Gang Of 4×4

‘IT’S an oddity that the type of mums who buy organic food and bemoan the greedy farmers who inject chickens with growth hormones spend so much of the lives pretending to be farmers.

Now comes with armour-plating as standard

It’s the dreaded 4×4 factor, the habit of women of a certain disposition to patrol cities and town centres in massive cars that shield their little loves from the horrors of life.

(The Telegraph reports that in the US, the sports utility vehicles are accused of killing three times as many people as cars.)

And now they are under attack from the Liberal Democrats’ Environment spokesman, Norman Baker. The MP of Lewes, East Sussex, is heard in the Independent lambasting the so-called ”Chelsea tractors”.

”There are real questions whether or not someone needs a two-and-a-half-ton, 22-gallon vehicle to nip to Tesco or take the kids to school,” says he.

The man then gets a little technical, asking drivers of those highly-waxed farm machines to note their vehicles’ ”weight, the higher centre of gravity and handling characteristics”.

In the cars’ defence, the Guardian asks a few women in Barbour jackets and boots, they who negotiate the urban jungle, to give their opinion.

Winding down windows and speaking through gritted bullbars, big car lovers tells us how nothing else will deal with those mountainous suburban hills and how ”this is my fortress for me and my kids”.

And like all good fortresses it comes with hot oil, a little prince or princess inside and a megalomaniac in charge.

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Posted: 28th, May 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink