Sending the Proper Message

In an advanced industrial society with sophisticated communications and an awareness of the dangers of pollution, there should of course be no objection to the use of mobile telephones on the road. All that would be required is a properly run and funded national public transport system, which would radically reduce the number of drivers while enabling travellers to apply their minds freely to matters other than controlling potentially dangerous vehicles. Since the prevailing religious orthodoxy forbids any such blasphemous measure, the Government is considering simply imprisoning dangerous drivers for longer periods. As usual, the logic is that the stiffer the penalty, the greater the deterrent, because no miscreant ever commits an offence without first taking into account the likelihood of being caught. It remains as yet unclear what the Government plans to do about the dangerous drivers who have reversed the full weight of the Department of Heath and the DWP over so many unfortunate victims.