I suppose like a politician I should have "declared an interest"

Just over a year ago the partner of a friend, an experienced cyclist and active member of a cycling organization as well as no mean guitarist, was knocked over by a young man "joy" riding in a fast car in city streets.
I don't know whether the car was simply too powerful for him to control at that kind of speed or whether he genuinely believed that it was "fun" to mow down a lone cyclist on his way to work.

Although in a coma for some time our friend eventually regained consciouness but sustained such severe brain damage that he has to spend the rest of his life in a nursing home.

Of course I realize that no single TV programme is responsible for the attitudes of boy racers or pistonheads but I do feel that the deliberately jokey style of the programme and Clarkeson's attitude and statements, that are readily quoted in some media without any indication as to their intended seriousness or not, just offer comfortable smug validity to the "I can do what I want on the roads" school of driving.