A charlatan I know swears that you don’t need to pay parking tickets. He claims that he receives tickets all the time and ignores them. The costs on taking him to court are not worth the council’s time, he says and adds that loopholes in legislation should be exploited. I disagree with him as without law and order there would be chaos and uprising followed by a resumption of law again so what’s the point in revolution.
My principles were tested to the full yesterday when a driver parked on the zig-zag lines at a traffic crossing. Immediately, I swung into my assumed character as an off-duty Traffic Warden and the only thing stopping me from rebuking the errant driver was his mode of transport: it was a tractor.
And not just any tractor, it was a Ferguson TE20, the Little Grey Fergie as it is known in the trade. Feeling short of breath as I ogled the marvellous engineering spectacle in front of me, the driver leapt from the cockpit and opened the bonnet. This fools the wardens, said the pilot and he placed a “Being repaired, back in a minute” placard on the radiator grille. He entered a nearby newsagent. I surveyed the engine.
On closer inspection I judged that this was a TO20 model, a later version than what I originally thought. TO is for Tractors Overseas and TE is for Tractors England, two new acronyms to learn for acronym addicts out there. Harry Ferguson had plants in both Coventry and Detroit and was the leading manufacturer of the modern agricultural tractor. I was looking at a piece of history and it was breaking the law.
The driver returned with a Daily Mirror and the latest copy of Asian Babes under his arms. He shut the lid and took his placard down. He waved me goodbye and my eyes watched the glorious machine puff down the street. Such beauty in the hands of a career criminal was obscene. The rider was a traffic violator and worse than that, a Mirror reader.
Boadicea's Chariot 
I used to like tractors, in fact I liked them a lot, I mean, really, really like them.
I don’t like them any more. So I guess I’m an ex tractor fan.
Coat, Taxi.
Brilliant JW
Brilliant OMG, 10/10 for you both 🙂
OMG 🙂
Though I bet you miss the old
Coat, Tractor, days.
Cheers Val,
It took a lot of diplomatic overtures and tense negotiations before the management would install a tractor category. I fully expect a traffic jam load of tractor blogs to appear on these hallowed pages. Any tractor pics in your portfolio?
A Mirror reader, the swine!
Having learnt to drive on an early 1950s paraffin fuelled Fergie, this was a sight for sore eyes on the road between the Club airfield at Motala in Central Sweden and our friends’ home in Borensberg. The farmer had more than twenty old Fergies, all in working order – quite a collection!
JW, yes, I think I have some tractor photos, I’ll look them out for you.
Thanks everybody, the floodgates are open.
CWJ, brilliant snap of Fergies. I can tell by looking at them that they all have a personality unique to themselves.
A gem!
Good use of the new category, I must say. 🙂
Good ploy but highly dangerous to pedestrians.
From my understanding of the law traffic wardens or parking wardens are unable to book a vehicle that is parked on the zig zags as this is not a parking offence. It is however a motoring offence as is parking within the metal studs on either side of a crossing and will earn the errant (selfish) driver points on their licence and a fine. But the ticket has to come from the police.
This is the same for people who double park to go to a cash machine or shop, wardens are powerless as it is a motoring offence.
I should add that this applies to blue badge holders as well.
Good evening,
Rick, you are absolutely correct with your understanding of the law in this instance. A lot of my posts are prone to exaggeration –poetic license is my flimsy excuse- however, there is always a degree of truth (usually 10%) in my meanderings.
My son was a passenger in a vehicle parked on zig zag lines and as his pal, the driver, went to the bank cash machine (nothing to do with Asian babes) the Police circled the motor. As soon as the pal reappeared the Police issued him with a caution and more; three points and a, I think, sixty pounds fine.
The repair trick was all in my mind. Don’t try this at home or on the road.
I don’t really get this post, I have to say. But the guy who used to look after my car was a tractor and traction engine fanatic and the good thing about tractor mechanics seems to be that everything is Extra-Large size. I mean if you’re going to learn about mechanics, it seemed a good place to teach your kids using a tractor.
Also, the first time we took our boys to the Cotswold Farm Park in Glos (lots of rare breed farm animals) they climbed on an old tractor just inside the entrance and spent the next hour on it. None of the little cuddly animals had the same appeal.
When the elephants were replaced by tractors, I had the opportunity of learning to drive on a Fergie, a Fordson Major and a Nuffield. I was so young at that stage my feet would only reach the pedals on the Fergie, so the Fergie it was – this could explain the state of my driving ever since…