Morning:
9°c
Early yesterday morning, as my minicab sped unimpeded through the city's blissfully empty streets, I became aware of another vehicle to my right. When it drifted into focus, I snapped out of my pre-dawn reverie. The white motorbike budging up against our people carrier was being ridden by a traffic cop.
An angry traffic cop, it soon transpired. My mild-mannered driver, shocked as I was, slammed on the brakes. Doubly alarming, because we were in the middle lane of Euston Road.
He rolled down the window to a policeman, helmet still on, yelling a foul-mouthed tirade. Apparently we'd been over the effing limit (perhaps by 10mph - the empty streets are irresistible at 6am) and what's more, why wasn't he wearing a bloody seatbelt?
Fair points, yet surely a firm chat would have sufficed. Then the fuzz leaned right into the car, purple with aggression, and roared: "So put your effing seatbelt on now, you effing twat!" At 6.30am, it was the rudest awakening imaginable. I know the Met are under more pressure than ever but he might as well have axed in our window shouting: "Heeeeeeere's Johnny!"
My driver - an immigrant, like most minicab workers - was too mortified to speak, so I found myself apologising for our boorish police. I'm a stickler for law abidance, especially on the road, but this hate-filled reaction was off the scale.
For years I've thought road rage went out with the Nineties. But now I'm starting to think it's not just the economy that's in meltdown but our tattered tempers too.
It seemed that way two weeks ago when I cycled straight into a punch- up. Drawing up to a Kentish Town junction, I made my way to the box supposedly reserved for bikes - though in reality often jammed with vehicles. This time, a white van was edging onto the green tarmac.
At first I put it down to absent-minded driving. Then I noticed the builder's van jerking forward with aggressive little jumps. Each time it nudged a bike in what was clearly an aggressive act, threatening to flatten us. Maybe he'd lost yet another contract or the bank had just stopped his overdraft, but it took a brave fellow rider to rap on his window to ask him to stop.
It was a polite request, but Mr Builder leapt from seat to street and lunged at the unsuspecting cyclist, screaming and spitting. Some fancy footwork ensued, and the cyclist pedalled through the lights to get away, with angry white van man in hot pursuit. He shook him off, but the rest of us were left quaking in our toeclips.
This isn't any road rage. This is recession road rage.
Charlotte Loved: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, by Kate Summerscale.
This polished jewel of a book won the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction last year; now it's out in paperback. A real-life murder mystery sans pareil.
Reader views (9)
The police are nulaber bully boys, especially in London.
"The metropolitan police farce".
- Mrdavies, London, 06/03/2009 09:10
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Thank God I don't live in Britain anymore. The Pythonesque story about the guy being stopped by a police officer for laughing at the wheel defies belief. A police state is bad enough but an angry police state is a whole lot worse.
- Anna Stewart, Mallorca, Spain, 06/03/2009 08:37
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Sums up the Police nowadays. As soon as they stop you for anything they feel they have right to shout and abuse you like you are an idiot and have killed someone. I was stopped for not not wearing a seatbelt driving at 10mph and had to listen to rubbish shouted and repeated to me several times about the fact that it was for my own good while they gave me a £50 fine.
- Gill, London, 05/03/2009 17:38
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I'm so glad I don't live in the UK at the moment. People are far more polite here.
- Mark Wright, Milan, Italy, 05/03/2009 17:33
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Although the officer was right on the issues of speed and using the seat belt, verbal abuse is unacceptable (it's an arrestable offence, by the way). I realise you were too tired and wanted to get home, but taking the bike registration number and reporting the incident would have been the right thing to do. It is unlikely that it would have resulted in any action, but the Met need to realise that this sort of behaviour is not the way to gain the public's trust.
- Ian, London, 05/03/2009 17:01
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I know its difficult, but try it:
in with anger, out with love
- Mario Kempe, london, 05/03/2009 16:28
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"Because black cabs are too expensive. Black Cabs are going to have to drop their prices if they want to survive"
I simply just don`t use taxi`s in London any longer. I work in academia (on a not-massive wage), and I can`t justify the prices that are charged, unless it was in the case of an emergency.
- Glyn, Hackney, 05/03/2009 15:52
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Because black cabs are too expensive. Black Cabs are going to have to drop their prices if they want to survive. Petrol prices have come down yet Black Cabs keep charging a fortune. The Black Cabs in London are lucky that we have an expensive inefficient public transport system as this is one of the main reasons their still in business. Had London an effiecient good value for money transport system like most other European Capital cities then there is no way Black Cabs would get away with the prices they charge.
- Jack Clarke, London, 05/03/2009 14:14
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Why not use a licensed black cab . We are suffering too !
- Anthony, Basildon, 05/03/2009 12:43
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