They're still at it.........

I posted photographs in September 2012 and June 2013 pointing out that the police car drivers, as upholders of the motoring laws, should not leave themselves open to criticism when parking their vehicles - except, obviously, for emergency reasons. Walking down Market Street in Hyde on Tuesday morning I noticed these two cars parked on double yellow lines at the end of Church Street. No sign of any obvious emergency and I've neither seen nor heard anything in the local news since then to suggest that there was anything happening that would have justified the illegal parking.

The cars on the left-hand side of the road, by the way, are parked legally - the yellow lines end somewhere underneath the police car. On the right-hand side of the road the dotted lines marking a box on which that police car is partially parked is a legal parking space marked 'Disabled', but all the other cars parked on that side of the road shouldn't be there as there are notices displayed showing that parking is not allowed between the hours of 9am and 5pm. The photograph was taken at 11:45am.

Caesar's Wife revisited

In September last year I posted a photograph which seemed to define the saying "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion". The photograph below which was taken in Croft Street, Hyde yesterday at 12:20pm shows that they're still at it!

Caesar's Wife

There's an expression which I think of occasionally when I see or hear about cases where someone in authority seeks to abuse that authority, and it's "Caesars's wife". It's a shortened version of the actual expression, which is 'Caesar's wife must be above suspicion'. I've checked Wikipedia for the definitive meaning of the expression and this is what it says:

In 63 BC Caesar was elected to the position of Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of the Roman state religion, which came with an official residence on the Via Sacra. In 62 BC Pompeia hosted the festival of the Bona Dea ("good goddess"), which no man was permitted to attend, in this house. However a young patrician named Publius Clodius Pulcher managed to gain admittance disguised as a woman, apparently for the purpose of seducing Pompeia. He was caught and prosecuted for sacrilege. Caesar gave no evidence against Clodius at his trial, and he was acquitted. Nevertheless, Caesar divorced Pompeia, saying that "my wife ought not even to be under suspicion." This gave rise to a proverb, sometimes expressed: "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."

Here's an extract from the Highway Code:

244

You MUST NOT park partially or wholly on the pavement in London, and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.

[Law GL(GP)A sect 15]

Note that it says 'should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it', and not 'are allowed to do so elsewhere unless signs forbid it'.

In Dowson Road in Hyde there's a Shell filling station and there doesn't appear to be a notice in the vicinity saying that parking on any part of the pavement is allowed. Here's the 'Caesar's wife' photograph:

Judging by the sign behind the car the officer concerned is questioning the people running the filling station about a reported case of daylight robbery.

Please note that the above section of the Highway Code probably doesn't apply in Guernsey!