Now we know what those extra police are doing!

The number of drivers fined by the police for talking on their mobile phones has risen to nearly 500 per day - a rise of a third in a year, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Now we know where the thousands of extra police are being deployed - on low level "crime" rather than preventing and investigating violent crimes and burglaries that are what we're all most worried about. How depressing.

And yet how predictable. It's many times easier for the police to harangue middle-class drivers who speed on the M25 or how use their mobile phones perfectly safely while driving than it is to confront gangs of feral youths who stab or kick people to death with seemingly increased regularity and impunity.

If the police and road safety campaigners were serious about wanting us to concentrate completely on the road while driving they would ban us from eating or smoking while driving. They would also ban us from receiving or making calls even by using hands free kits, and they would also ban us from being able to use satellite navigation systems or listening to or adjusting the radio. All of these are just as dangerous, if not more so, than holding a mobile phone and talking to someone while driving.