James 'Jim' Brokenshire (pictured) is one of nature's good scouts; short hair, patriotic, non-smoker, kind to animals. He probably only really misbehaves when he doesn't eat a full five portions of fruit and veg. James is shadow Home Affairs spokesman and unusally for a front bencher has a Ten-Minute Rule Bill next Tuesday - the Bill includes various road safety measures. Jim recommends introducing driving test theory questions on how to avoid bad crashes. Not sure you need legislation for that, perhaps he could just write to Driving Standards Agency and suggest a re-wording.
James B's Bill also includes a proposal for a new offence of aggravated dangerous driving. In other words really, really dangerous driving. I'm not sure how this provision would actually deter unlicensed drivers seeking to shake off the boys in blue.
Road death is England is, proportionally, the lowest in Europe. When you take the UK figures as a whole we are still only slightly behind the notoriously cautious Swedes but miles better than French, Germans and Spanish (Portugal has the worst drivers). But 3,200 deaths a year in this country is still alot and three times as many who die of drug overdoses.
There are some obvious measures which could reduce that figure dramatically; lower speed limits, increase the numbers of speed cameras and lower the drink drive limit. The only problem with these practical measures are they are almost impossible to implement in the face of a rabidly hostile media. The last time there was even a whisper of support for a lower limit the Daily Mail screamed, "Banned for just one glass of wine!" Rubbish of course but the implication is that we should have the right to drive after sinking a couple is frankly bizarre. It would be refreshing to hear a shadow Minister support road safety proposals which are based on solid evidence of reducing death and injury rather than agreeing with the prejudiced editorial of any Associated Press newspaper.
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