Living in London I don’t have much need for a motor: between the congestion charge, city traffic and shitty state of our roads owning a car would make me even more grumpy than I am already. As such when I do need to get somewhere and public transport won’t do the job I’ll generally hire a car.

I’m off to see the folks this Christmas and just logged on to book a runabout to get me up there and around while I’m oop north. WTF?! The cost for a hatchback with most of the big firms has doubled since I last hired one a couple of weeks ago.

Price gouging winds me up no end but doing it at Christmas really takes the biscuit. I got a decent deal from a smaller firm via carrentals.co.uk in the end but Hertz, Avis and the rest can forget about seeing any of my business in future. Not as bad as the wankers who rob houses when people are away for Xmas, perhaps, but in the same ballpark as far as I’m concerned.