Ruth Ducker always legally parks her Volkswagen Golf around the corner from her house, so it came as a shock when she discovered it had disappeared from its spot - and in its place was double yellow lines.

Her confusion deepened when Lambeth council claimed to have no knowledge of where her car was.

It took three weeks for the council to admit its contractors were behind the disappearance, and then add insult to injury by telling the 44-year-old graphic designer she owed more than £800 in fines.

- From the Daily Mail

Hate to sound like a broken record, but... who the hell is paying for this?? Kudos again, to another local council for constantly re-defining the meaning of value-for-money. Even when forgiving a lack of any advanced notification to residents that new parking restrictions were being enforced, a lack of notification that her car had been towed, and even the fact that she had been offered a laughable £100 compensation for " lost road tax, insurance and inconvenience", an extra £50 worth of salt was rubbed into the wound when Ducker continued to challenge the council.

There is a cross junction on the Slough trading estate that I pass through on my way back from work everyday. In fact, it is right next to a familiar blue-ish building that was home to the original Office. Approaching this junction on a 30mph street from either direction, the single lane splits as you approach. There is a left lane which carries you either straight ahead or turns left. The right lane is a turn-right-only. One fine day whilst waiting one or two cars away at a traffic light at the said junction, the lights eventually turn amber-red. As cars start slowly reving forward, the car in the right lane floors it and swerves left, cutting across and heads straight across the junction without indicating.

Not a single beep was heard. No horn. No rude gesture. No cursing. The traffic ambled onwards as if nothing had happened. My startled moment was quickly followed with frustration and anger. I refrained from using my own horn since I thought it rude to horn if the object of your road rage was not directly in front of you, but instead an innocent driver was before me. But my anger soon fell more heavily towards the driver in front of me who had let the evasive culprit get away with it all. And in retrospect, I should have horned the asshole in front of me for not horning at him. I left the junction now, already cruising at 30mph dissapointed in myself for not being able to do anything by this time. The time had passed, and the remaining journey ahead required my attention.

You see, when I noticed this repetion of history and began to suspect that some motorists preferred to use the empty right lane to overtake a dozen cars at a traffic light, it greatly annoyed me that no one would make their feelings heard. Either that or British motorists are easy push-overs. But it summarises a known British culture of never complaining for not wanting to appear rude or making a scene. This culture menifests unknown to the citizen who thinks he/she is doing him/herself a civilised favour, and ultimately puts the citizen in deeper quicksand that encourages an almost bully-ish behaviour from those who think they can get away with it.

And decades of this twisted mentality later, a council believes that £150 is a price worthy of a graphics designer's time, lost road tax, insurance and inconvenience. And for everything else, there is Mastercard.

NB: I must digress, so let's all make ourselves feel better about living in Britain. In other news, a Mongolian-raised British contortionist sets a new Guiness World Record by supporting her entire body weight with just her teeth (picture included)! Round of applause everyone. Well done.