Mark Andrews: Lowering the drink-drive limit, Jimmy Lai, and the real menace on the road
It is 12 years since the Scottish government decided to reduce the drink-drive limit from 80 microgrammes per 100ml of breath to 50, and every reputable independent study carried out over that time - including one published in the Lancet - has shown no statistically significant fall in accident rates.
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So, naturally our leaders have responded in exactly the way you would expect them to, by extending it to Scotland and Wales.
It stands to reason, doesn't it? If there's two things our ruling classes - and this government in particular - despise, it is folk enjoying a drink, and ordinary people driving cars. Why can't they get the tube, like all the other plebs? What do you mean it only runs in London? What sort of person lives outside London anyway? And why can't they cycle to work? Two wheels good, four wheels bad.
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Which is also probably why the Government appears to be doing nothing whatsoever about the real threat to road safety at the moment, which is people dressed all in black, often wearing face coverings, riding around on bikes with no lights at night.
What's it all about, is it a fashion thing? I don't recall it happening to any great extent a few years ago. It seems hard to believe people are so stupid to think it is safe to ride around busy roads at night barely visible to other road users.
The Highway Code was changed a few years ago giving special priority to cyclists. The very least we can expect in return is that cyclists show due consideration for their own safety and that of others. All animals are equal....
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And don't give me that about it being hard to enforce.
Drink-driving is also hard to enforce, which is probably why changing the law in Scotland has been a total waste of time. But I do note that many of these unlit cycles bear branding for the various food delivery operators blighting this country. Given the ever-increasing health-and-safety red tape that government imposes on small businesses, is it too much to hold these ghastly corporations accountable for the behaviour of their employees? If it means laws need tightening or loopholes closing, get on with it. I'm sure a few multi-million pound fines would soon concentrate the mind, and the menace would disappear pretty quickly.
I'll bet it will do far more for road safety than tinkering with drink-drive limits.
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During his recent meeting with Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, the Prime Minister said he would be 'raising the case' of Hong Kong democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, in prison since 2020. Mr Xi obviously took Sir Keir's words to heart, because this week 78-year-old Mr Lai was sentenced to 20 years.
We obviously underestimated the PM's powers of persuasion.
