Jeremy Clarkson is already looking like a belligerent old man in the corner, doing his best to loudly stand in the way of progress. The aging, blinkered, fool makes a point of every day getting a jibe in at any of the car companies who are trying to move forward. Despite all this, though, I do enjoy the BBC's Top Gear, though that may be thanks to his co-presenter James May's timely use of the term "apocalyptic dingleberry" in reference to his higher-paid friend.

But I digress, why I mention the once-great writer and presenter is some of his most recent reviews. He has taken to ruling out any hybrid car, ignoring looks or any of the specifications. Although I often rule out any opinion he now holds as pointlessly one-sided, I am inclined to agree with him. Many of these car companies are being buffeted on the winds of "celebrity" trends; in that all in Hollywood except the ghost of Charlton Heston needs to be seen with a Toyota Prius to hold the moral high ground.

I don't, however, come at it from the same stand point as Mr Clarkson. I am not one who believes in a preachy media so won't be a hypocrite, but to anyone who indeed does believe in progress and, even if not totally convinced by the threat of climate change, accepts the facts that our current oil reserves will someday soon run out and it's about time we were no longer slaves in our foreign policy to governments in control of these reserves, Clarkson is looking less and less relevant.





On 1st January I turned on the TV and was immediately met by one of the most impressive, balls-out statements I have ever seen from an advert. Renault, "from next year" (which i took to mean 2011) will release the first line of purely electric, truly emission-free cars. America and many European countries have pledged to help make this possible, and we'll have more news to follow. The courage I saw in Renault in being the first company to take the essential steps towards the future made the start of 2010, for me, an optimistic one.

All who are indeed car fans know that the beauty of the machine is one of the first things you look at, and you can't tell me these don't look unbelievably cool...