There seems to have been a lot on since I last sat at the keyboard to write this column. As a club we have run two national B events, a North Weald sprint and the Spotted Dick and Custard stages at Longcross. Whilst the sprint was a success, the rally was disappointing both because of the lack of competitors, but more importantly there was a lack of support from the membership. A big thank you is due to those few that put in the huge effort to help. Unfortunately the less people prepared to help, increases the workload of those who do participate. I’ll say no more on the subject other than these events do not run themselves and without additional help in the future the rally may certainly not run again.

There has been a lot of discussion at committee on how we can increase the popularity of the social nights, as you will see elsewhere in the magazine we are making a concerted effort to put on interesting evenings for your entertainment but once again if they are to continue they need to be supported. I fully accept that as our name suggests we do have a good number of members who are very much “& District” and we don’t expect to see you, but a substantial part of the membership lives relatively close to the Bell and the third Wednesday of the month would be all the better for seeing some of you there.

As always there have been a number of you that have been busy competing, Bill and Matt Oliver I know have been enjoying mixed fortunes on their MSA National Sprint Championship endeavours (perhaps one of you would like to let us have an end of year report).

Andy Kilby and I have visited mid Wales twice in the last month with mixed results. The Mewla Rally saw us retire with a broken exhaust system, but I’m glad to say following a visit to Dave at Powerspeed Autos (01233 663335) the car now sports a very tidy side exit system. Our second visit was much more successful and we enjoyed a trouble free day’s rallying and finally achieved a finish on the dreaded Epynt Ranges.

It’s fair to say that I am now a fully paid up card carrying member of the “grumpy old men’s club”. And if there is one thing that winds me up it is the proliferation of signage that we have now. It seems we can go nowhere without being warned of this or that.

We recently returned from a holiday in the Canaries being Spanish controlled you’d imagine they would pay lip service to most EU dictates but oh no, on the roads there was a sign to warn you of every minor undulation or twist. Just look at the picture (right); on a 150-yard stretch of road I counted no less than 16 warning signs and as you can see that includes no direction signs whatsoever.

The problem is that we are now bombarded with so much visual information that it becomes unimportant solely because of the volume of warnings that are being provided. So how do the bureaucrats deal with this? Well the really important stuff like speed limits are now being surrounded by a yellow square to highlight the fact that you really should take notice of this particular information.

All those years ago when I learnt to drive the only road signs you saw were speed limits and the odd sign warning of a very steep hill (in terms you understood like 1 in 4) or a sharp bend, the result was that you then knew you had to be careful.

The problem now seem that we are warned of so many minor hazards that it becomes difficult to select the real dangers, unless the sign is surrounded with a yellow border. Does this not tell them something?

Are we not all adult road users? Can we not make any decisions for ourselves? The UK has become a nanny state to the point of being ridiculous and for that matter so is the EU.

Why oh why do we need to be told that the water coming out of a tap with a red dot on the top might be hot? This is a classic case of Health and Safety bureaucracy that Sue has recently encountered. Question: How hot should hot water from a hot tap be? Answer: To prevent various bacteria building up at least 50ºC. OK I hear you say it seems eminently sensible, until you then discover that if the water coming from a tap is at 50ºC or higher then the advice is to display a caution sign above the tap stating that the water coming from that hot tap may be hot!