Page 24 Daily Mail, Thursday, August 1, 2019Lib Dems winning here?
It’s possible – but I didn’t
see any at the George Inn
centre of the UK’s political radar.
Should the Conservatives hold the
seat, Johnson may take encourage-
ment and call a snap general elec-
tion. Should they lose, most likely to
the Liberals, the Boris balloon may
pop and the PM would steer clear of
the voting public for a bit.
For all the talk in Westminster of a
‘Boris bounce’, bookmakers reckon
the Lib Dems will win. The by-elec-
tion was triggered after the incum-
bent Tory MP, Chris Davies, was
found guilty of expenses fraud for
submitting two fake invoices total-
ling £700 for nine photos to display
in his constituency office.
Far from an MPs’ expenses scandal
of duck house or moat proportions,
he insists it was a naive error – some-
thing his local association clearly
accept as they re-selected him.
As part of his whirlwind tour of the
‘awesome foursome’ – what Johnson
calls the four British nations – the
PM visited Brecon on Tuesday but
wouldn’t be photographed with
Davies. The superstar of politics, it
seems, doesn’t want to waste his
magic dust on a loser.
Speaking in a honeyed Welsh burr,
Davies told me he’s mystified by the
talk of a swing to the arch-Remainer
Lib Dems as this is a pro-Brexit area
(voting 54 per cent to 46 per cent
Leave in 2016). Lib Dem tactics over
the past weeks, he claims, have been‘vile’: reports of Tory campaign post-
ers being torn down and vindictive
literature being distributed. For her
part, Lib Dem candidate Jane Dodds
insists her team has focused solely
on ‘local Lib Dem issues’.
Inevitably, Nigel Farage is a factor
here. Since their man is a committed
Brexiteer, the Tories aren’t happy
that the Brexit Party is fielding a
candidate. Des Parkinson is a retired
copper and looks like one. Bald and
stout, his mouth occasionally fash-
ions a crooked smile suggesting a
hint of menace. He brushes me away
and purports to be busy, telling me
to come back in half an hour. When I
return, he’s nowhere to be seen.N
o sign here of Nigel Farage,
either. Another case of a
political superstar not
wanting to waste their
magic dust on a loser? over at the
George Inn, a boozer with excellent
local ales, parched hikers begin
arriving from a morning yomp.
Strangely, I don’t encounter a sin-
gle Lib Dem voter in the pub, though,
admittedly, Brecon’s 8,000 popula-
tion makes up barely 15 per cent of
the constituency. At the mention of
Boris Johnson’s appearance in town,
the staff become mildly giddy with
excitement. one barmaid admits
she’d go outside and see him.
At the fruit and veg stall, SJ Mat-
thews, a colourful, moustachioed
gentleman probably speaks for many
when he says: ‘I can’t wait for the lot
of ’em to clear off to be honest. As for
Boris, well, he’s just a buffoon, isn’t
he? I’ve got a whole lot of rotting
produce here, I’ve half a mind to put
up there on the street and pelt him
with.’ Inside family butcher Mor-
gan’s, a young man sawing a joint of
meat says he won’t be voting.
Contemplating the bloodied car-
cass, he shrugs: ‘They all just do what
they want anyway, don’t they?’A DRIVER who filmed the after-
math of a road accident was
cleared at the High Court yester-
day of using a phone at the wheel
thanks to a loophole in the law.
Ramsey Barreto, 51, was stopped
by police after he was seen record-
ing a video as he passed the scene of
the serious incident.
The builder was charged with
breaches of the rules relating to
mobile phone use while driving and
convicted by magistrates last year.
But his conviction was overturned
at crown court when a judge said
the regulations do not ban using a
phone to shoot video while driving.
The case went to the High Court
and two senior judges have now
upheld that decision, clearing Mr
Barreto, of Ruislip, West London.
Lady Justice Thirlwall said: ‘The
legislation does not prohibit all use
of a mobile phone held while driv-
ing. It prohibits driving while using
a phone for calls and other interac-
tive communication – and holding it
at some stage during that process.’
The decision has led to calls to
update the Road Traffic Act 1988 to
take account of smartphones with
cameras. It was last revised in 2003
to cover making or taking calls on
mobiles while driving.
The Barreto case went to the HighCourt after an appeal by the Direc-
tor of Public Prosecutions Max Hill.
Louis Mably QC, for the DPP, argued
the rules aim to ‘guard against
unsafe driving caused by drivers
holding phones and using them’.
He said there is ‘no rational
distinction’ between using a mobile
for interactive communication and
for ‘a different equally distracting
purpose’.
But Mr Barreto’s barrister, Jyoti
Wood, argued the rules only relate
to interactive communication,
including calls, texting and web use.
The rules had ‘failed to keep pace’
with technological advances in
smartphones, the court heard.
Lady Justice Thirlwall said the law
is ‘cumbersome’ but the effect is
‘clear’ – only using a phone for
communication is banned.
However she warned the decision
was not ‘a green light for people to
make films as they drive’.
The judge said: ‘Driving while film-
ing events or taking photographs
whether with a separate camera or
with the camera on a phone, may be
cogent evidence of careless driving
and possibly of dangerous driving.’
The Department for Transport
said: ‘Motorists should only use a
mobile hands-free while driving.’Daily Mail ReporterS
NAKING down the
mist-topped Brecon
Beacons is an unnerv-
ing experience in the
torrential rain.
It’s not just that, as a non-local,
my car is unsuited to these spa-
ghetti-shaped trails. It’s more
that the radio news reports I’ve
been listening to during the four-
and-a-half hour drive from Lon-
don have been predicting civil
unrest among Welsh sheep farm-
ers over the Government’s No
Deal Brexit plans.
Since about 35 per cent of their
lamb is exported, with 92 per
cent going to the EU, farmers are
terrified that European import-
ers would refuse to pay the
higher prices and boycott Welsh
meat. Indeed, it’s said that a No
Deal Brexit could see tariffs add
up to 91 per cent to the price of
British sheep meat for EU buy-
ers. No wonder there’s Armaged-
don talk about the mass slaugh-
ter of animals.
I’m half-expecting to be con-
fronted by angry shepherds
wielding pitchforks and shouting
obscenities. Instead, all I see are
signs proclaiming: ‘The Liberal
Democrats are winning Brecon.’They refer to today’s by-election
in Brecon and Radnorshire. It’s
the first public test of Boris
Johnson as prime minister.
What’s more, if the Tory candi-
date does not win, his Commons
majority would be reduced to a
solitary seat. And so this slightly
sleepy town on the west side of
the Severn Bridge is the unlikelyHENRY DEEDES
...in the Welsh town that could
cut PM’s majority to one tonight
Loophole that
let driver use
phone to f ilm