Ed Balls in traffic crime shame!

Well, it may not be a crime to many. Also not much shame in it either. Ed Balls was caught using his mobile phone whilst driving a car and has been fined the princely sum of £60. I doubt very much if he is ashamed of his behaviour. This particular law, that of not using your mobile phone whilst driving, is flouted on a daily basis. Those I spot are usually either the arrogant types or the selfish types. Either way, these people are the sort that only obey the laws they want to obey.

Ed Balls has a touch of arrogance about him. It is inconceivable that it did not cross his mind to think that he shouldn't be talking on a phone in a car before he did so. He just thought he could get away with it. He thought "why not?" and just did it anyway. Is this the sort of man who should be in Parliament?

The Conservatives are targeting so-called safe Labour seats. Ed Balls' seat is one of them. It's a pity he wasn't given a more suitable punishment than a £60 fine. How about the stocks for ten days? Then put in an ample supply of rubber balls for chucking at him. Nothing hard or hurtful, you know. Just enough to let him get the message.

In some ways Ed Balls lives up to his name. Not in the way most would think. No, definitely more like a rubber ball. Whatever shame befalls him he bounces back. Whether it be MPs' expenses, sacking people, policy detail, cabinet confidentiality or just taking the law into his own hands, Ed Balls bounces along with a cheery smile (or is it a smirk?).

Well, let's hope the Conservatives can bowl him a googly. Then his rubber balls won't come a bouncin' back!

Harriet Harman to be prosecuted for careless driving!

Careless driving, eh? Following on from careless expense calculating and careless politicking. She is alleged to have been driving without due care and attention and driving while using a mobile phone. She "strongly refutes the allegations and will deny the charges". Umm! Does she now.

If she has been falsely accused, then I'd be the first to back her to the hilt. There are many who have had to endure falsehoods without the ability or resources to establish the truth. If she is found guilty, then it is a very bad example indeed of arrogance and an above-the-law attitude.

Every day I see mobile phones being used. There is an exceptance by quite a few that it doesn't matter and that they won't get caught. Good examples of perpetual law breakers are delivery van drivers. I see them most mornings. It is quite outrageous that household name businesses should be letting their employees loose on the roads without a hands-free kit.

Harriet Harman knows the law. The Crown Prosecution Service has said there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to prosecute. Yes, they should prosecute. Not because it's her, but because this activity (alleged in this case) is both anti-social and potentially life threatening. And it will be a lesson to all arrogant drivers who abuse other road users through attitude and high-mindedness that their minority actions are actually not tolerated.

Ofcom gets tough on cell phone cowboys

I wonder why it has taken Ofcom so long to realise that the best scam in town is flogging a mobile phone contract. On Ofcom's website today is the stark message "Mobile service providers and retailers engaging in dishonest, misleading or deceptive conduct could be fined under new Ofcom rules that come into force today." Well, don't hang about, get your lassos out and rein in these cowboys.

This is a business that can sell a service that is never guaranteed to work, where outages are the "responsibility" of the customer and where contracts are "sold" as if it is mere advice. Whilst the mobile phone industry is now vital to the smooth running of modern life, it is also vital to remove the gadflies and gannets that have come to feed off the fortunes.

Jailbird Ahmed let out in Monopoly type release!

Well, well. Lord Ahmed's barrister, Jeremy Baker QC, has succesfully argued that the jail sentence Lord Ahmed received could "irreparably and permanently" damage his ability to carry out community work in the future. You don't say!

Lady Justice Hallett seems to have come over all funny. Bring on the smelling salts! Because of the "exceptional" personal mitigation in his case, she said the court was able to take the step of suspending the sentence for 12 months. So he's still technically a criminal, then.

Seems a pretty poor excuse to let someone out of jail for. Why couldn't he just carry on with his "community work" after six weeks? Jeremy Baker will be the most sought after advocate in the world for that grovelling mitigation.

Lord Ahmed banged up in jail!

Another driver who thinks he is above the law is jailed. This time it is Lord Ahmed, who will be doing six weeks out of a 12 week stint. After all, nobody but the most depraved does the full stretch. Ahmed won't have time to figure out where everything is before he is let out again.

The driver of the car he hit was killed. 12 weeks for that? I wonder if Lord Ahmed voted for a ban on hand-held mobile phone use whilst driving when it went through the House of Lords. It's an utter disgrace.

Only this morning whilst walking my children to school a driver on his mobile phone casually turned into his driveway right in front of us. He didn't appear to have noticed. If he'd hit us, would it have been careless, dangerous or what?

Some people are just too arrogant and selfish for their own good. Perhaps as Lord Ahmed sits in his cell tonight, chewing over the rights and wrongs of life with his cellmate, he can reflect on it all. And a good run round the excercise yard will stimulate the brain cells!

Kate Middleton on her mobile whilst mobile!

It is part of modern day culture, I suppose. People doing what they want when they want because they think only of themselves. It would be very surprising if Kate Middleton, who has been caught using her mobile phone whilst driving, didn't find her brain engaging itself with her hands and ears BEFORE she spoke on the phone. The problem was that she chose to ignore that message, because momentarily she was above and, as she hoped, beyond the law.

Every day I see several such people blithely ignoring the demand to desist from using a handheld phone whilst driving. When spotted, they normally react with a mixture of childish arrogance and disdain.

What are we to do with such people?