My friend Idris Francis, who has died aged 79, was a talented inventor, a classic car enthusiast and a motorists’ rights campaigner. His wonderful Welsh lilt was heard at hundreds of meetings up and down the country.
Idris wanted the current speed limits raised, believing that each 1mph reduction in average traffic speeds costs the economy about £2.5bn in lost GDP. He also had concerns about the accuracy of speed cameras.
Born in Swansea, he was the son of Mervyn Francis, a solicitor, and his wife, Betty (nee Evans).
He grew up in Llandysul, near Lampeter, in Ceredigion. He graduated from the University of Wales Swansea (now Swansea University) in 1960 with a first-class engineering degree. He set up Flight Link Control in 1964, where he invented the contactless joystick, now used by thousands of users of motorised wheelchairs all over the world.
Royalties from his inventions allowed him to indulge his love of classic cars. His favoured marque was Alvis and he owned a succession of them, including a beautiful 1938 Speed 25. Idris also owned two Lagonda V-12s.
It was while driving the Speed 25 that Idris triggered a major motoring law test case. Caught speeding near Guildford, Surrey, he refused to sign the form requiring him to identify the driver, citing his right against self-incrimination. The case went all the way to the grand chamber of the European court of human rights, which ruled that not identifying the driver in such a case was a privilege, not a right. Idris lost and was fined £750.
The case led Idris to examine the claims made for speed cameras that failed to satisfy his inquiring mind.
Idris lived for many years in west London but retired to the Meon Valley in Hampshire.
He was a Ukip stalwart and a member of the party’s Winchester branch. He had become opposed to the EU after the Maastricht treaty, having voted for membership in 1975.
