Swedish Speed Cops

Sir,

Recent comments on the unidentified “speed cops” plague in Britain just now interests me

I am a Brit living in Sweden, where the law is very strict in its attempts to stop naughty Joe Public from hurting himself!

We have suffered USCs for some time now. There is a famous green Volvo in my neighbourhood; its one tell-tale sign is a large black box mounted above the dashboard, a camera no less.

I came across the car on one of my lazy days, fortunately, on a motorway and spent a few minutes observing it from my GTi Scirrocco before idling past. During that time I was amused to watch a Mercedes get the message hopelessly late, and it hurtled by with its brake lights on! He wasn’t stopped but I suspect he was “caught” on film and probably had to explain himself a few months later.

In Germany I was stopped by a very innocent looking VW as I attempted to catch a ferry at Puttgarden. I assumed he was in a hurry too and his nose-to-tail driving urged me to go faster. When stopped, by a comic-looking red lollipop being waved energetically out of the window with POLIZEI, displayed on it, I was forced to pay a very large fine, on the spot!

So cheer up at home, better accept this latest encroachment on our freedom as a fact of motoring life, as the rest of Europe seems to have done.

Helsingborg, Sweden. Chris Harvey.