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Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens ‘wrongly fined for driving in London Ulez’
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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Nope.
I was bewildered as an EU citizen as well, why can't we be fined if we break UK traffic rules in the UK?
Then I read the article, and the complaints are not because EU drivers can't get off on a technicality. It's because the UK system is a mess, and instead of using the existing legal frameworks, they made up some shitty company that's against the law here. Also, they fined a ton of people in compliant vehicles, either totally randomly or because they didn't follow some rule that they made up just for EU vehicles.
I'm all for the ULEZ, but UK, please get your shit together and issue fines as an adult.
The issue is that if a numberplate isn't registered in the UK then the system has no idea if it's a compliant vehicle or not. The choices here are either hire a bunch of people to go through the videos, identify the car make, age, and petrol type, then decide from that whether they are compliant OR they let the automated system send the letter and if your car is compliant then you tell them. You can avoid the whole shebang if you just register your car before you travel.
The issue is that the UK government (or city of London) outsourced law enforcement to a shady company from the US which doesn't care about data protection and obtained EU citizen information through illegal channels.
This is much more serious than issuing bogus fines to foreign blokes.
It's not law enforcement, it's a civil issue, it's quite normal for companies to take civil issues, they obtained information on people who broke rules by requesting it, and recieving it, that's not illegal on their behalf.
Sure, like Cambridge analytical...
You understand that's different right? If you've broken the rules then they've got a right to send you a fine.
Wholesale selling of personal information is not what's happening here.
There's no country in the world where you can skip tolls, travel tickets, entrance fees, and face no consequences.
No problem with fining people who don't follow local rules, especially traffic ones.
The issue is that a private company is doing the job without proper oversight, at the expense of EU citizens' rights. What's next? Storing biometrical data of EU air travelers in data centers open to US spy agencies?
But since Brexit everyone has well understood that playing by the rules and respecting their partners isn't on UK's agenda anymore.
You seem very confused, private companies are always fining you. Parking companies are private companies, many public transport companies are private companies. The oversight is provided by the court. This has been the case before Brexit was even a consideration.
That's true enough. But I actually did read the article. Even if we had the best system imaginable, it would not be legally possible to obtain EU data for civil offences. And that law must work both ways, so I'm pretty sure I could get away with committing non-criminal driving offences in the EU because they can't legally access our data to track me down.
The Dutch system is actually super invasive. They do everything they can to find you, and then use their SWIFT access from the Belgians to get the funds directly from your account if you don't comply.
Yeah, but let's say they start to build a dossier on you and then they randomly stop you for a check on the road?
Prepare your anus
Please don't make rape 'jokes'. I'm not a bloke but it'd be no more acceptable if I was.
Would have never thought this could be remotely connected to a rape joke. I mean your anus is a metaphor for your wallet. Sorry
I'm not sure if English is your first language (if not, you write it very well). Direct translations can cause all sorts of misunderstandings. For a native English speaker, that is a rape joke.
Hi, no english is not my first language, thank you for the compliment tho.
Anyway, another word that I could have used would have been "prepare to get fucked" still sexual; is it still "rapey" ?
Weirdly enough, that wouldn't come across as a rape joke. I know, it makes no sense.
Lol.
So if someone is eating a really spicy chili and I say "Prepare your anus".
Is it a rape joke ?
Not a native speaker either but I feel presenting the original comment as a rape joke is a stretch.
Context matters.
Also breaking news, plenty of Police forces and prison guards are able to kindly ask you to "prepare your anus" and in a very much legal manner. This is how I understood the original comment.
In the context of eating spicy food, it is fine.
In the context of law enforcement, it is 100% a rape joke.
How is it a rape if it's legal and the person consents to it ?
Oh well whatever. This is pointless.
This whole conversation has really derailed at some point...
Oh, you're a troll. Fuck off.