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From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
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The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.When people say, “You couldn’t make it up,” you usually could. The human imagination is quite fertile. What people often mean is, “It’s the sort of thing you would expect, if you had thought about it.” So it is with our report today that police officers have wasted £600,000 in four years filling diesel police cars with petrol in error.
It is an easy mistake to make, says the AA, ready as ever to make excuses for car drivers: “Modern diesels are so quiet it’s easy to forget you’re driving one.”
Still, the story is useful as a parable of perverse incentives. Not only that, we learn that putting diesel into a petrol-engined car does not cause any lasting damage, while doing it the other way round can require repairs costing £5,000. Especially as the refueller usually gets back behind the wheel and drives off, oblivious to the further damage being caused.
Police forces have tried all kinds of devices to remind officers, from bright yellow fuel caps to “talking” ones. These do not seem to be effective. So, on this question, The Independent finds itself on the same side as the Taxpayers’ Alliance. The only way to stop public servants getting their hydrocarbons mixed up is to make them pay for draining the tank and providing a back-up car. Anyone can make one mistake, but the second time the pump dunce should pay.
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