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At Full Chat by Mike Rutherford

The text books say otherwise, but my winters always start on 1 December and end on 28 February. So, for me, that means it is now the first day of Spring. Hallelujah! Goodbye de-icer, hello sunglasses. And the feelgood factor continues with the Geneva Motor Show this week - plus, the clocks go forward at the end of the month, resulting in lighter evenings and fewer road accidents.

By Mike Rutherford

28th February 2006

But unless you're determined to thoroughly depress yourself, I'd also urge you not to dwell on some of the shenanigans that occurred during the February just gone, particularly the end of it. Not content with pushing up the price of driving licences (and virtually everything else motoring-related), the Government is now said to be considering "recalling" from us those documents which entitle us to drive. Apparently, the idea is that because we're responsible people whose details are in the infamous DVLA computer, we'll be among the first to have identity cards foisted on us.

Now, I don't mind if all of us have ID cards. But I do object to the notion that legal drivers - in the main a large, respectable bunch who volunteer information about themselves - should be made to carry the cards before non-motorists, some of whom can deliberately operate outside the "system". It's discrimination against us, isn't it?

There might be a whiff of blackmail, too, because - as I understand it - anyone who refuses to exchange their existing licence for a costly new ID card-cum-driving permit may find that they have broken new laws. Will they be hauled before the magistrates? Is the insurance policy they've paid for declared void? Is their car confiscated? Who knows? One thing is for sure, though: the comprehensive kicking that road users have received from this, and previous, governments is continuing. And the methods being used to hurt us are becoming increasingly brutal.

February also saw more nails being driven into the Longbridge coffin, as MG Rover's new owner, Nanjing Automotive, virtually retreated to China, where it pays its workers a few pennies an hour instead of the pounds Midlands employees, not unreasonably, expect. At the same time, there's news that the comical and, in my experience, unreliable Smart car may be built in Coventry... with an MG badge. Oh dear.

Meanwhile, the miserable month will also be remembered for troubled Jaguar trying to squeeze Government ministers into freebie XJ saloons, which can't find proper buyers. When I recently said in this column that the company needs glamorous, credible drivers and passengers, I wasn't exactly thinking of old duffers such as the caravanning Margaret Beckett, useless Patricia Hewitt, car-hating Alistair Darling and, inevitably, the thuggish John Prescott, who has already done more harm to Jaguar's name and image than any other individual I can think of.

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