"dennis@home" gurgled happily, sounding
much like they were saying:

Beware of smug old gits sticking rigidly to the limits?

Anyone that thinks there are fixed limits doesn't know how to drive.
They are and always have been variable limits in the UK.. the maximum
safe speed

Yep

up to the posted speed limit.

Nope.

The maximum LEGAL speed is the limit. The maximum SAFE speed may well
be higher. Why does this variability suddenly stop at an arbitrary
number decided many decades ago?

This argument is a fools argument.
Once you accept that speed limits are determined by other factors than
safety your argument loses its value. Speed limits can be imposed for
other reasons so you can forget the safety argument.

Hold on a moment - you were the one who first mentioned the "maximum safe
speed", with a heavy implication of "lower than the speed limit". I
merely pointed out that it could be higher than the speed limit as well
as lower.

Its the idiots that think they must exceed it that are a problem,
usually because they can't even work out why there is a posted limit
and, hence, think that it doesn't apply to them.

That sounds like it's more applicable to those who regard the limit as
something more safety-related than an arbitrary legal line.

Its probably better than your argument that *all* drivers can chose to
drive at whatever speed *they* think is safe.

Well, if the suggestion that the maximum safe speed for a stretch of road
may be below the limit is true (and it is), then we automatically have to
accept that all drivers must be able to accurately judge whether a given
speed is safe or not - since the limit cannot be a guide to that.

At which point, we get back to "Why does this ability stop at a certain
arbitrary number?"

B'sides, you seem to be forgetting to draw a distinction between the
offences of exceeding the speed limit and driving dangerously.