Driving is shit

I think I've just had enough of driving. I hate being forced to drive at a ridiculously low speed by average speed cameras, which ensure I spend most of my commute staring more at my speedo than I do the road. I actually pay to drive on roads which are so poorly maintained that if the speed bumps don't slowly destroy the steering rack and suspension then the pot-holes will.

During winter any so called sports car is rendered useless on roads covered in the residue from grit put down for a snow which thawed weeks before. Driving any manual car now is guaranteed to give you a hernia, such is the volume of traffic each day and number of gearchanges required from 1st to 2nd and back again.

Hidden cameras on motorway bridges mean even if you do find a quiet road, that around every kink on it is a scamera van. These are placed there by a 'partnership' (police) who know where all the good stretches on which you could potentially make up some time from the congestion and average speed cameras earlier in your journey. It's a relentless war on the motorist.

Not content on a pay as you go tax for fuel at the modest rate of 90%, the government also has us pay a fixed price tax for our vehicles which classes anything over a 1.8 as a gas guzzler. Pretty soon anything over a 1.8 will cost at leat 500 quid a year to tax.

The TV show which once reminded us of why we love driving so much is now met each week it broadcasts with almost universal bile from ecomentalists, who have slowly begun to make our passtime as unpleasant and socially unacceptable as smoking or not bringing a bag for life at the supermarket.

I just don't enjoy driving any more. I do for maybe 5 or 6 days a year during summer when I have the time to enjoy a drive to the highlands or the borders. But is it worth paying over 500 quid a month to run a sportscar all year round? I think no.

If I didn't work just out of town I would gladly hand my license back out of protest. The government and the ecomentalists have won, and I have given up trying to pretend otherwise.