Road Safety Bill [HL]

I apologise for striking a discordant note in your Lordships’ House. Some of us are quite proud of the fact that the House of Lords is the last bastion of reactionary thinking. I am beginning to sound like a reactionary thinker, but here we are, apparently wishing to consign many years of our own tradition to—I would not call it modernity—this view that we are penalising those from the Continent when they drive in the United Kingdom. Like the noble Earl, I drive quite a lot on the Continent. I do not find any great difficulty in adjusting to kilometres, if that is what people on the Continent prefer. Equally, I do not see any great difficulty for somebody coming to this country in adjusting to the system that we have had for very many years. I did some surveys on bridge-bashing some years ago when I was in the other place. Comparatively few continental lorries hit bridges. Most that do are driven by home-grown lorry drivers who are apparently incapable of reading signs, whether they are in feet, inches, metres or anything else. If we want to prevent people bridge-bashing, a few exemplary punishments should be administered. I incline to agree with the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, that, sooner or later, a fatal accident will be caused, but I doubt whether it will have anything to do with the fact that the height of the bridge is measured in feet and inches rather than in metres. As a comparatively new Member of your Lordships’ House, I hesitate to suggest that we would rather make fools of ourselves if we blithely accept this amendment, but I am tempted to do so.