If you can drive in and around Orihuela Costa without having an accident you can drive anywhere in the world!
Why do I say that? Because as I drive locally I see an ever increasing number of people – pedestrians, cyclists, scooterists and vehicle drivers acting as if they have a death wish.
I have lost count of the number of people who walk along a pavement and then step straight onto a pedestrian crossing without looking to see how close an oncoming vehicle is. They fail to take any regard to the fact that there has to be thinking time and stopping time for any driver and a non-thinking pedestrian puts him or herself at serious risk.
One of the worst places is at the Mercadona roundabout at Playa Flamenca where people step straight onto the crossings without looking, believing they have a total right to have priority regardless of anything.
Next we have cyclists who not only think it safe to cycle the wrong side of the road against on-coming traffic, but also cycle on pavements and then ride straight onto the road at pedestrian crossings, again without taking anything like proper care.
How we don’t see many more scooterists killed or injured beats me. Their antics on these scooters sometimes beggars belief. They are all over the road, do crazy things on roundabouts and give motorists a nightmare. Most of these riders have no road training and are, frankly, a menace.
And then we have a growing number of car and van drivers who simply shouldn’t be on the road. So many times have I read complaints that in Spain people have no idea where the indicator knob is and it’s so true and has got far worse.
It’s stupid, selfish and utterly frustrating that motorists don’t indicate where they are going. It’s as if they get some kind of pleasure in not indicating and force other motorists to hold back at junctions and roundabouts until they are certain where a non-indicating driver is going.
If only all drivers stopped being selfish and stupid and actually indicated intentions (and also indicate correctly!) driving locally would not be anything like as stressful.
Much has been written too about the crazy rules for road users at roundabouts. It’s madness for drivers to drive three quarters or all around the whole of a roundabout on the outside with the risk of people on the inside cutting in at exits.
It’s no wonder that we see so many cars and vans with damage down their sides.
I would invite the Spanish highways authority to visit the UK to see the rules of the road there. They might also look at what Britain does to prevent vehicles being parked close to pedestrian crossings, roundabouts and junctions and to position crossings away from roundabouts so motorists can concentrate on vehicles on the roundabout and pedestrians once they have exited.
Europe and the UK included could also go one step further and introduce a uniform highway code and road signs which are instantly understood right across the continent.
I have a fair amount of expertise in driving matters. I passed my motor cycle and car driving tests at the first attempt and then went on to be trained in advanced driving techniques by a police inspector who trained traffic police drivers in the UK and who was also chairman of the Institute of Advanced drivers for the county. I was taught advanced driving and took the test – and failed just on one point – just because by then I had developed a bad habit of resting my left foot on the clutch pedal. Advanced drivers have to be perfect!
I would add that I drive to and from the UK each year, have driven in many countries in Europe, never had an accident and have a clean driving licence over 64 years of driving. I say all this to prove I have some experience in talking about road safety.
I sincerely would like to see the Guarda Civil here using unmarked cars and start stopping and reporting those guilty of bad driving. On a recent drive from Playa Flamenca to Benijófar and back we saw three drivers using their mobile phones. If we can see them, so could police – so come on, get cracking and make Spanish roads safer. In all on that short drive we saw 10 instances of careless driving. The police must see it do, so please, do something about it!
With Starmer having greater ties with Europe (and hopefully get the UK back into the EU) we might get on course for making all of Europe a safer world all round.
MONKEYNUTS
While I am still on the subject of stupid drivers, my wife and I visited the Punta Prima shopping centre last week and parked in the car park. In front of us was a large parked van with dozens of cracked peanut shells on the ground both sides of the vehicle.
As we walked alongside, over the shells, we saw three men all sat along the front seat chewing and throwing the shells out. My wife, who isn’t slow in coming forward, shouted ‘have we got monkeys inside here?’ Surprisingly she didn’t get abuse but an apology for the mess!
Why can’t everyone learn to take their rubbish home? Someone else has to clean up humanity’s mess at huge expense and it all causes massive damage to the environment, and, of course, wildlife.
LOOKING AFTER THEIR OWN
We recently saw the political fiasco in South Korea unfold. An unpopular president, seeing his power base disappearing, suddenly declares martial law as a route for survival. Those in uniform, true to form, were right there to throw their weight around.
It got me thinking, why on earth do we want presidents anyway? South Korea has a parliament and a prime minister so why do they want to put someone else on a pedestal in addition, to potentially create chaos? Same goes for America and goodness knows what Trump will get up to in the coming years.
Having such thing as a president stands the risk of creating a dictator – Russia with Putin is a prime example and when a person gets absolute power, history shows us the possible result. Hitler!
Romania is in trouble, again with a would-be president. He has leanings towards Russia and doesn’t believe that global warming is caused by human activity and doesn’t think there is any such thing as Covid. What planet is he on and good for Romania’s government for calling for the election as him as president null and void.
And, of course we have all heard about the dictator in Syria, thank goodness he’s gone. Now, all in Syria, for once in your life, work together to create a worthwhile country – and a democratic one. And that goes for the entire Muslim world.
And on this subject, Starmer has promised £11m in humanitarian aid to Syria. Isn’t it about time the entire Muslim world looked after its own? Saudi Arabia and UAE have more money that they know what to do with – buying up football clubs, et al. Yet on their doorstep are fellow Muslims literally dying of hunger.
It’s not for the West to have to look after the Arab world.
END OF LIFE CARE
Here’s the perfect example of Britain no longer having the money to even provide basics.
I refer to news that about 300 hospice inpatient beds are currently closed or out of use in England.
A lack of funding and staff are the primary reasons why some of England’s 170 hospices have had to close beds permanently or take them out of use.
Hospice UK, which represents the sector, is now calling for an urgent package of government funding to prevent further cuts. Income from the health service has lagged behind rising costs, with some hospices announcing cuts to clinical jobs.
Only about a third of funding comes from the NHS – the rest has to be raised from donations, fundraising and charity shops.
And this is where, in my opinion, the troubles stem from. For far too long vital services in the UK are dependent on charitable donations and it’s ridiculous, and in the long term, unsustainable.
Back in 1948, when the NHS was born, the promise was that Britain would have health care from cradle to grave. What a shame this ideal has not been carried on under future government care.
The government should properly fund hospices and ensure that everyone can be cared for in them during their final days. It’s what we should expect from a civilised society.
Charities should be there to provide the cream on top of a service, not fund the basics. And I cannot for the life of me understand why so many people will spend a fortune employing accountants and do everything possible to avoid paying vital taxes while willingly donating money to charity.
Or is it, as I fear, that the rich hang onto their money regardless while those who are far poorer are the charity givers?
UNABLE TO SURVIVE
Here’s yet another example of successive governments taking their eye off the basics in a mistaken belief that the majority would rather see tax cuts and watch basic services decline and even our own safety put at risk.
I refer to comments from a UK military man and a defence minister that the entire British Army would be destroyed in “six months to a year” in a major war.
He was calling for the rebuilding the UK’s depleted reserve forces and said that if Britain was engaged in a war such as in Ukraine our army would be wiped out in less than a year. A sobering thought in an ever more dangerous world.
DETERRANT FOR FOREIGN CRIMINALS
It’s not often that I agree with comments from right winger Jacob Rees Mogg but on this subject I do.
Currently in our overcrowded prisons with a population of 87,000, 10,000 are foreign, costing some £500million a year to taxpayers.
And when many prisoners were recently let out early, some quickly went on to law break again – and some of these were foreigners.
New Ministry of Justice data has revealed a quarter of foreign criminals go on to reoffend in the UK after being released from jail and avoiding deportation, totalling about 10,000 offences.
What Rees Mogg is advocating is that it should become the norm that upon conviction any foreigner is automatically thrown out of Britain, never to return.
It means withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights and an overhaul of domestic human rights laws to smooth the process of deporting illegal migrants, but then we may begin to have a serious immigration on enforcement system.
Other countries do this so why not the UK? I say bring it on.
