The E.U. Is really starting to ****ing annoy me

Wibbs

Shenshen wrote: »

Well, reading the article, the suggestion is not to limit the cars to 120kph flat, but to whatever the speed limit would happen to be in the road they're driving on.
So that should indeed cut down a little on people wrapping themselves round trees at 120 kph.

Well we'd have to rejig the limits on a helluva lot of country roads on this island. A crazy amount of them have a 100 limit, roads where Senna on his best day would have difficulty keeping out of the hedges at 80, never mind 100.

To tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind that particular regulation - you can still go to a race track with your souped up Subaru Impregnant or whatever and get your speed kick, you just won't be able to hold your races on public roads any more. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Couple of problems with implementation though. New cars with their integrated computer systems for damn near everything OK, but what about older cars you can't fit such systems to? A Ford Escort Cosworth from the mid 80's would hammer the hell out of most modern cars up a back road and it's "computer" is akin to a hamster in a wheel. Never mind the big brother aspect, where agencies can tell at any given time where you and your car is. Never mind human ingenuity where people will simply reprogram the device and bypass it. Daft idea all around and for what end? "Well if just one life is saved" is not an argument it's appeal to emotion.

wexie

Wibbs wrote: »

Well we'd have to rejig the limits on a helluva lot of country roads on this island. A crazy amount of them have a 100 limit, roads where Senna on his best day would have difficulty keeping out of the hedges at 80, never mind 100.

You'd have to ask yourself though if the bureaucrat (and I used that with exactly the contempt it deserves) that's floated this idea is even vaguely aware of the existence of roads such as these.

And even if (big if) we managed to rejig the speedlimits, hitting said tree (or tractor or farmhouse) at 80 instead of a 100 is hardly likely to save you much discomfort.

Annasopra

conorhal wrote: »

Oh, and just so you know, if you've put any food in your black bin this week, you are in contravention of a new EU directive on food waste (part of those 1000 pages) and potentally subject to a 30 thousand euro fine or 3 months in jail.......

Any more details on this?

Fratton Fred

Wibbs wrote: »

E-cigs? Vested interests ahoy. If all smokers went to vaping the tax take would plummet. The tobacco companies would face huge losses and the pharmacies, more the "official" nicotine delivery "smoking cessation"* companies would take a hit too. That's a lot of guns pointing at vaping and regulation is how they'll pull the trigger.




*which are proven to not work for that and are nearly as expensive as smoking.

Not forgetting the billions a year spent on drugs to treat lung cancer.

Do pharmaceutical companies want to see an end to smoking? Not a chance.

Shenshen

Wibbs wrote: »

Well we'd have to rejig the limits on a helluva lot of country roads on this island. A crazy amount of them have a 100 limit, roads where Senna on his best day would have difficulty keeping out of the hedges at 80, never mind 100.
Couple of problems with implementation though. New cars with their integrated computer systems for damn near everything OK, but what about older cars you can't fit such systems to? A Ford Escort Cosworth from the mid 80's would hammer the hell out of most modern cars up a back road and it's "computer" is akin to a hamster in a wheel. Never mind the big brother aspect, where agencies can tell at any given time where you and your car is. Never mind human ingenuity where people will simply reprogram the device and bypass it. Daft idea all around and for what end? "Well if just one life is saved" is not an argument it's appeal to emotion.

I see a huge market for used old cars developping there

I think the Big Brother aspect is already alive and kicking, how many new cars come without a SatNav these days?

As for human ingenuity - if you really, really want to break a law, there rarely is much stopping you. I'm sure there are web sites out there telling you how to safely remove electronic tags from items you wish to shoplift, how to reconfigure your Sky box so you can watch telly for free, or even for that matter how to set the clock on your car back by a few 10 000km when you come to sell it.
Does that mean shops shouldn't tag their stock, Sky should just give away their boxes and access and cars should not even track how many km they've done?

Ray Palmer

I always laugh at people who complain about the EU regulating things. It is much more sensibly done than relying on the countries to do it on their own.

Ireland has had to correct its laws thanks to the EU. We would never have changed the laws if it wasn't for that pressure.

Half of the things people think were brought in by the EU never happened.

Robbo

conorhal wrote: »

Well, just this week we signed a thousand pages of EU directives into law without so much as a single debate on the legislation.

Oh, and just so you know, if you've put any food in your black bin this week, you are in contravention of a new EU directive on food waste (part of those 1000 pages) and potentally subject to a 30 thousand euro fine or 3 months in jail.......


Funk the EU.

*cough*
3 months imprisonment or a €4,000 fine on summary conviction, much worse upon indictment which is guaranteed to never happen to anyone apart from a commercial waste processor. Also, no District Justice in the land will impose the upper end of these penalties.
*cough*

Perhaps you'd like to try selling some straight bananas now?

Grayson

Considering in 20 years we'll have cars that drive themselves (And will stick to speed limits) there may be a day when we look back at a discussion like this about speed limits and laugh.

Eight Ball

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

I would have been a proponent of the E.U. I think it has done a lot of good for Ireland but recently they are really starting to piss me off with their nanny state ways. Here is just a couple of things the E.U. Is currently trying to ruin.

Regulating/banning e-cigs which are considered to be harmless
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10178573/EU-vote-on-electronic-cigarettes-makes-no-sense.html

Speed limiters in all our cars.
http://news.sky.com/story/1135815/eu-may-order-speed-limiters-fitted-to-uk-cars

Would they ever **** off and leave us do what we want, an adult should be allowed to smoke an e-cig, a normal cig or a menthol cig, which the E.U. banned, they shoukd be allowed to drive whatever speed they want, an adult should be allowed to do what they want so long as it does not cause harm to anyone else.

The Irish people voted to be part of the wonderful "EU family" suck it up.

Oh and I agree with the car limiter thing. Anything that cuts down on road deaths is a good thing.

Frank Lee Midere

Roger_007 wrote: »

Then the bankers came along and codded us by bribing us with even more money. (Well we thought it was free money but apparently they now want it back).
Then the IMF came along and gave us loads of money to pay our debts but apparently they want us to behave responsibly by not spending money we don't have, (the cheek of them).
Then the Germans came along and took over the EU by giving everyone money but they seem to want to have some say in what is done with the money, (the cheek of them too).
.

Is this kind of nonsense actually believed. We bailed out the banks. They have our money. By bailing out the banks, which we didn't have to do, we got a loan - not a gift - from the Germans/EU at market rates, and much higher than we would have gotten were we not in the position we were in because we bailed out the banks. And by bailing out the Irish banks we kept the bank creditors in gravy. Germany banks amongst them.

Ray Palmer

Grayson wrote: »

Considering in 20 years we'll have cars that drive themselves (And will stick to speed limits) there may be a day when we look back at a discussion like this about speed limits and laugh.

I remember this being promised 20 years ago:rolleyes:

Frank Lee Midere

Robbo wrote: »

*cough*
3 months imprisonment or a €4,000 fine on summary conviction, much worse upon indictment which is guaranteed to never happen to anyone apart from a commercial waste processor. Also, no District Justice in the land will impose the upper end of these penalties.
*cough*

Perhaps you'd like to try selling some straight bananas now?

Who asked us about this law, or asked anybody? Who knows about it? Where is the EU advertising it? What else should we do with the food waste.

keithclancy

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

I would have been a proponent of the E.U. I think it has done a lot of good for Ireland but recently they are really starting to piss me off with their nanny state ways. Here is just a couple of things the E.U. Is currently trying to ruin.

Regulating/banning e-cigs which are considered to be harmless
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10178573/EU-vote-on-electronic-cigarettes-makes-no-sense.html

Speed limiters in all our cars.
http://news.sky.com/story/1135815/eu-may-order-speed-limiters-fitted-to-uk-cars

Would they ever **** off and leave us do what we want, an adult should be allowed to smoke an e-cig, a normal cig or a menthol cig, which the E.U. banned, they shoukd be allowed to drive whatever speed they want, an adult should be allowed to do what they want so long as it does not cause harm to anyone else.

Half the thread is based on a mistake:

http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/reports-of-brussels-big-brother-bid-to-impose-speed-controls-are-inaccurate-beyond-the-limit-2/

Story wasn't even correct

Fratton Fred

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

Is this kind of nonsense actually believed. We bailed out the banks. They have our money. By bailing out the banks, which we didn't have to do, we got a loan - not a gift - from the Germans/EU at market rates, and much higher than we would have gotten were we not in the position we were in because we bailed out the banks. And by bailing out the Irish banks we kept the bank creditors in gravy. Germany banks amongst them.

Bailed out the banks that miraculously had their money disappear in a cloud of smoke, not lent to people speculating on the property market, buying second homes in Portugal and a brand new range rover sport.

Grayson

Ray Palmer wrote: »

I remember this being promised 20 years ago:rolleyes:

But they actually have cars that have clocked hundreds of thousands of miles at this point. back then you were lucky to get an analogue radio controlled car. The most high tech piece of equipment most people owned was a remote for the TV.

Robbo

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

Who asked us about this law, or asked anybody? Who knows about it? Where is the EU advertising it? What else should we do with the food waste.

Your MEP would have voted on it at least once, perhaps you should ask them. The ordinary legislative procedure has been tweaked in recent Treaties with the aim of reducing the "democractic deficit" insofar as is practicable when you're talking about an organisation as big as the EU.

It is quite easy to feel a disconnect between the EU legislative process and the more personal relationship we've enjoyed with our councillors and TDs. Personally, I think a lot of the confusion and alienation is the result of selecting wretched and idiotic candidates to Brussels as a political consolation prize or electing Euroskeptic MEPs who genuinely have no clue (or inclination to get one) such as Dana.

As is the case with any new legislation, Iris Oifiguil is where you can find the official version. It's entirely up to the member states to publicise and promulagate these things so if you're unhappy with the level of communication, the relevant minister (Phil Hogan) should be contacted.

Regarding your food waste; put it in the brown bin if you have one. If you only have the one, the onus is on your bin company to do the dirty work so you have nothing to worry about.

And yes, at least half of the story is good old little Englander Eurobollocks. What's worse is that the dittoheads keep falling for it here.

martinedwards

Its easy to complain about the EU putting limiters in your car, but befpore they paid for all those lovely big roads, there was nowhere you coud get up to the limit anyway!

KyussBishop

It's a pity the EU never implemented regulations where it counts: Financial regulation.

Give the EU a central bank, but not a centralized set of financial regulations/regulators? Great idea.
Could have avoided a huge amount of damage from the current crisis - and they still haven't gotten it right, 5 years later.

Ray Palmer

Grayson wrote: »

But they actually have cars that have clocked hundreds of thousands of miles at this point. back then you were lucky to get an analogue radio controlled car. The most high tech piece of equipment most people owned was a remote for the TV.

In the 1990s? They have had fully working models since the 80s with many drive hours proving the concept. The biggest block will remain to be humans.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting. A lot of infrastructure and law changes required