Travesty Of Justice and Not In My Back Yard

So Kieren Fallon escapes a driving ban because it would cause him exceptional hardship, what complete and utter bollocks to coin a phrase.

He was in court because he failed to inform the police of the driver of a car caught in a speeding trap, a car registered to Fallon.

Fallon told the court, 'I wasn't the driver. I had a driver for a week because I was going to Scotland. We had his name and date of birth but didn't have his address. That was the mix-up.'

So Fallon expects us to believe he employed a driver and all he knew about him was his name and date of birth? He did not bother making a record of his address or make a note of his driving licence details, that is incredulous and although he may have managed to convince the magistrates he does not convince me. Presumably this driver was paid – was he paid in cash? Are there no payroll records? Was he employed via an agency? If so they would have records. Indeed is there any evidence this so called driver actually exists? Or was Fallon actually driving the car himself?

Fallon told the court “I am no longer famous and he could not afford a full time driver.” Again that is absolute rubbish and it is simply a case of Fallon worming his way out of yet another embarrassing situation in which he finds himself.

At his best Fallon is one of the best, most talented, jockeys of his generation, as an individual he has shown time and time again he is a flawed character, lacking in principals and a generally unpleasant and unreliable individual.

He managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the Lincoln Magistrates but frankly if he turned round and told me it was raining outside I would still want to go outside myself, just to make sure.

The decision of the Lincoln Magistrates makes a complete mockery of the law.  

In her first speech as Chairman of the Racecourse Owners Association Rachel Hood made the case for a three tier structure of racing, with the lowest tier being self funded.

It is nice to know Ms Hood reads my musings as I proposed something very similar over a year ago.

By all accounts Ms Hood was listened to politely as she made her speech, it is the shame she was not able to demonstrate the same civility when Lord Derby made his speech at the Annual HWPA Derby Awards.

Ms Hood was protesting about Lord Derby’s proposals to build a new housing estate in Newmarket and was one of a group heckling Lord Derby.

Of course this was a classic demonstration of NIMBYism (not in my back yard), something at which the British excel. Be it protesting about wind farms, high speed rail links or 1,001 other projects.

Of course these NIMBY people will never admit their motives are selfish, it is always for the greater good – of course it is.

It has to be said a vociferous minority of population of Newmarket seem to be the world champions when it comes to NIMBYism. They will object to anything be it a supermarket – objected to a supermarket being built saying there was no demand. By all accounts the supermarket is doing a roaring trade and is profitable. They objected to a budget hotel being built – the argument being there was no call for a hotel, the truth being they didn’t want any commercial opposition to the grossly overpriced hotels which already exist in the town. Ignoring the fact a reasonably priced hotel would bring more visitors to the town and thus more money into the local economy.

Basically the vociferous minority of Newmarket NIMBYists just do not live in the real world – if they had their way Newmarket residents would still be getting around by horse and cart.

Recently a number of the NIMBYist’s acolytes made a move to try and get Lord Derby removed as patron of the Horse Writers And Photographers Association (HWPA).

Unsurprisingly the move was overwhelmingly rejected, making it clear most HWPA members did not want the association tarnished by their grubby little campaign.

Hopefully in future Ms Hood will treat others with the same respect she was shown when making her speech.