Sunday 8 April 2012

Speeding tickets and almost legless

8 April 2012

And another Sunday comes around.  Jan is off at church and then going to see Kile and give him his Easter Egg - not that he will be short of them anyway of course ;-)))  I've just finished reading the Sunday Express, well as much as I'm interested in ... the sports pages are the first to be ditched!

There's far too much in there and far too many item to do justice to it all.  But one item that did catch my eye was about the number of speeding offences being committed  by drivers in foreign registered cars.  The problem is not in issuing the tickets; no, it's in knowing where to send them when they have been issued.  Apparently that has cost the loss of £4.5 million in lost fines.   

In Eire they have a system where drivers of cars with a foreign number plate are stopped to find out if they are resident within the country or not.  That seems to make sense to me.  I can't see it happening here though because there would be an up roar from the civil rights busy bodies.  Beside which, there's hardly enough coppers about as it is without having the lumber them with this too.  That seems to be the case in Eire too, so their border agency does it.  However, here in the UK Border Agency staff have been cut back so far that there is serious risk of delays at airports that may well lead to overseas visitors going elsewhere to spend their holiday dosh. 

Scotland Yard is reviewing the Maddie case files.  I hope they can find the girl.  But I have mixed feelings over the whole case really.  Of course I would love to see the girl found and returned to her mum and dad.  There certainly seems to be some really serious mistakes on the part of the Portuguese police which if they had acted more quickly and decisively Maddie might have been found a lot earlier.  But what I can't understand is why they left all their children alone in their holiday flat in the first place.  That is a question the parents haven't answered yet.

Today's photo ...

 ... is of one of the entries to a shopping arcade in Southport.  We rather like Southport.

A YOUNG man walks onto the stage of Stars in their Eyes, on crutches, with a plaster cast from his feet to his hips. Matthew Kelly introduces him as Simon.
"It's very brave of you to come out here," says Matthew. "Please tell the audience what happened?"
"Well' replies Simon "about a year ago, I was driving with my uncle when we had a really bad accident. Unfortunately my uncle was killed outright but I survived. I was trapped in the car for six hours before I was eventually cut free.  The doctors had me in surgery for 12 hours but they couldn't save my legs."
"That's terrible. But I see you have legs now. Are they artificial?" asks Matthew.
"No Matthew," he replies. "While I was in hospital the doctors informed me that my uncle had in fact died, but that his legs were fine and with all the advances in medical science, they could graft his legs onto my body. The operation was successful. I have been having physiotherapy for six months and hope to be walking fully again by the end of the year.
A huge round of applause erupts from the audience. 'That's an unbelievable story. So, who are you going to be?" asked Matthew.
'Tonight, Matthew, I am going to be Simon and Halfuncle."   

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