Today I my dad bought ?76 of clothes from Matalan and a ?24 pair of shoes (I have big feet!) to replace those worn through after two election campaigns.

I managed some more preliminary reading for university, and I pondered the merits of publishing the latest Diktat issued to Mid Kent College students (a no-go, I’m afraid, no matter how shocking the rules may be!).

All was going well, until I dropped the fiancee off at work and pulled away.

From nowhere, my car sounded as though it had been modified for a boy racer and something was rattling on the ground. Never a good sign, even for the lay man.

Cue a frantic phone call to my dad (after pulling up in the quieter half of the car park) and a quick fix to make even the best mechanic proud.

The outcome, fortunately, was that I was not late to RAFA for tonight’s jazz (which is simply superb, by the way), although my exhaust pipe Will need welding back on.

It was like one of those nights when you find out you were supposed to die, but that the Grim Reaper couldn’t find your address.

Moral of the story? If you’re going to have car problems, make sure your dad’s a mechanic and back from holiday first!

Medway Council has now published online detailed plans to transform Twydall’s roads.

The self-styled Twydall Accessibility Project aims to improve accessibility for Twydall’s pedestrians and cyclists, particularly pupils from Twydall’s several primary schools and it’s popular selective secondary school.

At the heart of the proposals, open for public consultation until Monday 26 October, is a plan to turn Twydall’s roads into a massive 20mph zone, enforced by a series of traffic calming measures.

The proposals have already been met by opposition from some Twydall residents, who are citing it a ‘waste of money’.

Paul Tring, from Eastcourt Lane, said that ‘ [this plan s]eems like another total waste of money to me. They don?t enforce the current 30mph limit at the moment so the occasional idiot that drives up our road at high speed (usually late at night) is hardly likely to observe the new limit’.

Twydall Man called it a ‘[t]otal expensive overkill’, before expressing his concerns for Twydall Green’s sustainability. ‘How can you reduce the width of Twydall Lane, how will the shopping centre survive if delivery vehicles find it impossible to get there. Will buses have to slim down to get through the estate?’.

AlanWCollins is reserving comment while this author attempts to digest the many proposals put forward for Twydall’s roads. However, one positive sign is the proposal to place parking spaces for residents in some of the busiest roads to the side of the carriageway, as is already the case in Beechings Way and Eastcourt Lane.

The proposals, contained within the ironically-titled Twydall accessibility project, come as part of a raft of new measures aimed at slowing traffic – and increasing safety for young children in Twydall’s primary schools.

However, some say that the measures go too far, even claiming (unsubstantiated at the moment, I’m afraid, but this author is still digging!) that 20mph zones are legally unenforceable, thus the many speed “cushions” and roundabounts planned for the area.

You can see them for yourself at Twydall library from next week. Responses to the consultation must be received by Friday, 23 October.

Tax on fuel will rise at midnight tonight, creating a total increase in fuel prices of 2.3p pet litre.

Average UK fuel prices have already risen to 105p per litre, with Twydall’s Somerfield garage currently setting prices at 105.9p.

This is the third fuel duty increase in nine months, with fuel prices again set to rise at the end of the year, when VAT returns to 17.5%.

Motorists’ groups are saying that the increases are badly-timed, with the AA saying that the timing was ‘pretty dire’.

Photo: adapted from Princess Parkway Petrol Forecourt, a photograph from The Co-operative Group.

Kent Police are operating mobile speed cameras in Medway this week.

The cameras will be around from today (Monday, February 9) until Friday (February 13).

No one should be breaking the speed limit, but we have all seen it happen, and many of us have seen the result, or know of someone who has seen the result, of speeding.

This is just to warn you that the cameras are out and about and could be positioned anywhere in Medway throughout this week.

Ordinarily I’d have accepted this – it was, after all, my duty to give way. However, I hastily returned the dirty look (and very nearly beeped at her) when I realised she had her phone glued to her ear.

This, of course, has technically always been illegal, on account of the fact it is essentially driving without due care and attention:

A person is to be regarded as driving without due care and attention if (and only if) the way he drives falls below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver.

Road Traffic Act 1988, s. 3ZA, p. 2 (as amended by the Road Traffic Act 2006)

However, the government sought fit to specifically criminalise the use of hand-held mobile telephones etc., also via the Road Traffic Act 2006, adding the following:

A person who contravenes or fails to comply with a construction and use requirement?

(a) as to not driving a motor vehicle in a position which does not give proper control or a full view of the road and traffic ahead, or not causing or permitting the driving of a motor vehicle by another person in such a position, or

(b) as to not driving or supervising the driving of a motor vehicle while using a hand-held mobile telephone or other hand-held interactive communication device, or not causing or permitting the driving of a motor vehicle by another person using such a telephone or other device,

is guilty of an offence.

Road Traffic Act 1988, s. 41D (as amended by the Road Traffic Act 2006)

In case you are wondering what point I am getting to, I shall spell it out in plain English: driving whilst using your mobile phone is illegal, not legal, contrary to the laws of the land!

I fail to see why so many people seem to think it is acceptable behaviour when it is nothing short of criminal!

In fairness, though, the last word should go to Ray Stevens, with his opinion on the matter:

The past few days have been very odd, both in good ways and bad ways. It started last Thursday and continued right up until yesterday (Bank Holiday Monday).

Obviously last Thursday was the biggest of changes, after (finally) passing my driving test. It sparks a whole wealth of new opportunities, new freedoms and new financial burdens I never had to face when paying £21 per hour for lessons! That and not having my driving licence with me when I went to buy a drink at the bar on Sunday night – the first time I had been asked for ID in almost five months!

Friday was my last day in education at Rainham Mark. Ever. I have eleven exams then results to go in and collect, but then that is that. Seven long years coming to an end. It was quite an emotional time, though it didn’t hit me until I got home and started looking through the videos I had taken, and reading through the many (unprintable) comments in my yearbook. It hit me that, no matter how much I may complain about that place, it’s been the place I have gone to almost every school day since September 2001 and I am going to miss it so much.

However, we must all move forward. New beginnings, and all that! Well with that spirit in mind, I went for a job interview at the Co-operative in Twydall on Saturday afternoon. The interview went well, I think, covering only a small percentage of the activities I have done over the past couple of years which make me suitable for the job, the interviewer was very nice and of course there’s not exactly a shortage of material on my CV.

I, of course, had to wait to hear back, so it was life as normal on Sunday morning with Church. Well, I say normal, I couldn’t go last Sunday, I can’t go next Sunday and I can’t go the Sunday two weeks after that - anybody would think I’m avoiding the place (which I’m not, obviously, I’ve just got a lot on at the moment!). The afternoon (and evening) was spent working – DJ’ing, by all accounts, for eight-and-a-half hours, an exhaustive, but enjoyable and worthwhile, mental exercise I am sure Cllr Maple can appreciate only too well!

I knew on Saturday that I wasn’t going to have to wait a long time to find out whether or not I had got the job at the Co-operative (after the impressive revamp giving the store an altogether more sofisticated and “up-market” feel, I feel compelled to use the full title) and, sure enough, I received the all-important phone call today informing me that I was being offered the job. Which, of course, I have accepted.

It’s tough being a teenage male these days. Car insurance companies will sting you for as much as they can (by the end of the year I will have paid over £1500 on car insurance), it is automatically assumed that you will have girls flocking round you (particularly when you are as energetic and good looking as I) and anyone aged 20 or over (or even younger) automatically assumes you are going to mug them as you go past, like some sort of common crook.

So, when you’ve had the sort of few days I’ve had (not including the two Physics exams last week which went surprisingly well, all things considered), you would have to have something seriously wrong with you to not go around with a smile etched permanently on your face. Unless you have had no sleep, of course.

Driving today is an expensive business. It is going to cost me £120 to tax my car for one year, up to £50.35 to get it MOT’d (although this was done in February, so that is one less cost to worry about), anywhere up to £2000 for one year’s insurance and up to 117.9p per litre of petrol (at the moment!).

Not counting the cost of petrol, I am going to be stung anywhere up to £2170.35 to drive for one year, then try to find sufficient money to continue to drive next year.

And still government ministers, in their chauffeur-driven Jaguars, try to convince us that they understand the concerns of people like myself! Mr Brown turned his back on his old Grammar School, and now it is becoming a failing Comprehensive. Mr Darling wants us all to believe that he is helping the worst-off families, after being hit with the scrapping of the 10p tax band, yet he stings them with an increase in road tax and fuel duty!

When will they listen? When will they finally get it into their heads that we are suffering?! The economy is heading into uncertainty, the cost of living is rising and all the arrogant politicians and pen-pushers in Whitehall can say is “there there, it will be alright”.

No, it won’t be alright! And nor will it be whilst Labour are in power and not listening!

But then several things got in the way! I didn’t have a fantastic weekend, in the end. I spent most of yesterday almost asleep and suffering for lack of sleep. I had intended to deliver more of Reh’s leaflets, but I started raining and refused to stop.

Then, icing on the cake, I ended up failing my driving test this morning! Why? Because I forgot to signal when I was moving off in some road (I honestly don’t remember this), so sorry to whoever I apparently slowed down. If you do read this and were slowed down by a blue AA car between 09:37 and 10:14 today, please let me know, because I’d really like to know why I failed on that one!

I guess I’m just not destined to pass. Especially when they decide they want to put the test price up (again!). Still, my next test is bright and early on a day I’m not in school, so no one need know when it is until I have passed…

The Conservative Party has spent £500,000 on an upbeat advertising campaign labeled “You can get it if you really want”, complete with the song of the same name by Jimmy Cliff.

The campaign was launched yesterday, with a video made by Hollywood director/producer Matthew Vaughan, of Layer Cake and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels fame.

The campaign is remarkably upbeat and impressive, focusing on important issues including immigration, the economy, the environment and education.

I must say I find the title most appropriate – especially seeing as how I just failed my driving test (again!).

Still, failure means you’re a learner, not a loser! I just wish learning didn’t cost quite so much…