I've nothing nice to say on this subject, so look away now if you are easily offended.

The simple truth is that there are generally more cars around than there is capacity for them. If this were not true, I'd never be stuck in traffic or seeking out a parking space. People are not equipped for this reality. People live in a convenient bubble where accepted wisdom defies reality.

Fact: more people vote for big brother than in a general election... like bollocks they do! The election turn out is two thirds of the population, probably a similar number to the number if bad drivers.

Back to parking, the point of this record; it brings out the worst in people. Two examples.

At my office there is a small overflow car park, dumb by the council. It is small. Too small for the volume of cars. Too small to be able to drive fast through it. It has just been upgraded to have more nerve and a crossing and speed bump. Net result: smaller car park. There is no road safety advantage of a speed bump in a confined space. Tossers!!

Story two.

On Wednesday, I was parked in someone's gated back yard. When we tried to leave, there was a car parked across the drive. Across the opening, when there were double yellow lines... and space enough to have parked further forwards or backwards on them. Not good.

The person whose house it was went off to see if the driver could be found, perhaps in the creche opposite. I stayed calm. My friend spotted, instead, a traffic warden whom she brought over just as a scrawny eastern European girl in her mid twenties arrived with a child and started loading the car. The warden decided to leave it.

Picture the scene. Her car is making a T with mine as she shuts the passenger door in front of us, who are poised to set off in my car, doors open ready to get in. Scrawny brat girl said nothing. 'Don't apologise, it's fine' I said. She looked up, surprised, like we were from the moon. 'You are blocking my drive' said my friend. No apology, just a comment that she hadn't been long. It is not her right to park like that... and there were other choices. She wasn't backing down

'That's the problem with mail order brides!' I said as loudly as possible. Then it was over. No point brooding over it.