Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 14:09 GMT
You can but imagine the Polish drivers trying to stop themselves grinning as PC Plod writes that down.
Though it looks like they needn't have worried anyway, going by this story:
http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED19%20Feb%202009%2008%3A55%3A04%3A220
Tim#3
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 14:09 GMT
Maybe we should change our names to Driving Licence via the deed poll website and see if that works on UK police 8-)
Signed, A.N.Onemouse
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 14:12 GMT
I know language skills are not a prerequisite for the gardai as half of them have difficulties speaking English, what idiots. Paris, because if her TV career fails, she can always get a job with the gardai and still be seen as one of the smart ones.
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 14:12 GMT
This is just one reason why the proposed national identity register would never work.
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 14:12 GMT
Now I've a way to get around Jaqui's system.
My name henceforth is "Ajokortti Körkort". Bet the razzers don't have 'Ö' on their machines. That'll fuc*k 'em.
See http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Finnish_driver%27s_license.jpg - first word Finnish, second Swedish meaning the same.
(Having said that, the letter 'Ö' does look a bit like me, after Friday lunch....)
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 14:12 GMT
I hesitate to say it but: FAIL
The top of my (UK) driving licence bears the words....Driving Licence
My Surname and name are listed underneath, next to my at-the-time-pimply-17-year-old mugshot.
I thought the whole point of these EU driving licences was that they were all the same format, so couldn't be confuddled. Come on Garda, wake up!
Off-topic I know, but my Swedish friend has been refused entry to clubs when visiting me in Cardiff, because the bouncers couldn't fathom her Swedish driving licence - which again is in the same format as the UK ones...Honestly, ex-rock-ape bouncers I can forgive, but trained Police Officers?
What's the world coming to, we're going to hell in a handcart...etc, etc. Mine's the one with a copy of the Daily Mail in the pocket.
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 14:12 GMT
for the first child to be named Prawo Jazdy to keep them safe from driving tickets- "Who's this car registered to, officer O'Brien?" "tap o'the marnin to ye sgt Paddy. It's anudder wan o' dem polish loicenses." "Get rid of it, O'Brien. We'll never find the foreign fine-dodging git now."
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 17:04 GMT
Use Tiny URL much easier for long urls http://tinyurl.com/bbb46y
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 17:04 GMT
The top of my (UK) driving licence bears the words....Driving Licence
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 17:04 GMT
... most people are giving the garda sicini the benefit of the doubt wrt low iq .
Nobody's questioning wether any brown paper envelopes changed hands, either at the roadside or in the back office.
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 17:04 GMT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PL_driving_license_front.JPG
It turns out that Prawo is actually a young lady. (Paris, 'cause young ladies are always the worst drivers.)
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 17:04 GMT
That's a bit sad, but not entirely surprising. The Gardai are under-resourced, under-staffed and under-trained, so sadly stuff like this probably happens far more often than it should.
There again, one of their better plus points was summarised by Neal Delamere on RTE 2's The Panel: "Gardai- it's Irish for not shooting a Brazilian in the back of the head".
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 17:04 GMT
So the french guy I fined the other day does not go by the name of "Permit de Conduire"? Damn those frenchies and their subterfuges!
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 17:04 GMT
Is the same detective who did so well at not finding Shergar involved I wonder?
If you saw Harry Hill the other week, you'll know what I'm on about!
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 17:13 GMT
In parliament today Jaqui Smith announced that all crime in the UK had been committed by a "Mr I.D. Card" and police were tracking him down.
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 20:45 GMT
Yes, we could. But you're not allowed to make jokes against individual countries any more.
Especially when they are PC jokes :)
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 20:45 GMT
I thought the European driving licence was supposed to be the same across tthe continent. And I thought the reason for this was so that plod new where to find the details whatever the language the licence is printed in. Do the Irish have photo card licences? If so then surely their plod would know where to find the drivers details. And is it not standard practice to record the licence number too, in which case wouldn't this provide a cross check?
This carries all the hallmarks of an urban myth.
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 20:45 GMT
I would have thought one solution would be enter phrases like "Driving Licence" in all languages into their system so it displayed a warning but that would need a bit of common sense.
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 20:45 GMT
The Irish still have some humour in amongst their road traffic policing, and haven't bent over and been rodgered by piratical local councils and police authorities.
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 20:45 GMT
Good attempt but it doesn't beat the "sorry I'm out of the office" sign post..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7702913.stm
My personal favourite is the sign for pedestrians in Cardiff reading 'Look Right' in English and 'Look Left' in Welsh.
That'll pay 'em right proper for not reading in the mother tongue.
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 20:45 GMT
@ AC 14:01 GMT --
All those words are spelled correctly, and, as such, wouldn't be caught by spellcheck. It is, however, grammatically incorrect, whereby a grammar checker would/might catch that. Thanks for playing the game, but you lose.
Posted Thursday 19th February 2009 22:48 GMT
y-e-h-h... you'd have thunk, but no. Our driving licences are still paper tri-fold design. There is a photo, but the licences bear no resemblance to any other EU licence. Those of us who work with EU nationals have seen the credit card style ones, but so far as I know there's no plans to bring them in here.
And nope, it's not an urban myth unfortunately; it's since been decided that it might be a good idea to have samples of licences from other countries. Better late than never I suppose.
Look, you're probably aware of the incompetance and corruptness in our banks - the rest of the administrative bodies aren't much better. Actually, that was probably the only bright spot in todays papers.
Posted Friday 20th February 2009 01:40 GMT
It's an easy enough mistake to occur when you look at European driving licenses, they're not all identically layouts.
I searched a few examples in google images just out of curiosity and there seems to be a few different versions around as well as pre-EU national versions in the recently joined member states, like Poland, which may still be valid.
The problem was that a particular version of the Polish License had those words printed where you'd expect to see a driver's name usually on the standardised EU version.
Also, the big pink papery book is still used by a few EU countries, I know a few french people who still seem to carry one, so it's definitely not unique to Ireland.
There was some fuss over rolling out credit card size licenses here as they wanted to wait until the Garda (Police) had rolled out its hand held computer programme (now almost complete). Any system rolled out will have to be trialled with those devices etc first. So, there was some sense in not rushing ahead with first generation chip cards.
Posted Friday 20th February 2009 06:47 GMT
"Honestly, ex-rock-ape bouncers I can forgive, but trained Police Officers?"
And the difference being.....?
Posted Friday 20th February 2009 10:44 GMT
<<I would have thought one solution would be enter phrases like "Driving Licence" in all languages into their system so it displayed a warning but that would need a bit of common sense.>>
Yep, but the "Driving Licence" woids are on the licence in the common Euro languages. See the examples above. Even the Polish one's got it in English, too. It's in Welsh (I think) and possibly in Gaelic - not one of my skills, I add.
Grief, even Irish Paddywagon drivers can't be that unobservant.
Can they?
Posted Friday 20th February 2009 14:06 GMT
Yes, it is. The fields are all numbered and the meanings of each field is the same on all EU licenses.
Posted Friday 20th February 2009 23:19 GMT
And obviously all driving licences within the EU are identical...
Posted Monday 2nd March 2009 10:20 GMT
......but how many of you choppers have had a photo licence for more than 10 years and haven't renewed it.
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