Uninsured cars to be seized!

[Mr Lobster]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/new ... curbs.htmlMore bollox from Brown

The new law will make it an offence to be the registered keeper of an uninsured car, whether or not the vehicle is being used and regardless of whether it has a valid tax disc or is kept on private property. The only way to avoid a fine will be to go through the bureaucratic process of making a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

So if it's on SORN then it's ok, but what if abouts if I decide that as I'm not using my car over winter I'll just leave it in the garage and might as well cancel the insurance. So if I don't cash the tax in and declare SORN then I'm in trouble?OK, so I always leave the car insured so it wouldn't really effect me (or indeed an awful lot of people) but isn't this just about getting more money out of the majority of law abiding motorists who are doing nothing wrong, whilst the majority of those using uninsured cars will just carry on regardless.

[whitevanman]

welcome to the wonderfull world of Labour, 3 day working weeks, power cuts, union unrest and strikes, massive borrowing of the IMF and world banks etc............now which year is it ? 1978 or 2009...........seems the same shit to me as always from them

[ashmicro]

BBC Radio 4 reported last night (midnight news) that you'd get a fine even if it WAS on a SORN.

[M'coli]

BBC Radio 4 reported last night (midnight news) that you'd get a fine even if it WAS on a SORN.

^^^If so then that's a cnut's trick, what about those who have a valuable relic (old Jags, Astons, etc) that's not MOT'd but worthwhile insuring?

[Guest]

This has been brought up months ago and I'm surprised there's still loads of incorrect info flying around. The press really don't understand this.Basically, it's a bit of a pain, but not that big a deal - if a vehicle has road tax you'll need to keep it on insurance. Might be a problem if you let the insurance lapse and don't cash the tax in, but you can probably ignore the fines without consequence anyway. You don't have to insure a car on SORN, so don't worry about that.I'm really not sure what loophole it is meant to close though, what's the point of putting tax on a car if you're not going to bother with insurance? It'll still come up uninsured on the ANPR and you'll get pulled for it. I find it baffling why anyone would want to go to the effort of getting road tax to not insure it, so I'm confused as to who they're actually going to "catch".The method of enforcement is quite amusing though:

Under the new system, every motorist's insurance details will be checked by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency at least once a month. Where an insurance policy has lapsed, the DVLA will initially send out a reminder letter. If no action is taken by the motorist after around a month the DVLA will then issue a fixed penalty notice imposing a £100 fine - which will be reduced to £50 if paid within 21 days.

How's that going to work when people sell a car to a trader through the yellow slip then? If the trader doesn't insure it, the DVLA won't have their details so presumably the DVLA will just churn out a fine to the last owner. Nice work lads!

[Rocket88]

As usual ,another ill thought out piece of legislation from Gordon and the lads. There's a really simple solution to all of this. do as we've done over here, scrap road tax, stick it on the price of fuel. Every car gets a windscreen insurance disc, it all works very well. Only trouble being, you'd probably make elevnty million civil servants redundant over night, which is not what our beloved Gordon needs right now...................

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

As usual ,another ill thought out piece of legislation from Gordon and the lads. There's a really simple solution to all of this. do as we've done over here, scrap road tax, stick it on the price of fuel. Every car gets a windscreen insurance disc, it all works very well. Only trouble being, you'd probably make elevnty million civil servants redundant over night, which is not what our beloved Gordon needs right now...................

That's not a bad idea, (although as a pre-73 car owner I wouldn't welcome it ) except I'd do away with the insurance disc. I don't know if it exists in Jersey, but we've got the ANPR to check random cars for insurance, plus any police officer stopping you can check whether the car's insured over the radio. What's the point of these nationwide insurance and tax databases, plus ANPR, if we still have to dick about with circles of paper?

[stoterstangen90]

Its the same in as in the Netherlands. We have to "SORN"our cars and mopeds too........

[Pete-M]

In Czech, if a car isn't insured you have to hand the registration plates in. You get them back when you've got insurance. If you don't hand 'em in, they come and get 'em. Reg plates have insurance and mot expiry dates on 'em, if you get caught driving with expired plates, they lock you up. Simples.Road tax only counts on motorways, if you don't use motorways you don't need road tax. It's only about £40 quid anyway.

[Cavcraft]

I used to think taxing fuel instead of vehicles was a good idea. Then I thought about how fucking much they'd stick on a litre every other day or whenever another war was 'needed'.I swear if it started off at say £1.75 per litre it'd be three bastard quid within no time at all and there'd be sod all we could do about it.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I used to think taxing fuel instead of vehicles was a good idea. Then I thought about how fucking much they'd stick on a litre every other day or whenever another war was 'needed'.

Not to mention that if fuel suddenly became significantly more expensive, sales of the most fuel efficient cars would surge, tax revenue would drop, and so they'd put the tax up further.

[Andrew353w]

These statistics don't say how many of the uninsured vehicles are British registered. The DVLA can easily pick up UK vehicles which are uninsured/untaxed etc. but I don't know if it would tell if a foreign registered vehicle was uninsured. I'd be interested in the answer to this one before everyone says it's a bad or good idea-"simples!"

[Twiggy]

Hmm......... according to The Daily Telegraph today, 160 people a year are killed by drivers of uninsured vehicles. Thus aproximately 2,500 people are killed each year by drivers of insured vehicles. I leave you to draw your own conclusions..........

[Pete-M]

I used to think taxing fuel instead of vehicles was a good idea. Then I thought about how fucking much they'd stick on a litre every other day or whenever another war was 'needed'.

Not to mention that if fuel suddenly became significantly more expensive, sales of the most fuel efficient cars would surge, tax revenue would drop, and so they'd put the tax up further.

Labour will do that anyway. They're on a mission to make private transport too expensive for the average bloke in the street to consider. They don't want you moving unless they can monitor your movements "In case of terrorism" and they can't get people to agree to having their little 'pay as you go' spy boxes, and even if they could they can't afford to get that going, so 'they' want you to be at home, in work, shopping (using credit cards) or in the pub.Country is a mess, and Brown and Blair are to blame for most of it.Personally, I can't wait to leave.

[Pete-M]

Hmm......... according to The Daily Telegraph today, 160 people a year are killed by drivers of uninsured vehicles. Thus aproximately 2,500 people are killed each year by drivers of insured vehicles. I leave you to draw your own conclusions..........

You know the line they'll use "Just one person killed is too many". It's not the one they use when they're sending soldiers to Iraq / Afghanistan without armour or equipment, but that's over oil and oil means tax, tax means more money for Government, which means they get more money to spend fucking us over. "It's for your own good".The number of people who voted for this shower of shysters twice kind of suggests to me that the UK is pretty much getting what it's asked for. "Take our liberties and fuck us up the arse, as long as we've got 'Celebrity X factor in the Jungle' and sunbed shops, we don't care"

[Mr H Sceptre]

You moving abroad Pete?

[Station]

I remember what the Tories did, and I am in no way supporting them, but fucking hell, how did we end up with betrayal, lies, and incompetence all rolled into one, with an unelected Prime Minister wioth no back-bone and no skills and a two-faced deputy Prime Minister who registers top on the cunt-scale, who was shamed in the early days of Labour, and suddenly he's back?! I'm surprised Jeffrey Archer hasn't somehow gained himself a top spot at the old boy's club. There is nothing good about how the country is being 'run' at the moment. Do they care?

 

It's all a bad dream. It's all a bad dream. It's all a bad dream.

[mirafioriman]

The problem is all these stupid things go on and we in the UK allow them to happen. It's not the same in other countries. We don't go out and vote, we let criminals get away with murder (literally) and so on. Take Newcastle United when Keegan went. The fans were all up in arms-and then all turned up at the next game. If they had boycotted it and kept the stadium empty Ashley would have s**t himself.

[Pete-M]

You moving abroad Pete?

That's the plan, yeah. It's been on the cards for a couple of years now, but I've got to get a few things together before I go. I think this'll be my last year in the UK, but I'm going to try and keep something going here just to keep things ticking over.Plan was initially to go to the Czech Republic, but I suspect I'll end up living just over the border in Germany. Every time I go to CZ I get offered jobs, but I don't want to stop messing about with old cars. Germany has a lot of old cars, Czech has a fair few good mechanics, and I have a lot of contacts over here and in CZ, so I suspect I could make something work.I'm sick to death of the shit here. I know the grass is always greener on the other side and all that, but I can do a lot more if I'm based on mainland Europe as opposed to being on this frickin' island. It was made very obvious to me when I flew back from Czech in June, a mate of mine picked me up from Leeds-Bradford airport and we stopped at services on the M62 to get a brew. The place was a shithole. Everything was mentally expensive, there was food all over the floor, staff who didn't give a fuck and didn't care that you knew, brassy women screaming all over the place in the car park (a hen night, I suspect), filthy toilets, litter all over the place and obnoxious screaming brats running riot. Nobody cared. The bins were overflowing and staff just walked past. The cleaners were outside having a fag (and they threw their cig butts on the floor).In contrast, I'd just driven right across Europe and every service area I'd been in was clean, tidy, served better food for less money and seemed to be staffed by people who had a bit of pride in their place of work. Even the rest stops on the German autobahns were noticeably better.After leaving the Services on the M62 we were stuck in the mental M60 traffic for a while, the standard of driving was shite and it was all to do with roadworks with nobody working (speed cameras no doubt worked).Now I know service areas and motorway tailbacks aren't a reason to leave the country, but it just struck me pretty hard that the majority of people here really don't seem to give a toss anymore. If they're working in a place and they're surrounded by shit, it's someone elses job to eventually clean up, they'll work in the shit rather than tidy up. If they're late getting home then screw everyone else, they'll cause a 5 mile tailback if it means getting to the front of the queue.They'll complain like hell if you give a cleaning job to a Latvian, but they won't do the job themselves. It's as if the whole nation has decided that doing menial work is beneath them, as they're going to be a singer / dancer / painter / millionaire, as long as there's no work involved.So basically, yeah, I'm outta here next year.

[Mr H Sceptre]

Fair play Pete. The imfamous Blakey (techy guy for this site) basically felt similar approx 5yrs ago, so him & his wife jacked in their jobs, sold up & bought a place in rural Andalucia in Spain. Hasnt looked back. In fact, I dont think he's even been back to Blighty once!Good on yer mate.

[Electric Leyland]

Have also been considering this. I dearly love the UK, but the more time you spend abroad the more you realise how rubbish and embarrassing it can be here. All the things you mentioned. Quality of life right across the board. OK the Uk has certain things to offer that are just no where near as good abroad e.g. the pub culture, wicked sense of humour/comedy, various patriotic elements, all the things that I love about the UK. But really, go abroad and see how much better it is, virtualy anywhere irrespective of how successful their economy is! It's the "yeah, whenever" attitude here that gets me down. Accepting less than acceptable. No-one gives a shit about anything. It's embarrassing when you go abroad and see how much more positive everyone is, even if they have no money or prospects. Everyones a lot happier.Having said that I would never dream of cutting ties with the UK! Ideal scenario being able to afford living abroad but visiting the UK as often as possible, to enjoy all the positive elemetns here, of which there are many! Might sound a bit contradictory but hey.

[Volksy]

I moved to Ardres, just outside Calais, Beautiul town, great people, I like the english weather, so no change there. However, we used to nip across for a curry and a pint to Dover, rather than the nomal uk france booze cruise that was occuring at the time...

[OwdChina]

Unfortunatly i'm returning to England in December, all the bloody work for foreigners has dropped like a lead weight over the last ten months. Doing nothing at the mo, just waiting for the womans contract to finish. We've 4 cars at home, 3 on sorn & 1 not registered (import) so should be ok. However, from New Year2007 /2008 to April 2009, 16 months, i was not in UK. I tried to sorn them at Christmas 2008 but didn't have a certain number on the reg. doc. so this was impossible. I recon i was lucky because they seem to have slipped through the net & i never heard nowt from the powers that be, quite rightly so too. So, anybody going a long way overseas for a while, but having left a car at home, TAKE YOUR REG. DOCUMENTS WITH YOU, or you might find yourself in the shit !!!! Looks like i'll have to change my user name then, meowddictatorshipthievingbunchofcorruptcuntsgovernmentuk. Maybe that's a bit too long........pity. Kev.

[Milford Cubicle]

It's sad that people are so down on the UK. No country is perfect...I think a lot of the resentment and hysterical emigration is down to newspapers like the Daily Mail, feeding people with endless negative and skewed stories about the country, the establishment, the Government, its population, etc. etc.It's good news though, we could do with less of these whinging, moaning buggers. They're possibly the worst aspect of living in the UK.

[Pete-M]

It's sad that people are so down on the UK. No country is perfect...I think a lot of the resentment and hysterical emigration is down to newspapers like the Daily Mail, feeding people with endless negative and skewed stories about the country, the establishment, the Government, its population, etc. etc.It's good news though, we could do with less of these whinging, moaning buggers. They're possibly the worst aspect of living in the UK.

I've been planning on leaving the UK for quite a while. I actually did in 2003, but encountered a work permit issue and had to return. However, I may have to think about it again as it's obvious from your post that the country is actually a perfect Utopia and I've not realised what bliss it is to live here. I might grow to enjoy my civil liberties being stolen from me by an unelected Scottish wanker.No. I think I'll still be off next year, but I'll be back regularly with plenty of old oddball shite to sell every few months.(and I don't read the Mail...)

[OwdChina]

Well said Pete.+1

[FredTransit]

This sounds like a plan to move towards charging for SORN, and yet another money making scheme (just churning out fines.) Good point about stuff on dealer's slips. Laws and rules are for those who abide by them, this won't stop uninsured drivers. They are doing it now, another law won't stop them. I think the 'loophole' is people driving cars that were taxed when they bought them, without insurance.

[Richard]

Somebody acting illegally isn't a loophole, it's somebody acting illegally. The loophole comes when somebody acts illegally but they can't be prosecuted for some reason. Somebody driving without insurance can be prosecuted and will be if their number is checked.

[Mr Lobster]

This is a depressing read. Unfortunately a lot of it is very true. Pete M - very well said.Spend much / any time abroad and you can see that in many respects they do have it much better. That said, we've just had a lovely few days away in Kent, really really enjoyed it but you can't escape the fact that in the last ten years or so the government had made life far worse for most people and that the gradual dumbing down of society continues apace.We've looked at moving abroad and I'd still be very tempted to do it at some point in future. There has to be a better way than the continual decline in the quality of life here, which whilst it's not that bad [yet] certainly isn't what it once was.

[Pete-M]

Spend much / any time abroad and you can see that in many respects they do have it much better. That said, we've just had a lovely few days away in Kent, really really enjoyed it but you can't escape the fact that in the last ten years or so the government had made life far worse for most people and that the gradual dumbing down of society continues apace.

Oh, don't get me wrong, there are some beautiful, unspoilt places in the UK where I would love to live. I could move to a few of them, but I'd still be hammered by the idiots in Westminster for anything they can think of, whether it be emptying the bins once a month or possesion taxes on cars......... oh bugger, I've done it again.