h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Although asking your wife to take your speeding points is a serious crime it seems to be very common and socially acceptable among the middle classes.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/03/chris-huhne-expected-resign-charges-speeding?newsfeed=true

What other crimes are more socially acceptable in the middle classes?

Overpriced groceries in Waitrose.

I'm hedging it could be anything involving Cupressus leylandii.

"Although asking your wife to take your speeding points is a serious crime it seems to be very common and socially acceptable among the middle classes."

Acceptable it may be, but according to expert on t'radio, it carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Well I had a look at the article in the link and failed to find the evidence behind the statement that this is a common middle class offence..

Surely various cases over the years have featured people claiming not to be behind the wheel at a crucial moment regardless of class..

But in this case another factor that transcends class these days is that all of this has come up in the process of the break up of what seems to have been an often stormy marriage that has ended in an acrimoniious separation. Quite possibly not all "wronged-partners" are quite as intelligent, educated and capable as Mr Huhne's ex-wife- a very successful career person in her own right. That I suppose gives the affair something of a Middle Class character.

I know people of 'lower' class who have also done that, my brother's fiance took points for her then husband, and a friend of mine persuaded his wife to get a licence so she could take his points! She wasn't going to bother taking her test because she hated driving so much! It's not restricted to the middle classes. And it's not acceptable. Who's accepting it??

The people I know who do it seem to rely on their licence for their job, so they'd be out of work if they lost it. Although it's not easy, courts will be lenient if they know someone will lose a job if it's not a major speeding thing. My brother was out of work for 2 years, finally got a job and got caught speeding which put him on 12 points. Court let him keep his licence. My dad also had totting up and was able to keep his licence, as did the council due to hardship if he lost it. Both never got near losing their licences again.

Grrr... anyway, that wasn't the question was it?

But are we not living in times when people so often think that the only real crime is getting caught?

In the midst of the MP's expenses scandal there was an item on the BBC News 24 about the couple in NZ whose bank put £100,000 in their account in error. They took it all out in cash and disappeared to Hong Kong. The newsreaders pretty obviously took the line- "lucky them".

Double standards.

I'm assuming that by "acceptable" you mean the sort of thing that the majority still don't do, but that the few who do are indignant rather than sorry when they're caught, but condemnatory of lower class people who get caught doing similar or identical things.

Speeding, especially in luxury vehicles.

Tax avoidance/evasion.

Drug use, especially cocaine.

Embezzlement/fraud/other forms of theft which are not direct, e.g. fiddling expenses.

Employing illegal immigrants.

"Although asking your wife to take your speeding points is a serious crime it seems to be very common and socially acceptable among the middle classes" [Z]

I want to be sure I understand what you mean, Z. What are speeding points? Is this an issue of whether the husband was driving too fast, but when pulled over, it appeared that the wife was driving? How could two people switch places at the wheel fast enough to fool the police?

Paul, these are speeding cameras or guns which take photos of the registration and note the speed of the car. They don't always show who is driving the vehicle.

Oops...

And I should also say that they are not always pulled over immediately, they are notified by post and the police ask who was driving the vehicle in that area, on that particular date.

Didn't the Top Gear team avoid prosecution once because they couldn't remember who was driving?

I'm also not clear as to why someone could get life imprisonment for claiming that the other spouse was driivng at the time. There might be innocent reasons for giving the wrong answer -- not remembering who was driving at the time. If the cameras can't divulge the driver's identity, how would the record be set straight anyway?

I can't remember

Ooops...

In my case, I'm the only person who ever drives my car, so no one is going to believe my alibi that extraterrestrials took it for a spin without my knowledge.

I also avoided a ticket (for going through a red light, I was confused which set of lights I was supposed to be looking at) when I was a cabbie. My mum (car owner) said the car was booked out to me and sent proof. I said my last booked job was over an hour before the offence (and sent proof) and didn't know who took the cab after I dropped it off. Had I deliberately gone through a red light I would have fessed up, but the road markings were so poor I felt got at!

The whole question of speed cameras and "law enforcement" in fact has become quite an issue..

Many people have alleged that some local authorities set up speed cameras NOT to warn people that they should observe the speed limit on an apparently fast stretch of road, but in fact in order to reap a harvest of fines from those who exceed the speed limit on that particular stretch of road.

A couple of weeks ago our daughter's boyfriend supplied us with an excellent route plan to get from our house to his parents. It was full of speed changes that seemed pretty arbitrary to someone who has been driving for forty plus years etc..

I suspect that the system was set up for London's twice-daily rush hour for five days a week and not for a Saturday evening. But I suppose I might still have been fined had I broken the speed limit set for other conditions than the ones in which I was actually driving.

There was a major change in France last autumn when the President announced that he was going to scrap speed cameras and spread more of those "smilies" and "frowns" that they have in France that just point out to you what speed you are actually doing and react accorduingly.

But around the same time a French court handed down a criminal conviction to a French motorist who had been caught doing what French drivers have done for decades- that is flash on-coming traffic to warn them that there is a police speed trap hiding ahead ready to pounce and hand out on the spot fines. He was found gulty of obstructing the police in the carrying out of their duty.

In France getting away with law-breaking is a national pastime. As one historian put it, French people believe that the laws are very good and necessary-- for everyone else. They of course are the exception that proves the rule.

Cass

"obstructing the police in the carrying out of their duty"



I find that hard to believe, but then, it is France. You have to question what "duty" the police believed they had. If our hero had parked his car obstructively in the way of their camera, I could see they had a case that he was obstructing them. But he in no way interfered with them clocking passing cars. What he did was, apparently successfully, get cars to slow down to a legal speed. And now the court has expressly demonstrated that they did NOT want drivers driving at a legal speed! What they wanted was drivers *breaking the law*... and they've now effectively punished a man for doing nothing more than saying "Oi - you - stop breaking law, you'll get caught you know!". Typical French.

"not clear as to why someone could get life imprisonment for claiming that the other spouse was driivng at the time"

It's called perverting the course of justice. There's no suggestion here that they couldn't remember who was driving - his wife is quite clear in her allegation that he pressurised her into taking the points for him. Of course, a loyal and contented wife would be unlikely to make such an allegation, but Huhne's wife is filing for divorce after she found out via the papers that after 26 years of marriage he was planning on leaving her and their three children for a 45 year old bisexual woman 15 years younger than her whom he'd apparently been banging in his constituency home. Government ministers, eh?

I don't think we have speed cameras in this part of the US yet, but we do have red-light cameras. They will send out a ticket to the owner of the registration, but these are considered non-points violations because they can't prove who was driving at the time of the infraction. The fines are rather high, and a pretty good deterrent. I haven't gotten one, but I rarely ever run yellow lights any more for fear they'll turn red half way through, even at intersections where I know there's no cameras.

A friend told me that when he got a ticket in Germany they sent him a photo of his car, and a second photo of him driving it with is ticket.

Seems to me one of these would be a better system.