Posts by Jim Hague

Save the BBC - by setting it free

@Anthony

I'm someone with a >£500 HD telly, Freeview and not Sky or Virgin. So no HD signal. But I'm dammed if I'm going to pay the vast sums Murdoch and Virgin demand to ship ad-crammed garbage into my house by the container-load. Because I'm a cheapskate? No, because I can't see anything in their offerings that I want to watch, and while HD would be nice, it's the programming that's important, not the screen resolution. For the (not great) amount of TV that I watch, Freeview plus the licence fee is a compelling option.

By your argument, Sky would have penetrated the market from the wealthy down. I'd argue that history was significantly different.

As to the original piece, it's similar to loads produced a decade ago. 'In the upcoming multi-channel world, no-one will want the Beeb'. Turns out that the multi-channel world of choice is a choice of crap or drek, and a lot of people do still want the Beeb.

London man coughs to 172mph Porsche jaunt

A420

The A420 Oxford-Swindon is for the most part winding single-carriageway (50 limit) with small sections of dual. Both types feature regular side road junctions. The road has a bad fatality record.

Autobahn it isn't. 172mph is so far off the sensible speed scale *for this road* that no defence is possible. If this nurk didn't kill someone, it wasn't because of his skill or judgement.

UK mulls drink-drive limit cut

Random tests, not the limit

50mg and random tests is the regime in New South Wales, and has been for years. Perhaps we could check comparative statistics?

It isn't the limit that's the problem, it's the chances of getting caught. Which are close to zero at present unless you wallop something. ISTR from somewhere that the average British driver will get breathalysed about once every 20 years. The figure in NSW is apparently more like once every 18 months I've been breathalysed twice, once in NSW and once in South Africa, both random tests. I have no problem with them happening here.