What is happening to common sense with mot tests in uk ? And easy traffic police job

[busby20]

Wash your mouth out, im hoping for the pickling affect so that i might live to the ripe old age of maybe 62.

"You lucky git"

 

[television]

Interesting thread.

I suspect that Herbie is, like me, of a certain age.

An age which dislikes the direction of travel of modern society; harkens back to a golden age when MB door handles were not made of plastic; and when motoring, shopping (never on a Wednesday or Saturday afternoon, and most certainly not on a Sunday) and a walk in the park were pleasant pastimes.

In short we are baby boomers - the grumpy generation.

And like me, if Herbie does his ranting here, at least he is leaving those genteel members on the hamster fanciers forum at peace.

For that we should be eternally grateful.

Tony - with properly punctuated paragraphs.

You have reminded me of how nice life was once. I used to have an early closing where I could do what I like with my time. These days every hour is the same, 7 days a week with no let up

 

[muller1]

Hi,
I bet they would all wish it was only broken glass they were sweeping up, and don,t forget broken glass has,nt got Mothers, Fathers, sons daughters etc, to be informed that a loved one has died in a car accident either. £30,000 a year, I say "is that all" as I could,nt do the job.

My son is a traffic cop and firearms officer. Royal security, escorting G Broon etc when he visits.
He is also an accident investigation officer and has the enjoyable duty of checking over cars involved in fatals.
Putting aside the odd foot, finger, and spatters of grey matter on the screen and dash has the duty to inform the parents that their nearest and dearest will not be coming home tonight.
Sometimes he cannot sleep at night after a bad car wreck involving fatalities and to this ends he wishes not to have kids due to the heartbreak he has seen that death of youngsters can bring.
I am not saying it because he is my son but I could not do his job as to do it as he does takes a very special type of person and I am afraid I just do not have what it takes.

Mike

 

[HERBIEMERCMAN]

hi mike, your son has special attributes, he should be well rewarded for his duties. what i am saying is that this is a different psychological profile to a traffic cop.
i have studied at cranfield, on hertsburg, myers briggs, belbin, etc, it's horses for cources. in my opinion people like your son should be in a higher more responsible section of the force based on the technical and human skills you describe.
however the traffic cop is, with no disrespect, along side the fire brigade officers in my opinion, they are tough and good drivers, calm in cricis, they see all the gore etc. they lose sleep as well. how many traffic cops would go anywhere near a burning car, but if you honestly apply a "pareto analysis" to the traffic cops job, then on the 80/20 rule they spend most of their time sat in luxury cars with all other services at their disposal, they block the road following the accident ( time is not their problem) and then they wait for the paramedics, fire brigade, and accident investigation officer, breakdown truck etc. i am not against traffic cops at all, it is the powers that be who have allowed there net responsibilities to be ignored.
some of my family are in the cid and previously the real police force and it is a shame that many traffic cops throw the whole institution into disrepute by chasing kids in cars, where some youngsters die, and pulling law abiding motorists for having no number plate light, etc.
recent tv programs have made more and more people aware of what i am saying here.. herbiemercman.

 

[turnipsock]

It always amuses me when I go to some of the remote Scottish Islands and see cars running around without a tax disk displayed on their windscreen...I guess they would have one if they had a windscreen to put it on.

There is no way an islander is going to take his car on a ferry, all the way to Oban, just to get an mot with the risk of failing.

The police never go near the islands, look what happened to the guy that went to Summer Isle...

 

[RICHARD BULLESS]

Not Sure

Hi-just hoping I have found a way to post here-sorry to use as a 'test', but new to this site!! Thanks for that!! Ps Does anyone have a decent E280 estate for sale, or part-swap for a lovely E220 coupe?

 

[RiceBurner]

hi rf065, i have posted over 250 posts and no one has said anything about the layout,i have had many thankyou's from people i have helped with information etc. i just tried to save space and did not know paragraphing would make reading easier. i will do this in future, as i can see it is better. thanks for reading anyway. herbiemercman.

To be honest: paragraphing, capitalisation, and talking sense rather than ranting , will all make things easier for everyone.

 

[kth286]

Herbie

Where do you get the MOT test update requirements from please?

Perhaps we should have a sticky for MOT updates.

 

[kenny21]

Just my opinion, I think there aren't enough "real" Traffic Police on our Roads now, I drive The M74 about 35 miles each way every day on my daily commute. I am now 38, when i first passed my test(1987) the M74 allways had at least two traffic patrols in my area, i was at various times"pulled" and given various pieces of advice(remember your first car) I was stopped for speeding as well. Now i can drive the road for a week and not see a Traffic car(average speeds on this road are massive). On my stretch from Lesmahagow to Glasgow there is never even a camera van, these are mainly in the Dumfries area of the road. To me a large part of the Traffic Officers job is to be a visible deterent - this now doesn't happen, a few years ago you weren't aware where they would be waiting for you. Now everyone knows the camera locations etc.(and reading the above i am rambling as well)

 

[RiceBurner]

To be honest: paragraphing, capitalisation, and talking sense rather than ranting , will all make things easier for everyone.

Oh - by the way - I don't disagree with what you're saying btw - a lot of beaucracy is there for the sake of it etc - I'm just hoping to point out that your methods of communication do your arguments a disservice.

 

[RiceBurner]

it is a shame that many traffic cops throw the whole institution into disrepute by chasing kids in cars, where some youngsters die, and pulling law abiding motorists for having no number plate light, etc.
recent tv programs have made more and more people aware of what i am saying here.. herbiemercman.

What would you rather the police did? Ignore them? Let them tear around dealing drugs and crashing into people without any comeback whatsoever?

Remember - no-one is forcing these "kids" to drive dangerously. They are taking the decisions themselves to keep going when the blues and twos come on. Any intelligent person would stop immediately they found a safe place.

The mindset of "I'm alright Jack, no responsibility for my own actions, I was deprived as a child" has resulted in a subset society of people who take no responsibility for their own actions and will blame anyone else at all for their decisions. This needs to stop.

 

[RiceBurner]

Just my opinion, I think there aren't enough "real" Traffic Police on our Roads now, I drive The M74 about 35 miles each way every day on my daily commute. I am now 38, when i first passed my test(1987) the M74 allways had at least two traffic patrols in my area, i was at various times"pulled" and given various pieces of advice(remember your first car) I was stopped for speeding as well. Now i can drive the road for a week and not see a Traffic car(average speeds on this road are massive). On my stretch from Lesmahagow to Glasgow there is never even a camera van, these are mainly in the Dumfries area of the road. To me a large part of the Traffic Officers job is to be a visible deterent - this now doesn't happen, a few years ago you weren't aware where they would be waiting for you. Now everyone knows the camera locations etc.(and reading the above i am rambling as well)

Totally agree.

A real traffic officer can use a thing called "discretion" to give a motorist a bollocking, rather than an impersonal camera.

Further - with a camera generated ticket, there is no associated guilt.

Scenario 1 - you speed, a copper pulls you and bollocks you - you are made to feel very guilt and that guilt is directly associated with the sensations of speed. Next time you get near to speeding you'll feel that associated guilt and (hopefully/possibly/probably) not speed/drive dangerously

Scenario 2 - you speed, you get flashed. The ticket appears 2 weeks later while you're eating breakfast. Any guilt generated is not associated with speed, but with the sensations of eating toast. How does that stop you speeding??

 

[Alex M Grieve]

A real traffic officer can use a thing called "discretion" to give a motorist a bollocking, rather than an impersonal camera.

Scenario 1 - you speed, a copper pulls you and bollocks you - you are made to feel very guilt and that guilt is directly associated with the sensations of speed. Next time you get near to speeding you'll feel that associated guilt and (hopefully/possibly/probably) not speed/drive dangerously

Absolutely spot on. To be effective, the message not to do it has to be Negative (the b*ll*ckig), Immediate and Certain (NIC, as in nicked).

It is well accepted that "a well worded caution" has much more effect on our behaviour than a disembodied ticket over the corn flakes two weeks later. The immediate therapy is also less susceptible to being reversed by the smart *rsed lawyer because of a technicality.

So more policemen - visible policing, sensible constables, is the answer. It may be harder to implement than "fit and forget cameras", but it works infinitely better.

 

[Richard Moakes]

The mindset of "I'm alright Jack, no responsibility for my own actions, I was deprived as a child" has resulted in a subset society of people who take no responsibility for their own actions and will blame anyone else at all for their decisions. This needs to stop.

I could not agree more.

I don't know how to fix it, but I do know it begins in the home with parents. Unfortunately these people are 2nd and 3rd generation now, so the parenting skills have been lost

 

[st4]

So more policemen - visible policing, sensible constables, is the answer. It may be harder to implement than "fit and forget cameras", but it works infinitely better.

But that doesn't make money, which this petty MOT this, safety camera that way of thinking and enforcing does.

 

[Rappey69]

Interesting post even though the original topic has been dominated by "the police"
Many cars fail an mot because the car is in very dangerous condition yet the driver is blissfully unaware even though to the sensible driver it is blindingly obvious.
Without this once a year test many motorists would drive their car until it has some major mechanical failure possibly resulting in death/s.
As much as i hate to say it ,generally the male driver is aware of some mechanical defect regardless of whether he continues to drive the car, whereas female drivers (some) drive until destruction unaware that the horrible noise the car is making is a sign that they should stop.
A 2 year mot i would think would just lead to more cars driving around with dangerous defects.

 

[Dosco]

Quote from one of HERBIEMERCMAN post's "it is a shame that many traffic cops throw the whole institution into disrepute by chasing kids in cars, where some youngsters die,
recent tv programs have made more and more people aware of what i am saying here.."

whilst I agree with much of what was said in the post the above was copied from I cannot agree with that specific item, why?

You will have a very different view if a member of your family is killed by a 'kid in a car' who was left to his own devices because the police thought that they might just risk causing him to have an accident and injure himself or a member of the public - well a member of the public was not injured but killed, he walked away - sorry ran away.

He is now serving 4 years! I am unwilling to say what I really feel as no doubt I would be breaking some law or other as a result of saying something out of place and not in keeping with his (human) rights as a 'new member' of this once fine country.

The police officer who made the call no longer works for the police because he felt he made the wrong decision and let a young girl down, even though he was following force guidelines.

I accept it is a very difficult call to make, not one I would relish myself, but it is very easy to sit in an arm chair and criticise when the call is wrong and yes I am guilty of doing just that indeed I have even voiced that opinion to the officer who stopped me because my number plate light was out.

I heartily agree with just about all the comments made in this post, how we change what we now have is something we all must take responsibility for.

PS - HERBIEMERCMAN I am not having a pop at you, we all have a right to our views - at the moment, that is until Harriet ****** Harman and Jack the Justice stop us in our tracks.

 

[HERBIEMERCMAN]

i certainly started a good post here, we have even got rice burner ranting. my family are in the police or at least a part of it. i also fully agree that the roadside bollocking and the copper on the beat kicking the young yobs up the arse would improve things. herbiemercman.

 

[television]

i certainly started a good post here, we have even got rice burner ranting. my family are in the police or at least a part of it. i also fully agree that the roadside bollocking and the copper on the beat kicking the young yobs up the arse would improve things. herbiemercman.

When the local policeman caught me driving without a license in 1952, he drove my van home and said if I catch you again I will give you such a clout that you will not want to take it out again till I passed my test,, that worked, I did not drive it again until I passed. That really stuck with me till this day, and I respect him for that

 

[Alex M Grieve]

When the local policeman caught me driving without a license in 1952, he drove my van home and said if I catch you again I will give you such a clout that you will not want to take it out again till I passed my test,, that worked, I did not drive it again until I passed. That really stuck with me till this day, and I respect him for that

I need a license? Now you tell me!