30 May 07
From time to time I'm invited on to radio and TV discussion programmes to chew the fat about motoring. So far this year I've discussed roadside memorials, speed cameras and, inevitably, SUVs. This is always a popular subject of debate, especially on the politically correct BBC. Normally I'll be joined by someone from the Green Party and/or Alliance Against Urban 4x4s. Sian Berry (who belongs to both) has made a career out of it.
We'll have three minutes of knockabout in which SUVs will be blamed for killing kids, destroying the planet and the end of civilised society. I will respond with a few facts and a suggestion that there are surely bigger evils in the world. Then the programme will move on to a piece about a turnip shaped like a rabbit.
My opponents inevitably arrive and depart in a diesel limo paid for by the BBC. 'I don't like taking public transport at this time in the morning,' said Ms Berry at the end of one encounter. By contrast, I left in a bright orange Ford Focus ST. Nothing wrong in that, you might think - at least it's not a bright orange Land Rover Freelander.
But hold on a moment. As the driver of an ST, am I not more of a blight on society than the mother in a Freelander? My car produces 224g/km of carbon dioxide, just 1g/km below Ken Livingstone's definition of a gas guzzler. By contrast, the Freelander 2 diesel chugs out just 194g/km. And whereas a mum will normally be found carrying around a brace of toddlers and maybe a husband, I normally travel alone.
