Mr George Isaacs: Then you ought to get your eyes put straight.
Mr George Isaacs: My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, East (Mr. Blenkinsop) referred to people being injured on one of these paths. What is the position of someone who is injured on one of these paths after a trial has taken place and when the surface of the path has been cut up and left in a bad state and by reason of which that person slips or twists an ankle or falls or is otherwise injured?...
Mr George Isaacs: Do we get non-feasance in this case? I am not sufficiently informed on these legal matters to know what happens if a rambler on a bridle path which has been used for motor cycling is injured because of the state of the path after the motor cycling. Will such a person be deprived of compensation because of one of the Latin phrases which lawyers are so fond of using? My second question is more...
Mr George Isaacs: I think that this Schedule—which I have heard referred to as a "skedule" by one of my hon. Friends but which I believe is called a "schedule"—will be very useful to those who have to administer this Bill. It will make it unnecessary to wade through all the different Clauses to find out what one can and cannot do. I should like to mention a matter to which an hon. Member opposite...
Mr George Isaacs: Does the Minister by that statement mean that these helmets are going abroad with his guarantee, yet at the same time they are not efficient?
Mr George Isaacs: Is the Minister not aware that in other countries this matter is easily settled simply by saying that a driver gives way to the car on his right or his left? It would be a great help if such a rule were applied, because in this country the driver who gives way every time does so because it looks as if he is "going to get it." Why cannot we have the practice which works well in other countries?
Mr George Isaacs: But has the right hon. Gentleman considered that it operates in Kenya, where I saw it myself, apart from other countries, and that there is not the slightest doubt that it makes for the safety and convenience of the motorist?
Mr George Isaacs: In view of the Minister's reference to the National Coal Board being informed of these men being available, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, if an engineer or a carpenter is offered employment in the mines, but declines to take it, he will be debarred from receiving unemployment benefit?
Mr George Isaacs: I do not want to strike any jarring note, but if people do not want to pay to go to see these things, why should the country give money away to support them?
Mr George Isaacs: Can the Minister say if this made Banbury Cross?
Mr George Isaacs: I am afraid I am going to add a little more to the differences of opinion that have been expressed. I want to ask the Joint Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department to think very carefully before he accepts this proposal. In the area in which I have been serving as a magistrate, we act very diffently from the way in which magistrates act in other areas. I do not think that in my...
Mr George Isaacs: They have no right to reduce the charge. Usually what happens is that two charges are preferred. There is never any reduction of the first charge to the second charge. The accused person is told, "You are charged with driving in a manner dangerous to the public. There is also a charge of driving carelessly. We do not propose to deal with the charge of driving carelessly until this other...
Mr George Isaacs: The careless driver does not go to the sessions. Careless driving is dealt with summarily by the justices. It is only in the case of dangerous driving where there is an option of going to the sessions. In my experience, if a man has been fined £5 or £10, he will pay up with pleasure. But, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, you should see the look on his face when he is told that he will be suspended from...
Mr George Isaacs: I have heard legal explanations of the difference between careless and dangerous driving given by the Lord Chief Justice, but I still do not understand them.
Mr George Isaacs: I think there is another angle from which this matter should be looked at. A motorist is stopped on the road and told that his car is dangerous because the lights or the brakes, for instance, are wrong. Then he has thirty days in which he can make up his mind to do something about the defect. That means that he has thirty days in which he can drive that dangerous vehicle anywhere. He could...
Mr George Isaacs: I am completely opposed to any suspension for a first offence of speeding, but I think that we should have power to act further. In the court where I sit we had 18 cases of speeding today. In respect of one offender it was his third offence within two years. For his first offence he was fined £2 and for his second £5—although in my court the fine in respect of a second offence is rarely...
Mr George Isaacs: I thank the Minister and the Joint Parliamentary Secretary for this Amendment. I submitted an Amendment in Committee which had the same purpose, but the present Amendment has been drafted in a much more satisfactory fashion, and I think that it will be very useful. I express my appreciation of their activity. Amendment agreed to. Further Amendment made: In page 17, line 6, leave out from...
Mr George Isaacs: I beg to move, in page 38. line 3, at the end to insert: or damage is caused to any notice, refuge, light, beacon or other object placed on or near a highway for the purpose of securing road safety, regulating road traffic or facilitating the passage of pedestrians". Apparently this Amendment is the last of the "non-drafters". I submit the Amendment to the House although I have had a very...
Mr George Isaacs: I still think there is a great deal of value in the Amendment I have moved. However, in the spirit of all our discussion and debate on this Bill, I accept what the hon. Gentleman says and beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Mr George Isaacs: I also welcome the new Clause, but I would ask the Minister to take into consideration one detail, and that is the height of the traffic signs. Many of them are placed at an inconvenient height above the level of the roads. Many of the signs are 3 ft. above road level. I wonder if the Minister would give consideration to the height of signs above the road level, since subsection (4) of the...
