Matt Prior

They wheel a priceless heirloom off a trailer, then have a cup of tea. I’m on board with this

It’s the most magical time of the year, they say. And also time for a purge of the ‘columns’ page in my notes, of some thoughts that never quite made it into 570 words on the back page of this magazine.

After all, don’t all column ideas deserve their chance? No. No they don’t. Some were too boring, too simple, too complicated or, in the case of ‘Snapchat bus arrival’, too difficult to recall. But some may make snippets. So here they are.

Earlier this year, there were stories online about how American vehicles had become “the size of a Sherman tank!”. This is nonsense. Yes, American pick-up trucks are long. The Sherman is 5.8m long and so are some pick-ups. But it’s small for a tank weighs 33 tonnes, and does 0.7mpg. Not even the biggest truck gets anywhere near those figures. Length is a stupid way to compare randomly selected vehicles. Stop it.