I DO wonder sometimes if Richard House sits at home wondering ‘what can I write this week in the SNJ that may get a response?’ and this week his nonsense around cars, along with Andrew Blee the previous week, has done the trick for me.

I applaud Richard for making a ‘choice’ 25 years ago to give up owning a car, how very noble of you but there is a desperately important word in their musings and that is ‘choice’.

You see, for most in society owning a car is a necessity for many reasons be it the work commute, school runs, after school clubs, the weekly shop etc.

Whether Messrs House & Blee like it, we live in a society where these items are often not just a ‘choice’ but a matter of need and I’m unsure in what sort of Utopia they see us living in where this would not be the case.

Necessity aside, I take great umbrage at the insinuation that owning a car is down to satisfying ‘narcissistic individualism’.

It doesn’t matter if you are 17 and buying your first run around for that sense of freedom, or at a slightly easier point in life when you want something nicer to enjoy driving as a reward for your hard work.

It is a fact that for many people driving a nice car is, dare I say it, ‘fun’.

I put it to Mr House that this is no more narcissistic than sitting at home and deciding that your opinion on local matters is so much better informed and more righteous than others and that one should ensure said opinions are put across on almost a weekly basis.

As for Mr House’s reading recommendation of Autogeddon, I found it a little downbeat.

For something a little more uplifting and insightful on the joys of the internal combustion engine, might I suggest one of the many works of the literary genius that is Mr Jeremy Clarkson.

Brian Marks

Stroud