This VW scandal has done everyone a big favour. There is a chance that air pollution by all cars - petrol and diesel - will be taken that bit more seriously in

This VW scandal has done everyone a big favour. There is a chance that air pollution by all cars - petrol and diesel - will be taken that bit more seriously in the future. Anyone with the remotest interest in automobiles knows that petrol engine cat-converters do not work when cold, i.e. for the first fifteen minutes or so. Therefore all of those school runs and all of those trips to the local supermarket to pick up a few things are pollution nightmares for people with asthma. Nobody thinks this through to that conclusion, even though it is not rocket science. The real evil with diesel is the ultra small particles that are too fine for one's lungs to cough up. This has not been addressed, again, it is just the way it is and someone else's problem - maybe that asthma sufferer. This don't care attitude has history, our parents were quite happy to drive around pumping lead into the faces of children just because everyone did it. Maybe there can be a turning point here with car driving becoming the new smoking, with drivers made pariahs too. As much as VW are a remarkable company in many ways with many highly desirable products, I do hope that the lawsuits keep on coming - total bankruptcy would be just desserts. I also hope for contagion with pretty much every other car maker also given a severe grilling. As a product the car really is enemy number one as far as the environment is concerned. There is the noise, the danger, the wars for oil as well as the air pollution. Imagine how much our urban centres would be improved if every road had those rows and rows of tin boxes removed. On a recent trip to the countryside I opened a local paper. Page after page concerned road accidents. It seemed that was all there was to report. We have got to move on from these horrible little tin boxes and the filth they spew as our lives depend on it.