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Minister Caught Breaking His Own Law

November 2nd, 2007 by ThunderDragon

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne has been fined £100 after admitting using his mobile phone while driving…

Ha!

Mr Byrne, who pleaded guilty by letter, said he had been taking an important call on a deportation matter but there was no excuse and he was remorseful…

That is a transparent attempt to lessen the damage to his reputation.

Mr Byrne has campaigned vigorously on road safety since entering Parliament, tabling a petition in 2005 from constituents calling for tougher penalties for dangerous drivers.
He once told a parliamentary committee that the most dangerous drivers were “serial potential killers” and said he was “shocked” at the leniency of sentences handed down to them.

So does he now consider himself a “serial potential killer”? Or is that definition just for the likes of us non-parliamentarians?

He sat on the parliamentary committee which shaped the 2006 Road Safety Act, which increased fixed penalty fines for driving while using a mobile.

So even though he helped make the law, he decided to break it anyway!

In his letter he said he was involved in an important telephone call about deportation but realised that he should have pulled over.

If he was talking before he started driving - why? If he answered the phone whilst driving - why? There is no justification for it. If he was talking before he started driving, then he did so willingly, and if he answered the phone whilst driving he couldn’t have known that it was definitely an “important deportation phone call”.

He has no defence, and his attempts to manufacture an excuse out of an impossible scenario just shows that he won’t even accept real wrongdoing, despite calling others who do it “potential serial killers”. I think we all know who the potential killer is now.

Source: BBC

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1 Response to “Minister Caught Breaking His Own Law”

  1. Norfolk Blogger

    And to think his by-election victory was based on attacking the Lib Dem candidate because she worked in the mobile phone industry !

    Comment on Nov 3rd, 2007 at 6:11 pm   
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