Flouting the law is a way of life

IT is going to be interesting to see if the latest bit of legislation aimed at tackling the illegal use of mobile phones while driving will have the slightest effect on the many thousands - maybe millions - who currently break the law.

You see them everywhere - driving round corners, coming out of junctions, going too fast while having a hand holding a phone to one ear.

And they can get themselves into some awkward looking positions. I spotted a man the other day with his arm across the lower part of his face because he favoured the ear on the other side of his body from the hand he was using. It looked like he was in danger of strangling himself.

The current law on mobile phone use is patently not working, which is not surprising.

The trouble is, of course, that the perpetrators of the crime are almost guaranteed to get away with it unless they are unlucky and get spotted by a police officer in the act of committing it.

The law can barely be enforced and the wrongdoers know it.

And the situation will not change one bit just because it is being toughened up from February 27.

The fixed fine will be doubled to £60 - but so what if you are unlikely to be caught.

And the same goes for the innovation of plonking three penalty points on someone's driving licence. You won't get them if you continue to do wrong but avoid detection.

The only people I reckon may take any notice of the new law are those who already have penalty points and know that acquiring three more would mean them getting an automatic driving ban.

But even they will probably think they won't get caught and carry on regardless.

How did everybody manage in those pre-mobile phone days? I don't remember driving round thinking that I was missing out because I could not talk to people any time I liked at the push of a button.

We live in changed time.

I will be disgusted if something being proposed by a number of MPs goes through.

They want traditional glasses and bottles to be replaced with toughened plastic bottles and drinking vessels in pubs, clubs and bars.

Their argument is that the move would reduce the amount of alcohol-related violence in town centres late at night by taking away potential weapons.

This, understandably, has appalled the glass industry which can see its livelihood being destroyed at a stroke.

In a bid to block the move, it is quoting recent crime statistics highlighting that 78 per cent of violent incidents involved no weapon. Where one was used, knives, hitting implements and "others" were more commonly used, not bottles and glasses.

What concerns me is that real ale tastes awful if imbibed from a plastic container.

To finish, just a little note to the person - I will not name him - who in print recently vastly exaggerated the length of my journalistic career.

I would like to point out to him that there are no Eskimos in the Antarctic - they all live in the Arctic region. He'll know what I'm talking about.