Friday 11 December 2009

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now

Journalist Alexander Chancellor explains to Daily Mail readers why the treatment of drunk drivers like himself is viciously oppressive:

I am not trying to defend drinkdriving when I tentatively suggest that the punishment is often disproportionate to the offence. It is right that an offender should lose his licence for a time, however severe the inconvenience caused; but the price paid for failing a breath test far exceeds that prescribed by the law.

The cost of car insurance, if it's granted at all, goes sky-high; it is impossible to rent a car; it may be hard to get a job; and, scandalously in my view, it costs more to re-apply for a driving licence if you've lost it for drink-driving than for any other reason.


Surely the cost of a routine bureaucratic transaction should be the same for everyone? In my case, there was an additional penalty: the Northamptonshire police, alerted by their colleagues in Buckinghamshire to my offence, decided to take away my shotgun licence.