Entitled motorists have ruled the roads for far too long

Last week it was ‘operation red meat’, designed to recapture wavering Tory voters. This week something very different: changes to the Highway Code are coming into effect, which threaten to upset the not-insignificant number of car owners. Sure enough, the Alliance of British Drivers, the trade union for Mr Toads, has complained bitterly. Responding to a new clause reminding that cyclists and pedestrians have the right to use any part of the road, the Alliance complains: ‘This is a recipe for anarchy and accidents. It is unworkable. Greater clarification is needed as it appears to give pedestrians total control over the entire road network.’

No one set out to turn our towns, cities, villages and rural roads into dangerous hellholes

More sanguine voices might conclude that actually, the changes to the Highway Code are a good idea, long overdue, and will challenge the sense of entitlement felt by many motorists. You see it all the time, drivers hooting at pedestrians because they have the temerity to walk along a stretch of road that has no pavement, thereby making an incursion into a space which they perceive to be wholly reserved for motorists.