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MEDIA WATCH

2nd March 2006, Page 16
2nd March 2006
Page 16
Page 16, 2nd March 2006 — MEDIA WATCH
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IN THE NEWS

Stuart Thomas brings you his regular round-up of the way our local and national press has covered the wonderful world of road transport this week...

The DVLA recenily announced that it anticipated no problems regarding the issuing of smart cards for the new digital tachographs. A spokeswoman told CM. "I don't see why we couldn't cope; we don't foresee a sudden rush." (CM23 February) This is heartening news. But confidence in a backlog-free government department could be diminished somewhat by the news in the Western Mall that a slightly different 'clog' left DVLA staff with egg on their collective face. Or chocolate, anyvvay.

According to Wales' finest: "A St Valentine's Day treat for office staff literally backfired yesterday, when a chocolate fountain exploded'... A 'clog' in the machinery lee to staff running for cover as the malfunctioning fountain spewed out hot chocolate."

Wow. Not only is the licensing agency confident that it can handle all 750,000 smarteard applications, it can even find time for its staff to frolic in chocolate, all in the name of love.

But what was the official reason given for the DVLA receiving a sweet treat?

"Because it was St Valentine's Day," a loved-up chocaholic spokesman told the paper.

rtalead There's no love lost between the Campaign for E8Orn switch to kilometres imperialists and the metricationists. Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock has launched a campaign to persuade us that kilometres should replace miles on the country's glictitt 4-11-.41.774-1: _ 200,000 road signs, just so the rest ml•sle 6a, na ■■•1 • of the world oh, apart from the USA isn't left hopelessly confused when they descend on us for the 2012 Olympics.

"They contradict the image and the reality of our country as a modern, multicultural, dynamic place where the past is valued and respected and the future is approached with creativity and confidence," The Guardian reported the worthy peer as saying.

But such lofty words for what is basically an £80m paint job hold no sway at The Times. Its baffling argument to keep things as they are reached even loftier intellectual heights: "The minds of the young are surely improved by the agile mental arithmetic imposed by two, in a sense, competing systems."

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Organisations: Labour

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