DIVIDED WE STAND UNITED WE FAIL

Motor cars are a point of contact between Brits and Yanks, but these bloody Tonka Toy pickups and people carriers that are so popular in America for years are now blighting British roads. They are of a size that is terribly useful if one has a couple of elephants that need moving around town. Their other main function in America is keeping El Nino fuelled and up to full power and in England for adding to the misery caused by flooding. They take up far too much space on roads and lanes and in car parks. They are lethal in crashes with normal cars as they are so high their point of impact is above the normal protection zones. In most cases the only time the 4X4 versions go off road is when they drive over the kerb. Unless used as a tool for farm or business, these dinosaurs should be banned or taxed off the roads on both sides of the Atlantic.

The other main difference between transatlantic motorcars is the gearboxes. In Europe most cars are manuals, in the States not many people can drive manuals and 99% of cars are automatics. One point that threw me recently was renting a car with no handbrake, I don’t think any European cars are made with foot operated parking brakes, even automatics. Obviously manuals have to have a handbrake for hill starts when both feet would be occupied in operating the clutch and accellerator. As a side issue, on the global warming front, automatics are less efficient than manuals and use more fuel. When Drive is selected and the vehicle is stationary the engine is putting a finite ammount of thrust into the torque converter. This is held against the brake and dissipated as a heat loss, producing even more pollution.

To European eyes the American religion scene is bizare, to say the least. In many European countries there is an official State religion and other religeons exist and are, in