Tim Hardy

I believe that while there are many reasons for the growth of individualism in the UK, the extreme libertarianism now beginning to take hold here begins on the road. When you drive, society becomes an obstacle. Pedestrians, bicycles, traffic calming, speed limits, the law: all become a nuisance to be wished away. The more you drive, the more bloody-minded and individualistic you become. The car is slowly turning us, like the Americans and the Australians, into a nation that recognises only the freedom to act, and not the freedom from the consequences of other people’s actions. We drive on the left in Britain, but we are being driven to the right.

They call themselves libertarians; I think they’re antisocial bastards

George Monbiot turns his attention to the road rage lobby in a brilliantly argued and articulate piece that I will remember the next time some idiot jumps the lights when I am crossing the road, smug in the knowledge that he will not be hurt if his vehicle hits me.

I’ve been trying out amazon’s dvd rental by post system for the last couple of months and while their selection process could do with some improvement and their charging per dvd for two-disk sets is annoying, I am nonetheless impressed by their response to lost rentals.

Of the 12 films we’ve been sent, two never arrived and one vanished in the post when we returned it. In each case, amazon has just taken us at our word when we reported them missing, no questions asked.

The post in London is notoriously bad but I’m still a little shocked to see quite how unreliable it. I can’t really imagine why it would be worth risking your job to steal a random dvd with almost no resale value - and nor can I imagine how amazon will be able to continue with rentals if our figure of 25% stolen in the post is typical.