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Anorak News | Drive Them Out

Drive Them Out

by | 25th, October 2005

‘VISITORS arriving in the Devon town of Torbay are greeted by the sign: “Welcome to Torbay – God’s own county. Twinned with the Crematorium.”

That the area appeals to the elderly is all too obvious. And the Mail brings news that suggests the old folk want it all their own way.

The paper says that there has been an alarming spate of accidents around Torbay, which comprises the Devon seaside towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham.

In the past six months there have been six “shunts” in which an elderly driver has, apparently, mistaken the accelerator pedal for the break and smashed into shop windows, car park walls and the window of a basement flat while the householder was inside watching TV.

Fortunately there have been no major injuries. But the local road safety officer, PC Chris Lancaster, fears someone will get hurt.

“There are other means than cars for the elderly drivers to get about,” says he, alluding to the region’s public transport.

But why give up your car to spend what time you have left on the planet waiting for the bus to show up?

In any case, we suspect something else may behind this rash of accidents. We are concerned to learn of the driver in his seventies with a wooden leg who piloted his automatic Rover estate through the window of estate agents.

This is worrying for anyone who can recall the arson campaign conducted by Welsh nationals to drive the English incomers from their areas – holiday homes and estate agents were set alight. Some of you may remember the ‘Not the Nine o’Clock News’ spoof of the British Coal advertisement about buying a holiday home in Wales and coming home to a ‘real’ fire

And we begin to wonder if the elderly are not playing some dangerous game, waging a campaign to keep the area exclusively for themselves.

What young family wants to settle in an area with renegade OAPs using their Hondas as weapons? None that value their lives…’



Posted: 25th, October 2005 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink