Lewes MP Norman Baker really started something when he began a campaign to stop 4x4 vehicles from being used on school runs or town centre shopping trips.

He has been besieged both by the wax jacket brigade, who feel they have the right to drive them where they want and people in towns who find them a nuisance.

Mr Baker, environment spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, is right to ask car companies to stop advertising them as desirable vehicles for towns.

While 4x4s are fine in the country, they are too big and bulky for the narrow streets of historic centres such as Lewes.

No one is saying they should be banned from towns, or even that they could be, but owners are being asked to be more considerate about where they are driven.