Post 354. THE LEGALISED GANGSTERS..

HERE ON THIS ISLAND

And throughout Britain.

National, local and private administrative bodies are increasingly taking the heavy-handed approach and employing firms of legalised gangsters (debt collection 'businesses') to extort cash from the public for them. This extortion takes the form of 'fining' citizens (usually motorists) for alleged misdemeanours (mostly parking infringements), however unintentional. The 'fines' are increased for failure to pay within a certain time and there is a threat of blacklisting on a list of 'bad debtors' for any who refuse to be blackmailed. 

In America in the nineteen twenties those who illegally imposed such demands on people were known as protection racketeers. Britain's twenty first century version is no better. Just legal. 
My wife has recently fallen foul of the insidious bastards, so at the moment I am hopping mad about them. But I have been sick and tired of the acquisitive line taken by the powers that be to motorists in the UK since the day I passed my driving test in 1957. Various authorities and their bounty hunter 'heavies' have been bleeding the vehicle owner dry ever since, so I have had a very long time to hate their guts.

Truth to tell I still think the MP, way back, who smugly described the motorist as “a buoyant source of revenue,” should have been dragged from Parliament and hung by his neck from the nearest lamppost no matter how accurate his description. That would have wiped the silly grin off his face. 

For me, driving's not a pleasure anymore. 
Hasn't been for years. So now I neither drive nor own a car. My wife is our car owner and driver. Still will be, all being well, when this plague thing is over and done with. 
She (like you?) is missing the driving at present.

What? Oh, she was totally mislead by somebody at the desk in Newport's Riverside Centre who assured her she was OK parked there when she visited them one Saturday before the lockdown. Even with her disabled driver badge, she wasn't.

She has paid the fine. 

I'd have told them to fuck off.

LEISURE TIME.

Well, unless you are one of those poor souls in hospital, or having a tough time making a recovery from your last visit to one, or somebody who is able to work from home, it's all leisure time now, isn't it. 

Trouble is, you can't go out and enjoy it. My Leader is currently working like a pixilated pixie in the garden. I take her a cuppa and do a bit of edging. She doesn't let me overdo that, either. 
There is a lot more traffic about here now. They can't all be going to essential work, or walking the dog, or going to a shop for imperative supplies, can they? 
Word is, though, that there is a police car stationed up the road watching them fly by. 
But shouldn't somebody be stopping some of them? If only to ask how much they really want Covid-19 to spread? 
Well, perhaps not. Most of them wouldn't have a clue why they were being asked a question like that. 
You can't ask reasonable questions of dickheads.
So fine 'em. 
Better that than fining elderly ladies parked in wrong places. 
Can't resist showing this pair of fine ladies again.

Go carefully, and only if entirely necessary.