Smokers are being warned that puffing away behind the wheel is now more likely to get you pulled over by the police. According to a new version of the UK’s Highway Code, smoking is now classed as a driver distraction like using mobiles, according to the BBC.Meanwhile, listeners have been calling into the BBC this week complaining about police road checkpoints, set up to check if commercial vehicles are displaying no-smoking signs in the interior. £200 fines have been issued to those who have been found without.
These examples, like the arrest of a man piggybacking onto a neighbour’s unencrypted home wi-fi network, are indicative of a hard-to-understand use of finite police resources, and the stories are thrown into stark relief by Times Online feature on 26th August reporting a gun crime epidemic currently sweeping Britain, with official figures showing that gun-related killings and injuries had risen more than fourfold since 1998.
