So say some Commons MP’s on the BBC website.
They also suggest changing the test to cover a year’s syllabus – all very sensible. They should possibly not make it a piece of piss, too, and actually include motorway driving as part of the test.
That and parking straight – the number of morons who cant do that in a supermarket car park is just unacceptable. If you don’t have the spatial awareness to park a car at walking pace, then what sort of judgement can you have at 30 or 70 miles per hour?
They should limit the speeds that drivers can reach in the first year after passing their test, too. Say, 55mph tops, until the angst ridden teens have gotten the whole fast and furious mindset out of their systems.
Cumpulsory re-tests for anyone who breaks the highway code in their first two years of driving would be a nice touch, too – the extra cash raked in could help put more police patrols on the roads and bring down the cost of road tax at the same time. (Only for people like myself, who drive fuel efficient, environmentally friendly cars, of course. The speed bump vaulting, gas guzzling SUV crowd can take it where it hurts most – in the wallet. I don’t think upwards of £300 a year for road tax is too much to expect of the Porsche Cayenne drivers out there – after all, they’ve already proved they have more money than sense!)
The whole thing really does need a re-think – the more draconian the penalties, the better.
While I’m not a big fan of the Porche Cayenne style of car personally I don’t see any reason to tax the people who own them even more. Don’t you think that they’ve paid enough already? Apart from anything else there’s the VAT paid when initially buying the vehicle and then 50% tax on any fuel they use.
Fully agree on the enforcement of the highway code thing though; trouble is that it’s never going to happen because there’s no way it can be enforced with nice, cheap, cameras (yet).
Andy
Heh! That bit about Cayenne owners was a little toungue in cheek. 😉
I’m just shocked by the sheer enormity of the hardware I see on the school run in the morning. Mothers driving enormous black (black must be the new black – there are no other colours right now) SUV’s with a couple of kids lost somewhere in the cavernous rear seats just dominate the road, guzzling up the petrol or diesel as they do so.
These fuckers who can afford to waste fuel and blow a wad on an unnecessary behemoth can afford to supplement the rest of us, I’m sure. 🙂
Aha, so you’re finally showing your true communist colours 😉
Andy