Sir, - We have endured two years of dire warnings about the "millennium bug" from people who should have known better, but there has hardly been a whisper about a far more serious threat to the economy - the compulsory car test. If half-a-million cars are put off the road, most of their owners (who drive old cars, not because they want to but because they can't afford anything better) will be in no position to buy a new one. So how, I wonder, will they get to work or to the shops? Back to the bicycle or the ass and cart? I doubt it. In many cases it will be more rewarding to stop working. Is it unreasonable to predict a recession next year?
The most galling part of this swindle, supported by the car industry and the Exchequer, which takes half the purchase price of all new cars in tax, is the claim that it will improve the environment and make our roads safer. Bosh. Few old cars are driven very far or are ever involved in crashes, but if someone goes to the expense of buying a new car he will drive it more, causing more pollution and risking more crashes. He will also drive it much faster, causing more serious accidents. Is it unreasonable to predict a rise in the road death rate next year?
And can we have less gloating by media types about running old bangers off the road? What really delights them is that the old and the poor, unworthy people that they are, won't get in the way of the glamorous speedophiles. - Yours, etc.,
Liam O'Carra, Retreat Park, Athlone, Co Westmeath.