Presumably this is yet another freedom of information [dead link](FOI) muck raking exercise.
Apparently, police records show that a 9-year-old in Cumbria was breathalysed and taken into custody. They had to release him because he was “to young to be held accountable”.
Well, the police should have gone straight round to his parents’ house (or probably just “parent” – he’s unlikely to be from a stable household) and arrested them – because they ARE accountable. Completely responsible, in fact.
The story focuses on the fact that in the last year thousands of under 18s have been arrested in the north of England. Four 11-year-olds and a 10-year-old were arrested for car theft. Seven 12-year-olds were arrested in Cleveland for the same thing.
The total number is 2,647 arrests for car theft, aggravated vehicle taking, drink driving, and underage driving.
Perhaps illustrating partly WHY there is such a problem, the report says:
A Northumbria Police spokesman said juvenile car crime and motoring offences had dropped year on year.
Obviously the words of a responsible parent.
Even one case of this nature is shocking. The fact that there are so many – and no one can (or will) do anything meaningful about it – beggars belief.
The May issue of Despatch is now available. Click the logo to download a copy.
In this issue there’s an article about better enforcement and penalties for dangerous drivers, an update on the motorcycle test review, a bit about the crackdown on uninsured drivers, some complete gobbledegook about CIECA (I wonder if Paul Butler realises what a load of crap that “Point of View” article is?), a bit about the new theory test and how autism sufferers are being catered for (though undoubtedly this will not satisfy some self-styled “experts” out there on the forums), and a round up about theory test centre closures, independent driving pass rates, etc.
A reader sent me a link to this story in Autoblog.It deals with the issue of mentally unstable people (that’s my spin on the matter, not Autoblog’s) who probably shouldn’t be allowed to breed, let alone drive a car.
The story reports that last year 209 examiners were verbally assaulted, and five were physically assaulted, by people who were allegedly ready to take their driving tests.
It’s actually yet another one of those “freedom of information” (FOI) requests – this time by Autoglass, though Heaven knows why they should be asking about this. Coincidentally, a pupil this afternoon told me about an article on MSN about people being injured on their tests. It appears to be from the same source, just a different angle.
The article goes on to say that out of 1.5 million driving tests taken in 2010, 339 people (examiners or test candidates) were injured – 147 of which were classed as “serious”.
The article doesn’t mention the simple statistic that this corresponds to 0.023% of candidates. LIkewise, the examiner abuse figure clocks in at 0.015% of examiners. I don’t think we should be assuming this happens all the time. Of course, it isn’t right, but it just isn’t as widespread as the media (and in this case, Autoglass) would have us believe.
The article also seems impressed that out of those 1.5 million tests, more than 1 million “dangerous” faults were committed. It’s a shame they didn’t bother to clarify what this actually means. I suspect that a “dangerous” fault is their take, and is one which results in a fail (so, includes “serious”) – hence, about two thirds of tests are failed, which approximates to what most ADIs know as the national pass rate. They also don’t specify how many people were on repeat tests (the DSA doesn’t log that data, I believe).
OK. Just back from the O2, and the last UK gig on Rush’s Time Machine Tour.
Before I go all negative, let me just say that it was another virtuoso performance by the band. Nothing they ever do is bad, and they are simply too good to allow mediocrity to creep in. The venue is huge (bigger than Birmingham’s NEC), and it was packed out. The sound was excellent – though a little drum-heavy (that’s because of one of the negative things I’ll get on to in a minute). The crowd was loud, though not especially animated. I think it’s fair to say that the Newcastle crowd beat everyone else hands down (with Manchester and Scotland close behind), and the Sheffield lot were the worst. But Rush played a perfect set each time.
So, the negative parts. My ticket man didn’t deliver this time – I only got my ticket this morning (by special delivery), and he told me yesterday that he couldn’t get anything decent. I had to go with a floor seat on the very last row of block C, and that’s why the sound was a bit bassy in my opinion.
Someone has already searched and found the blog on “sound problem at o2”: in all honesty, there wasn’t one. You aren’t going to get CD quality in a place like this – it was just the big sound/big venue thing you always get.
When I found out about my rubbish seat, I asked my agent what he thought I should be paying to a tout at the venue. That was when he warned me of the O2 policy on touting (I was likely to get thrown off the complex if I tried). And it’s true that there wasn’t anyone touting anywhere in sight. So I’d then decided to go straight to the box office and see if they had anything better. I got a seat about the same distance back, but on the first level – I reasoned that I’d see more if I was off the floor.
The seat was not bad (second one in off the aisle). The problem was the other people at the venue. Throughout the whole of the first half of the set, there was a constant stream of people going up and down the stairs (mainly women, it must be said). About half way through Set 1, some dickhead in the row I was in decided to go out and get a tray of chips (fries) and a burger. Dozens of people missed the first 4 or 5 songs, then came in with food. There is something inherently disturbing about people eating food at a gig – it just isn’t what you do. And the planks doing it are usually trying to juggle two pints of beer, a rucksack, and a carrier bag along with their chips or hot dog.
Then there was the standing problem. One of the benefits of sitting in the side seats is that the steep banking means you can see everything comfortably sitting down. You can’t jump around or anything, otherwise you risk breaking your neck (or end up getting a slap from someone if you fall into them (I pride myself in being of that level of tolerance at gigs), so there is absolutely no point standing up. So what did they all do? Stand up. Then, after a few songs, some sat down – but some didn’t, so the view was interrupted. THEN… when Freewill was played, a load more stood up again.
And all through this there were those bloody imbeciles going up and down the aisle.
Being so far back meant taking pictures was tricky. I had decided to concentrate on the lights, but every bloody time I tried to focus, some prat walked up or down the stairs. The guy next to me was getting pissed off with it as well. They simply ruined it.
I decided at the interval to go and try my other seat. As it happens, it was actually better – it turned out to be on the end, so I could see the stage and the lights very well.
The point is, I would have paid (actually, I DID pay – I need to talk to my ticket man about that) good money to get a front seat. And yet these were taken up by total tossers who obviously weren’t genuine fans. Most of them must have seen about 50-60% of the show at best. And they even started leaving before the encore started. At the other shows, no one moved until the final video had completed (the “I Love You Man” thing). Here, at least half the audience rushed for the exits.
Because of my crap position (I’d been no further back than six rows, and as close as three twice in all the other shows) – and the fact that getting an O2 ticket had proved difficult, even though I’d alerted my agent last November when the tour was announced – I was determined to hate the O2.
In fact it is a great venue. It’s just the people (and the fact that they get tickets when I can’t). It only took about two and a half hours to get from Nottingham via the A1 and M11 (no hold ups at all) – I’d forced the satnav to miss the M1, because I know what that’s like during the day. At the end, I drove straight out of the O2 car park and back on to the A102 without having to pause once – I’d made sure I was near the car park exit. I let the satnav take me back via the M25 and M1, and apart from a few stretches of reduced speed limits through the Blackwall Tunnel and on the motorways, there was no delay at all. Biggest problem was going down there – my satnav told me I had arrived at my destination while I was still in the Blackwall Tunnel, and I didn’t realise that it goes right under the O2 until I went back later and could see it!
Ironically, I got some of my best shots of Neil this time. My camera has 12x optical zoom, but this can be boosted with the digital zoom feature (which I thought I’d have a play with). The only problem is that you need a tripod above 12x, and I don’t think I’d have got one of those through the doors!
So, that’s it! The next step is the new album, Clockwork Angels, which we’re not likely to see until next year. Rush usually tour to promote new albums, but a world tour so soon after this one is unlikely – it’ll be North America. Now, there’s an idea…
And just a footnote… this particular post is getting a huge number of hits linking in from Power Windows and The National Midday Sun. I just want to remind everyone once again that Rush didn’t just play the O2 – they played equally brilliant gigs which I covered here (with much better photos, because I was closer to the stage, and in several cases a much better atmosphere from the fans’ perspective):
Motorists warned to get insured ahead of crackdown
Motorists are being warned to insure their vehicles ahead of a new crackdown to tackle the menace of uninsured driving.
Under the new Continuous Insurance Enforcement law – which will affect all motorists from 20 June – it is an offence to keep an uninsured vehicle, rather than just to drive when uninsured.
A national advertising campaign will be launched by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau today to raise awareness of the law.
Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said:
“Uninsured drivers are a danger on our roads, killing 160 and injuring a further 23,000 people each year, and they cost honest motorists £500 million in extra premiums. That is why we are introducing this tough new law which will leave uninsured drivers with nowhere to hide.
“Our message is clear – get insured or face a fine, court action or seeing your car seized and destroyed.”
Ashton West, Chief Executive at the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, said:
“The change in law is a stepping up of enforcement activity, so that not only those vehicles driven without insurance will be caught. Now the registered keeper must make sure that their vehicle is insured all the time.
“In order to make sure everyone is aware of the new scheme, a national awareness campaign will be shown on satellite and terrestrial TV channels.
“Around four percent of vehicles have no motor insurance at any given time, and this needs to change so that is why this new enforcement approach is so important.”
The DVLA will work in partnership with the Motor Insurers’ Bureau to identify uninsured vehicles.
Motorists will receive a letter telling them that their vehicle appears to be uninsured and warning them that they will be fined unless they take action.
If the keeper fails to insure the vehicle they will be given a £100 fine.
If the vehicle remains uninsured – regardless of whether the fine is paid – further action will be taken. If the vehicle is on public land it could then be clamped, seized and destroyed. Alternatively court action could be taken, with the offender facing a fine of up to £1,000.
Seized vehicles would only be released when the keeper provided evidence that the registered keeper is no longer committing an offence of having no insurance and the person proposing to drive the vehicle away is insured to do so.
Vehicles with a valid Statutory Off Road Notice (SORN) will not be required to be insured.
The new law will run alongside the existing offence of using a vehicle with no insurance, which is enforced by the police. The police seize 180,000 vehicles each year for this offence, and offenders also face a £200 fixed penalty or a court fine of up to £5,000 and possible disqualification.
The DVLA’s records will be compared regularly with the Motor Insurance Database (MID) and this process will identify registered keepers of vehicles that appear to have no insurance. All drivers can check their vehicle is recorded on the MID for free – visit askMID.com.
Or the LG Arena, as it is called these days… the venue for the fifth installment of the Rush Time Machine World Tour.
The largest venue so far, and easily the biggest crowd. The Arena was virtually full, and although they had a lot to live up to compared to the Geordies in Newcastle last night, the Brummies sure gave it a go.
I was three rows back and on an end seat, so the view was superb. I mentioned that the first gig in Scotland had a bit of a muddy sound in my opinion. It was near perfect in both Sheffield and Manchester from where I was sitting, and so it seemed to be tonight. However, someone from the back came up at the interval to ask what we thought – he said it was terrible at the back.
Anyway, over the previous gigs I have reviewed the show in my own way. I mentioned that in Manchester the band was enjoying itself so much that they did a bit of improvisation at the end of Closer to the Heart. Well, they kept it last night and tonight, although it is a bit different each time.
Neil’s solo was also well received tonight. He seems to get better every time he does it.
Something else I haven’t mentioned much: the light show. You see, when you’re close to the stage you don’t get as good a view of that as you do further back. The lighting rig consists of an eight-limbed spider-like arrangement, with each of the legs hinged at one end and in the centre. Various lights are attached and these move independently. The rig is raised and lowered – and contorted – at various points throughout the show. There are also other smaller rigs which rise and fall as necessary, independently of the main one. It’s hard to describe, but you have to have seen it to fully appreciate it. One person I was talking to said the light show was the best he’d seen since Pink Floyd some years ago.
Way to go, you geordies! The Rush Time Machine Tour hit the Metro and it was even better than Manchester (which was better than Glasgow, and miles better than Sheffield) – and that was damned good itself.
Superb atmosphere from the moment the band appeared, with people jumping, dancing, and singing along loudly all the way through. It was a big crowd, too. It was obvious that Rush appreciated it and were playing up to it. Geddy even raised his vocals for this one (he tends not to hit the higher notes so much, but he was going for it tonight). There was also a fair bit of crowd interaction with Alex.
I’d got a good seat again – roughly the same place as at Manchester, but a couple of rows further back, so I managed to get a few shots of Neil this time. I’d have had him full on at the end when he stood up to wave if it hadn’t been for the sea of hands that went up.
I was a bit worried on my way up there this afternoon. The Metro website says that photography isn’t allowed, but I checked with the staff when I got there and they were great about it – as long as it isn’t a professional camera and you don’t overdo it with the flash you can take pictures. (so doing a gig review was still on)
Once again, the band really seemed surprised at the reception. I can never understand why – Rush has a massive following (Lord knows where they were in Sheffield, though). Mind you, it always strikes me as odd that the people looking for reviews like this one were actually there themselves, so they know what it was like. I mean, I do it myself – look up reviews to see what others thought.
But there’s no denying Neil’s superb drum solo, and Geddy and Alex’s respective skills. I was talking to someone else who was doing the grand tour of UK gigs, and he said that he hadn’t realised until now just how good Geddy’s bass playing was. For myself, I’m always amazed at how they get the timing right with the triggers (though they nearly missed a few last night because they were having a laugh with each other and playing up to the audience).
So, the big question now is can the Brummies better it tomorrow night? Let’s see how it goes at the Birmingham NEC.
Edit: A reader has done an excellent write-up on her blog of this show. Take a look at According to Bex.
Third leg of six, and this one was easily the best so far.
It started off good when I arrived at about 5pm, and found a free parking space in the MEN multi-storey on the ground level (last time I was here, it took over an hour to get out being up on the 4th or 5th level).
It was even better when I got inside the arena – I’d been worried that the seat numbering began from the opposite end to which it actually did, which meant that I was right in front of Geddy’s keyboards, and only three rows back.
And this new camera is bloody brilliant – even the blurred pictures are still good.
The crowd was up for it right from the start (in huge contrast to the Sheffield lot). The band obviously felt this, and is was clear that they were really enjoying themselves – an impression which became stronger as the show progressed. Alex and Geddy were laughing among themselves, and when they brought Neil in on it there was even a deviation from the set (albeit for a few seconds) at the end of Closer to the Heart.The crowd was singing along and very animated throughout.
At the end, even Geddy’s farewell made it clear they were overwhelmed by the crowd response, even more than at Glasgow.
Being on Geddy’s side, my pictures were oriented to him, and it was difficult to get a decent shot of Neil from that angle (some of the better ones were when Geddy was away from his keyboard and Neil was behind him in some shots).
And I was right about the car parking space. I got out within 10 minutes.
Another awesome show. Next stop, Newcastle on Saturday. Get your backsides down there and make it a sell-out – and let’s make it the best one again.
I bought my first digital camera many, many years ago. It was the Casio QV-10A, and it was 1995 if my memory serves me correctly. It had a resolution of 320×240 pixels (so 0.25M) and internal storage that could hold 96 pictures (which wasn’t that bad). It had fixed focus, and a very basic zoom. At the time, it was state-of-the-art technology, and cost around £500.
As the years have gone by I’ve had a couple more cameras, the latest being a Sony Cybershot with a 5.1M resolution – 20x more than on that original Casio. Even my phone has a 5M resolution camera in it. A problem with the Sony was also with the zoom – 3x optical just doesn’t do it, and digital zoom is almost a complete waste of time.
As I’ve mentioned in the recent posts about the Rush Time Machine Tour, the Sony simply wasn’t cutting it at the concerts. To be honest, it never has, mainly because of its maximum ISO setting (and the zoom) results in blurring unless you are very lucky (i.e. both you and the target stand still for long enough for the exposure to occur, and something not likely at gigs). To be fair to it, it was fine outside and in good lighting – but that wasn’t my main requirement in a camera these days. With the Casio, I began creating photo-based SOPs at the Company of Clowns I wasted a huge chunk of my life working for – I was the first one there to do it, and it caught on big time – but I have never really been one for taking pictures of everything and everyone. I just like gadgets and putting them to value-creating uses.
I’d been planning on getting a good digital SLR at some point – one with a high ISO range – but the abject failure of the Sony at the Glasgow SECC Rush gig made me rethink my immediate plans. I had an hour between lessons, and nipped into PC World on last Sunday. I was looking specifically for resolution and optical zoom, and as I scanned across the range I was also attracted to the full HD video facility offered by the Panasonic Lumix TZ9 (12M and 12x optical zoom also did it for me). Plus, it was only £150 – I’d been ready to spend much more than that on an SLR.
I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get any decent pictures in time for the next Rush gig after I bought the Lumix (before I’d learnt how to use it). But I’d learnt a lot about basic photography from messing with the Sony and trying to squeeze the best I could out of it, and as it happens this came in really handly on the Lumix. A big plus was the ISO, which you can set manually up to 1600, but in the high-sensitivity setting it will go as high as 6400.
Having said that, the Lumix has loads more features. One I’m particularly anxious to try out is bracketing so I can do some HDR (high dynamic range) pictures. But if you’re looking for a reasonably priced camera with a high spec and which will take great gig pictures, this is it. You can see what it can do from the Rush gig reviews I’ve written.
An email alert from the DSA advises that you can buy an anniversary copy of the 1931 Highway Code (for a limited time). Here’s the link to it on the TSO Bookshop.
I’ve actually got the PDF version, but I’ve ordered a copy of it. It’s only £4.99.
I won’t reproduce the whole DSA message for something like this, but it’s interesting that this version came out “…the year the electric guitar was invented…” Quite appropriate with what I’m up to between lessons at the moment.
In 1931 there were only 2.4 million cars on the roads. Today it is more like 34 million!
I also like the fact that the 1931 edition deals in depth with horse-drawn vehicles, and how to rotate the whip above your head to let people know which way you were going.
When this topic first came up, I was surprised at the ridicule by many sources (including ADIs).
Presumably 
t be allowed to breed, let alone drive a car.
along with their chips or hot dog.
So, the final leg is at the 
(so doing a gig review was still on)
I bought my first digital camera many, many years ago. It was the Casio QV-10A, and it was 1995 if my memory serves me correctly. It had a resolution of 320×240 pixels (so 0.25M) and internal storage that could hold 96 pictures (which wasn’t that bad). It had fixed focus, and a very basic zoom. At the time, it was state-of-the-art technology, and cost around £500.
I’d been planning on getting a good digital SLR at some point – one with a high ISO range – but the abject failure of the Sony at the Glasgow SECC Rush gig made me rethink my immediate plans. I had an hour between lessons, and nipped into PC World on last Sunday. I was looking specifically for resolution and optical zoom, and as I scanned across the range I was also attracted to the full HD video facility offered by the Panasonic Lumix TZ9 (12M and 12x optical zoom also did it for me). Plus, it was only £150 – I’d been ready to spend much more than that on an SLR.