When The Line's Not So Fine

How pertinent that it should be the day after the English local council elections that I read the story of campaigner, Nigel Allen.

According to a newspaper report, Nigel's wife was stung by a £60 parking fine when she accidentally parked her car outside the white lines on a council-owned car park in Darlington, County Durham. Nigel says his wife had parked next to a huge 4x4, and the remaining space was so tight she had to park a couple of inches over the line.

But plucky Nigel Allen isn't letting it lie. He took his tape measure to the car park and discovered that the width of each bay was just 2.1 metres. Thanks to the power of the internet, Nigel found that the Government had issued guidance that bays should be a minimum of 2.4 metres wide. He's challenging the fine - and good luck to him!

What really got my dander up was the reported comments from 'A spokesman' for Darlington Borough Council:

"The figure of 2.4 metres is not Government legislation, it is only guidance. The car park belongs to us and we can set the spaces out the way we choose."

I sincerely hope whichever wretched 'spokesman' uttered those words is made to eat them with a hearty plateful of tarmacadam someday. I could almost be persuaded to pay £60 to watch such a spectacle.

Update on those Pig Tarts

Thanks to the wonderful immediacy of the blogosphere, we are now able to register our disapproval about the Robin Tarts and the Pig Tarts here.
It's a brave man who accuses Bill Blunt of sitting on the fence on such important matters, so I've already done my bit by signing their petition.

Analyse This!

Thanks to my pal Hackstaple, I was alerted to the story doing the rounds at the moment about the Dorset baker who was hauled over the coals by her local Trading Standards department for selling Robin Tarts. These delicious-sounding, sweet confections have a marzipan effigy of a robin on them, apparently - but not a trace of the bird in the actual ingredients.

Ivan Hancock, Dorset county's trading standards manager, is quoted as saying:

"The fact is that a piece of food needs to be properly described so that the consumer can tell what it is.

There's nothing wrong with using other names but it must be accompanied by the true name of the food.

Consumers have the right to know what is in food."

Personally, I think the same process of labelling should be applied to the brains of (at least some) Trading Standards Officers.

Where will it all end? I was reminded by a post in Crofty's estimable blog, of the delights of the Yorkshire Curd Tart.

When I consumed these in my youth, it never for a minute crossed my mind that they might contain the minced up remains of northern Iraqis who had travelled to our fair county to sacrifice themselves for the good of the White Roser's.

It's political correctness gone mad!