You can't beat a bit of irony!

Since the GJs started their crusade billions have been lost by the government, much of it in TVA receipts and the loss of earnings through the roadside radar traps. As an example a radar near Lille is losing about 485000€ per month and another radar near Calais which is the 4th most ‘popular’ radar in France gets about 280 flashes per day which amounts to a loss of about 750000€ per month. It’s not difficult to work out how much this costing the government.
It’s estimated that 65% of all radars are out of order and this has lead to the centre in Nantes which dishes out the speeding fines is putting employees on ‘chomage technique’ or temporary unemployment due to lack of work !

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Looking at things another way… if Drivers didn’t break the speed limits… the Government would not be gaining the money… and the folk at Nantes could be employed elsewhere…

It must be soul-destroying dealing with speeding fines all the time…

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Maybe they could all be diverted to processing exchanges of driving licences?

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Far too sensible a suggestion.

I doubt it’s soul destroying, it’s an administrative task.

Well, personally, apart from the fact that I would be earning money… What satisfaction would I get from sending out speeding fines… to folk who should know better and who, perhaps, risk the lives of others…What satisfaction would I feel, knowing that the fines do not seem to deter the offenders re-offending… none IMO. So, yes, I would consider that soul-destroying… but that is me… others might well feel differently.

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An awful lot of people do jobs like that. With speeding fines I believe most of it is computerised anyway, not a lot of human input at all.

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Fair enough David… but the point was made in the first Post… that folk at Nantes are being laid-off etc… due to lack of work… :thinking: and my response was geared to that in particular…

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Perhaps the computers can’t post the letters.
I once went on a guided tour of a chocolate factory, I can’t remember the brand but it was part of the Mars group. The tour was to show off the way that the process was computer controlled all the way through and as the ingredients were measured out the totals used were kept and when supplies reached a certain point the computer ordered more. The speed of the production line was governed by the highest paid workers there, the humans who packed the bars into cardboard boxes at the end. That was a job that was beyond the machines and the workers who did the job had incredible dexterity. They worked 40 minute shifts as after that they slowed down and that affected the production. Presumably the speeding fines place has a similar need for real people somewhere along the line.

Gosh… that does sound like an interesting tour David… I’ve always been fascinated in machinery and how things work… :relaxed:

My idea of a soul-destroying job would be setting out with a lethal weapon to snuff out the life of a totally unknown stranger with whom one has no quarrel, on the instructions of another totally unknown stranger who pays you to kill, because the former has a quarrel with the stranger you will kill, and because your employer is in a higher pay-grade and has paid you to kill and ask no questions.

Or to kill hundreds of unknown others with a huge bomb. This wholesale slaughter is called protecting our freedoms, but pays a tidy sum/decent wage. White-collar employment.

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It was a good trip, it made Balisto bars. The Lindt tour in Köln had nicer chocolate though. :slight_smile:

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Indeed, and as we all know administrators don’t have souls :slight_smile:

Try Wolfsburg. Steel and plastic in one end, Golfs out the other. Great tour.

I’ve visited some interesting places in my time… sometimes by design, but sometimes by accident, when mine host discovers my fascination with machinery… and “how things work”…

I’ve googled Wolfsburg… and yes… I bet that is a great tour. :relaxed:

The more people who get caught speeding, drunk or zonked out on drugs the less likely they’re gong to kill or maim me on the roads.

The one occasion I copped a speeding fine it was via a speed camera and I thought it a ‘fair cop.’ The two occasions I’ve been stopped by the police they were polite and fair minded to the point of helpfully pointing out to me (without fine) some defects I was aware of.

Vive le speed cameras ; French traffic cops. and the Gendarmerie in general.

Don’t come and live in Cluny.
The gendarmerie is out of control.

Why’s that Jane ?

They shot dead my neighbour whom they were supposed to be looking for as they were told he might be in danger of suicide.

He was bi-polar, was in his car and drove past them. He had three bullets in him.

But why did they shoot him ?

Did he threaten them in some way ?