Question Author
"you seem hell bent on convincing anyone who will listen having a tipple and being
'ON THE MARGIN' is ok"
That is not what I said.
The fact is, the new limit will not discourage the "serious" drink drivers. Curiously ... you don't seem bothered about that. I wonder why?
There is nothing to demonstrate that reducing the margin will improve road safety. Here are one or two European countries which have lower levels than us, but worse road safety records ...
Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Serbia/Montenegro, Croatia, Latvia, Macedonia, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta.
So how can the Govt actually make a difference?
1. The disqualification for a first offence should be 3 years, not 1 year.
2. The disqualification for a second offence should be 10 years, not 3 years.
3. Causing an accident whilst driving over the limit should carry a recommended custodial sentence.
4. Causing injury whilst driving over the limit should carry a mandatory custodial sentence.
So why doesn't the Govt do this? Because they are not vote winners. They are too draconian. But ... they would stop drink driving almost overnight !
As to "i can only hazard a guess as to why you support this 'on the margin ' measure" ...
That is so rude that I will just let it go.
But should I ask ... why are you so against the idea of harsher penalties ????
Curious !
Remember ... once the Govt have tinkered with the limit, the opportunuty to introduce harsher penalties will have been missed, and they will focus on totally different areas.
So what I say to the Govt is ...
Stop tinkering, stop worring about votes, and introduce some real penalties.