There was a rare piece of good news for licensees and pubgoers in the Irish Republic as Prime Minister Brian Cowan – the son of a County Offaly publican – announced that plans to lower the drink-drive limit from 80mg to 50mg were to be “parked”, following the threat of a back-bench revolt. Irish pubs are already reeling following the smoking ban, and this move would have led thousands more to call last orders. Given that the vast majority of accidents attributed to drink-driving are caused by drivers well over the current legal limit, it has always seemed to me that cutting the limit is a far better way of discouraging responsible people from going to the pub than of improving road safety.
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I've always thought it blindingly obvious that if you don't care about the existing limit, why would you be bothered about a lower one, or even a zero limit? I'm sure many politicians realise this, but it's an easy way of looking as if you are doing something about the problem of drink-drive accidents, while doing absolutely nothing of substance at all.
ReplyDeleteSadly, it is doing something. It is providing the authorities with more excuses for harassing the law-abiding.
ReplyDeleteBrian, follower of Deornoth