An extract from a Daily Mail piece about the government shelving plans to raise the motorway speed limit from 70mph to 80mph:
The Prime Minister’s inner circle is said to fear that an increase in the speed limit could alienate women voters. Polls have shown a majority of drivers would support the move, but significant numbers of women were against it. (my emphasis)
Mr Hammond had originally announced the plan at the 2011 Tory party conference, saying the 70mph limit had resulted in millions of motorists routinely breaking the law, undermining the principle of policing by consent.
He said: ‘The limit was introduced way back in 1965 – when the typical family car was a Ford Anglia.’
He claimed a rise to 80mph would ‘restore the legitimacy’ of the system and benefit the economy by ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’.
The Daily Mail piece:
