When I took my driving test the examiners used to test whether the testees were emotionally adequate to drive by sadistically trying to frighten them when giving the signal for the emergency stop. When I took my test cars generally had metal dashboards (Ford Anglia…) and the examiners would smash their clipboard against the metal and scream, “STOP”. I believe they don’t do it now. Is it because of the state they left some drivers in, or because cars now have cushioned dashboards ? My examiner was a sadistic thug. He almost wrecked the dashboard and screamed while I was concentrating on a woman wheeling a pram across the road and a child straying close to the kerb. Then he asked me to do the reverse around a corner and park.

The wife of one of my work-mates was taking her test when the examiner screamed and smashed, and when she hit the brake the hydraulic pipe burst. She burst too, into tears, and the car sailed on. The examiner hauled on the handbrake, took over and drove her back to the test centre.

My late father-in-law, a mild natured man in his early 60s, had a nervous breakdown due to the performance and never drove again.