We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide

Its getting stupid now:

Lemonade_Pockets
Lemonade_Pockets Posts: 1,162 Forumite
edited 1 May 2009 at 12:22PM in Motoring
I don't know if anyone watched the BBC news this morning but there was a particularly baffling story.

To summise:

Roadsaftey groups are calling programmes like Topgear irresponsible for glamourising speed. In their research they have found that people watching these types of problems are more likely to speed and therefore crash. Because of this they are calling for a review on how these programmes conduct their tests!

The BBC interviewed a ambassador for one of these groups whose daughter had been killed in a tragic accident. Daughter of 17 plus young guy of 18 go driving. Guy drives at 80mph in a 40 goes round a bend, crashes into a tree - two youngsters dead. Sad story, by all accounts but the mother was claiming that watching programmes like topgear causes/encourages this sort of behavior.

This has got to stop. That guy was going to drive like a d!ckhead topgear or no topgear. A sad but true fact.
This is the problem with things like the speed campaign and the recently proposed 50mph limit. It's giving rise to all sorts of pressure group who think they can strike while the irons hot and further sanitise our society.

We'll have Spec's camera's on the gantries in F1 next.
«13456

Comments

  • dont run with scissors, wash your hands, finish all of your dinner
  • Lemonade_Pockets
    Lemonade_Pockets Posts: 1,162 Forumite
    hehe. Its not far away is it.
  • Biggles
    Biggles Posts: 8,209 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I'm afraid the d!ckheads are on Top Gear. What started as a consumer car programme is now all about how fast cars can go and about wacky stunts (usually involving making cars go as fast as possible).

    No wonder people think it's OK to emulate them.
  • jimpix12
    jimpix12 Posts: 1,095 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    Yes, it's exactly the same with violent computer games. These quangos & busybodies never seem to realise that people who commit acts of violence after playing Grand Theft Auto already have a predisposition to violence, way before they ever even picked up a copy of the game.

    I'm just silently hoping Dave shuts down all these quangos and reverses their draconian measures when he gets in next year, it might be a Labour phenomenon. I hope it is.
    "The only man who makes money from a gold rush is the one selling the shovels..."
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,626 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Biggles wrote: »
    I'm afraid the d!ckheads are on Top Gear. What started as a consumer car programme is now all about how fast cars can go and about wacky stunts (usually involving making cars go as fast as possible).

    No wonder people think it's OK to emulate them.

    I agree that top gear is naff now, but to say that people emulate on the roads what they see on top gear? :confused:

    When thinking like that gets top gear banned, what next?
  • MX5huggy
    MX5huggy Posts: 7,173 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    .......finish all of your dinner

    No you are confused its finish half your dinner else you will get fat!

    As always its chicken or egg, do people who watch TG speed or to people who speed watch TG. Has anyone got the stats on how many people have tried to get across the channel in their car since TG showed us how?
  • anewman
    anewman Posts: 9,200 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Biggles wrote: »
    I'm afraid the d!ckheads are on Top Gear. What started as a consumer car programme is now all about how fast cars can go and about wacky stunts (usually involving making cars go as fast as possible).

    No wonder people think it's OK to emulate them.
    *BUT* how many stories are in the news of people trying to make a robin reliant rocket causing injury.

    There is a difference between wacky stunts, racing on a race track, and racing on the public highway. Plus on top gear they never drive like idiots on the public roads. Most of the public roads they go on are in places like South Wales with single track national limit roads, so the cars will look like they are going fast as they are.

    The idiots would have raced anyway. 18 year old showing off to a member of the opposite sex thinking he's gunna "get some" but gets a whole lotta tree instead and dies. I doubt he saw anyone on top gear doing 80mph in a 40mph limit.
  • jaydeeuk1
    jaydeeuk1 Posts: 7,714 Forumite
    Debt-free and Proud!
    Right, I'm going to ring up and say I'm an avid viewer of songs of praise, and then blast down the M1 at 150mph. God told me to do it.
  • jimpix12
    jimpix12 Posts: 1,095 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 1 May 2009 at 12:36PM
    Biggles wrote: »
    I'm afraid the d!ckheads are on Top Gear. What started as a consumer car programme is now all about how fast cars can go and about wacky stunts (usually involving making cars go as fast as possible).

    No wonder people think it's OK to emulate them.

    This is the typical response I have come to expect from people today. I saw a guy wielding a knife and threatening others in a movie, I didn't try to emulate him. I saw a guy engaging in a sexual relationship with another guy in a movie, I didn't try to emulate him. I saw a guy beating up his kids, I didn't try to emulate him. I saw that John Wilkes Booth shot Abe Lincoln, I have never thought about assassinating Obama.

    We aren't all insidious enough to try to copy everything we read about or see on TV/cinema. Only a tiny minority of society are, why should everyone else have to suffer the consequences of these few? It's ludicrous. Do I speed? Occasionally. Would I drive at 60mph in a 30mph? Not in a million years. Please stop dumbing everything down, it's offensive.
    "The only man who makes money from a gold rush is the one selling the shovels..."
  • Idiophreak
    Idiophreak Posts: 12,024 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Sad story, by all accounts but the mother was claiming that watching programmes like topgear causes/encourages this sort of behavior.

    You think? I saw the interview and the woman in question really didn't seem to be saying that a whole lot - she seemed quite reasonable about it all. I thought it was another case of the BBC trying to put words in people's mouths to get a better story...

    They did their best, they got someone who was unfortunate enough to have lost her daughter due, in part, to speeding...they got a motoring journalist to fight the other corner...but there was no sign of fighting, the two guests just agreed with each other too much.

    The way the BBC presents "debates" these days really is best likened to Jerry Springer - and on that score, today's was a total flop...
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 354K Banking & Borrowing
  • 254.3K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 455.3K Spending & Discounts
  • 247.1K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 603.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 178.3K Life & Family
  • 261.2K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.7K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.