This is too like 1984
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Concerning Commercial Motor's report (May 7) "No mercy for truckers in drink-drive report." As a moderate drinker, car driver and distribution services manager of Spillers-French Baking Ltd I have more than one interest in the outcome of the Blennerhassett Report.
As all who have a fair and reasonable attitude to drinking and driving, and one who feels that the full force of the law should be applied to those who endanger others' lives by driving with an excess of alcohol in the blood, I am nevertheless very concerned about the possibility of the police having carte blanche to stop drivers on a completely random basis. It comes dangerously near the 1984 concept of life. In my opinion the police (and I am a policeman's son and have not only a great admiration for the force as a whole, but also, like Mr Norman Fowler, a deep concern that their position in society should not, be in any way jeopardised) should have the authority to stop individuals on a random basis only in the car parks of hotels and public houses. The stopping of cars on the road should remain as now, when the driver has committed some " moving traffic offence."
If we allow the police to have the freedom to stop anyone without the existing constraint what will be the next step—random searching of our property? As a society we have very little " real " freedom left, and the recommendations of the Blennerhassett Report, if implemented, are just one more step towards a Police State.
As you must know the police pay a great deal of attention to crime prevention, surely by stopping a driver before he gets on to the public highway is better than letting him drive, if only for a short distance. At the same time I think that a person so stopped should still be punished.
M. A. WOODS, Distribution Services Manager, Spillers-French Baking Ltd, Watnall, Notts.