I still have a lot of affection and joy for the first car I ever had. My first job was as a milkman, and I had saved up my wages (£7.20 for three days’ work – better than any paper round in the area!) to buy a mini when I passed my test. I remember it cost £500, was red with a black roof and I nicknamed it Winston. I called the car this because I saw a mini as a symbol of Britishness, but also because I liked calling it ‘Winnie the mini’.

It only had an 850 cc engine. We’ve got hairdryers in our house with more firepower than that. Winston could do 0-60 mph in a couple of days with a fair tail wind behind it. But it was great and gave me, for the first time in my life, an enormous sense of freedom.

I’ve wandered down the road of reminiscing about my first car because this week is Road Safety Week. I am chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Road Safety, and I am keen to do all I can to minimise the horror, tragedy and wasted talent and opportunity that deaths and injury on the road can produce. We have had in this town all too many instances of people, particularly young people, dying in such pointless circumstances when people have not taken adequate care on the road.