Yeah but Ford doesn't sell American cars here. Ford are affiliated to The American Ford, who are shareholders and nobody has even heard of General Motors. They own Vauxhall in the same way banks own them. They build and sell far different cars built to far different standards. Our cars are more expensive but believe me, having spent a fair proportion of my working life driving rental cars in The States, there is a reason ours are more expensive.

Ford and Vauxhall are British and European cars. Toyota design and sell in The UK. BMW design and sell their British brands here.

My point is that exports drive economies, and nobody buys American cars. We take the piss out of them. When An American car is reviewed on Top Gear, they make a point of driving between Lincoln and Scunthorpe on the basis of the longest stretch of road without a bend, as suspension was never the strong point. Most cars made in The States fail European safety and emissions tests anyway. Most of my trips over start with arguments at the rental desk until they put the Chrysler keys away and get the German ones out.

Detroit is based on the American dream, not the American reality. A bit like your sport. World Series? I genuinely cannot recall whether that is baseball or American football. It certainly ain't World. That isn't a cheap comment, it is an indication of unsustainable attitudes that simply do not work.

I make no argument for what used to be British cars. Most manufacturers design and research here and that feeds the economy, just no longer feeds the jobs, sadly. Our car industry was awful in the '70s and '80 s with government owned British Leyland trying to learn from Detroit, thinking everybody would buy poor quality if you could sell an image. Jaguar is far better off and far better cars now they are owned by Indian money.

Come to think of it, we don't buy spray on cheese from you either.

For the record, I drive BMW and Mrs Musket drives Mercedes. When I was looking to buy last year, I can't even think of an American model in the sector I was looking that merited consideration. Jaguar, Audi, BMW, Mercedes... Nope. The only car America had to offer was the Chrysler 300, I looked in the showroom, sat in it and declined a test drive. The only thing you could say in its favour was last decade's Mercedes parts in the engine. The build quality was absolutely shocking. If I want to drive a shed, I may as well take a couple of axles up the garden and start converting one.