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Jayne Dawson: Let's be candid about cameras
There are those questions aren't there? You know, those innocuous little questions that, should you choose to answer, give away your whole world view, right there, right then, in a one-word answer.
You know the kind of thing I mean. Cat or dog? BBC or ITV? Kylie or Dannii?
Answer them at your peril, unless of course you actually want the whole world to be able to see right down to the very bottom of your soul.
The dog/cat thing is pretty transparent. Either you're warm, caring, loving and sharing, or you have a cat.
I have a cat... oh no, I've gone and given myself away, haven't I?
Then there are people who are law-abiding, pro-monarchy and have gardens with lawns, and they watch BBC.
The others watch ITV, and they are pro-smoking.
(Look, there's no point getting upset with me. I didn't decide the rules of this game, I'm just telling it like it is.)
The key question though used to be the Minogue one. If you are a Kylie fan then you are a fair, balanced sort of a person who gives to charity. if you prefer Dannii then you're an ITV watcher (see above for character analysis).
But now there is a new key question, a question that defines a person's world view even more than the Minogue question. In fact, you might even call it a killer question. Here it is: speed cameras – yes or no?
Because speed cameras are a bit of a trapped-in-the-back-seat-of-a-taxi topic, aren't they? One of those issues on which we're all supposed to bond.
Actually, I once got trapped in a chiropodist's chair while being chummily lectured on this one, but you don't want the details. Really, you don't.
But anyway, there you go. Speed cameras are supposed to be part of our small talk package, one of those meaningless sentences we swap with strangers designed to reassure them that it's OK, we're not knife-wielding lunatics about to attack, we come in peace.
To prove the point, we chat. We say that the weather has been rubbish, that global warming is a joke, that nothing is as good as it used to be... and that speed cameras are part of one big war on motorists and just there to take our money off us.
They spy on us, we say, and take away our freedom, and turn decent, law-abiding people into criminals.
So now the Conservatives have put speed cameras right back on the political agenda as they attempt to grab votes any which way they can.
Should they win power, they say, there would be no more money for speed cameras. Instead they would rely on alternatives like asking people nicely to please not speed, in the form of "education campaigns", and by putting up signs that politely point out when we are speeding.
Just to make sure that motorists aren't being picked on, they say they would also axe the West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership, which currently runs the region's speed cameras.
Some people will think this is a very good move because it's true that speed cameras do take away personal freedom: they take away the freedom to put other people's lives at risk.
Flashed
And they do cost us money, but only if we speed, and they do turn us into criminals, but only if we break the law. And, in case you are wondering, I say all this as someone who has been flashed by a speed camera while driving through an unfamiliar city and did receive the obligatory fine and points on my licence.
I say it because speed cameras are proven to cut speeds, reduce the number of crashes and reduce casualties, and they do not affect anyone apart from those drivers who are breaking the law.
And I say it because road safety charity Brake, committed to stopping the carnage on our roads, believes they are an important tool in catching drivers who break the law and put lives in danger.
And I say it because speed is a critical factor in the ultimate consequences of any crash. In Britain eight people die on the roads every single day. If you are hit by a car, and that car is travelling at 20mph then you have a 95 per cent of living. If the car is travelling at 40mph, your chances of staying alive are a mere 15 per cent.
So here is what the speed camera question reveals: if you agree with David Cameron's people that speed cameras are a bad thing, then you are a selfish, unthinking kind of a person.
You probably worry about the safety of your loved ones on the roads, you probably have your heart in your mouth when thinking about your own children on the roads, but you are too stupid to make the connection between those fears and drivers who travel above the speed limit.
But if you think speed cameras are there to protect us from each other – well you're probably the kind of person who understands tricky concepts like decency, justice – and speed limits.
But here's the real test. If you can look into the face of a bereft parent who has lost a child to a speeding driver and tell them that speed cameras are a way of hounding decent people, and if the shamefulness of what you are saying doesn't actually overwhelm you, then you are with David Cameron, and right where you belong.
EP 7 Oct 2009
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