more solid gold from the world's greatest newspaper

I've got to admit I usually skip past Leo McKinstry in the Express. But this is jerking-knee, one-eyed, self-contradicting mouth-frothing out of the very, very top drawer. An attack on speed cameras...it's just such a fresh angle


"A group of sanctimonious citizens had taken on the selfappointed role of spying for the local constabulary, using their hand-held video cameras to check on the speed of passing motorists.

There was something un-British about their cowardly desire to tell the police about minor traffic offences. It was the sort of conduct I might have expected from Germans, wanting to see that the rules were obeyed, not from rural Essex people, traditionally renowned for their robust sense of independence.

In their way, they were just reflecting the phoney new morality of today's Britain where bogus environmental concerns and hysteria over safety are used to bully, lecture, tax, harass and control the public.

The same mood of oppression can be gauged by the vast increase in the number of speed cameras. Otherwise lawabiding drivers are now treated with far more contempt by the state than burglars or drugtakers "