherever they’re going.

So, from what I see the price of fuel would need to rise substantially before many of those I speak about would be forced into using lower speeds and displaying a much smoother driving style.

It seems to me that many drivers just accept high fuel prices as a matter of fact now - and something they can do little about - and attempt to carry on regardless rather than make the conscious decision to try to alter their behaviour.

I’m sure the Treasury is most grateful for this display of determination from them.

[aaronjb]

I don't think any prise rise would make people drive any more smoothly, Z.. the majority of people (that I've passengered with, anyway) who drive like that do so simply because they don't understand how to control a car properly.. the controls are entirely digital as far as they know, and the computers (traction control, stability control, ABS) are the only thing that keeps them on the road

That's the standard of driving in this country nowadays - and I should add, the people I've driven with passed their test in this country.

[tonyyeb]

Some of you on here will no doubt be familiar with the works of the rock band Rush, whose 'Moving Pictures' album contains a song called 'Red Barchetta', basically a futurist anthem to the lure and power of a forbidden old red sports car at a time when all private cars have been banned.
There is a sense of an apocalyptic mindset starting to germinate in the minds of a lot of motorists - "petrol is going to run out, perhaps in my lifetime, it will never get any cheaper, so now is the time to go and buy that M5, that Carrera, that TVR, etc"....
.....and then go and rag the nuts off it....

I have some sympathy with this view...

Also, with scarcity and expense comes cachet and snobbery, so to a lot of people the petrol price is still insignificant, and for an increasing number of people for whom it is significant, they are still out there, buying fast, fuel-inefficient cars and saying "hey, look at me"....

[Dishevelled Den]

I don't think any prise rise would make people drive any more smoothly, Z.. the majority of people (that I've passengered with, anyway) who drive like that do so simply because they don't understand how to control a car properly.. the controls are entirely digital as far as they know, and the computers (traction control, stability control, ABS) are the only thing that keeps them on the road

That's the standard of driving in this country nowadays - and I should add, the people I've driven with passed their test in this country.

Yes I think there's the 'extension of personal space' issue here A where drivers continue to exist and behave in their surroundings – in a state of exploiting the familiar -  irrespective of wherever they happen to be at the time.

In terms of motoring, the fact that this space happens to exist within a box on wheels appears to be incidental to their obvious intention to get to where they're going, or achieve their objectives, with the least possible inconvenience to themselves.

I think it’s indicative of the tendency of many people nowadays (not just drivers) to retreat behind a barrier of indifference of just how their behaviour may impinge on the wellbeing or sensitivities of others or how much this behaviour may cost them in emotional or financial terms.

[Dishevelled Den]

Some of you on here will no doubt be familiar with the works of the rock band Rush, whose 'Moving Pictures' album contains a song called 'Red Barchetta', basically a futurist anthem to the lure and power of a forbidden old red sports car at a time when all private cars have been banned.
There is a sense of an apocalyptic mindset starting to germinate in the minds of a lot of motorists - "petrol is going to run out, perhaps in my lifetime, it will never get any cheaper, so now is the time to go and buy that M5, that Carrera, that TVR, etc"....
.....and then go and rag the nuts off it....

I have some sympathy with this view...

Also, with scarcity and expense comes cachet and snobbery, so to a lot of people the petrol price is still insignificant, and for an increasing number of people for whom it is significant, they are still out there, buying fast, fuel-inefficient cars and saying "hey, look at me"....

I have no doubt that much of what you say is quite valid T.

For many this seems to reveal a fundamental disconnect with reality as many people appear to exist within the virtual world of on-line activities, celebrity worship and constant communication with their ‘friends’ to discuss, no doubt, such important issues of what they discharged into the lavatory bowl that day or some other such nonsense.

I think that in this modern 'sophisticated ' age many on this planet - and within this country sadly - are on the road to hell in a (perversely) very fuel efficient handcart.

[aaronjb]

Some of you on here will no doubt be familiar with the works of the rock band Rush, whose 'Moving Pictures' album contains a song called 'Red Barchetta', basically a futurist anthem to the lure and power of a forbidden old red sports car at a time when all private cars have been banned.
There is a sense of an apocalyptic mindset starting to germinate in the minds of a lot of motorists - "petrol is going to run out, perhaps in my lifetime, it will never get any cheaper, so now is the time to go and buy that M5, that Carrera, that TVR, etc"....
.....and then go and rag the nuts off it....

I have some sympathy with this view...

Also, with scarcity and expense comes cachet and snobbery, so to a lot of people the petrol price is still insignificant, and for an increasing number of people for whom it is significant, they are still out there, buying fast, fuel-inefficient cars and saying "hey, look at me"....

That's precisely why a friend of mine just went out and bought a late model 911; because he figures that in 10 years or so he probably won't be able to (either because the gov't has made it financially impossible for mortals, or because his eyes have finally clapped out!)..

Kinda why I'm looking at my next project, too, really - a few years and petrol is going to be truly eye wateringly expensive, I'm sure.