So Tax & Waste has slapped a risible amount car tax on those of us that have the temerity to drive 4x4s. How much is it …. an additional forty quid a year? Like that is going to make any difference to the Chelsea tractor driving yummy mummies – daaarling, its less than the cost of a facial down at the Harbour Club (allegedly). Of course to the cash strapped hill farmer driving his 30 year old Series III Landrover round the lambing pens & living on less than the minimum wage while waiting for the Rural Payments Agency to keep its end of the bargain, it makes one hell of a difference: but since exactly when did Nu-Labour give a flying monkeys about what goes on outside its urbancentric voter base? So, those of us in these yerrrrr paaarrrrrts that have two, yes two ecosphere destroying 4x4s because we live on a farm at the end of a muddy track are doubly taxed – fantastic! Come the Glorious Day, it wont be forgotten.

Of course, in the big scheme of things coughing an additional eighty sovs a year on the running costs is neither here or there & is incidentally lot less than the cost of a half decent box of cigars. Pah … I sh*t your eighty squid Gordon Brown – it is doesn’t even constitute a tiny patch of dampness in the boundless ocean of Landrover running costs. Given Mrs FMs innate ability to four wheel drift a Landie while pulling fully laden double horse box, this months bills include new tyres & brake pads for Disco Dave & two new rear tyres for Larry Landrover. Totting up what that little lot is going to cost (cue our local garage owner reaching for the Kuoni brochure), eighty quid is a mere bagatelle dear readers.