They detract from the health benefit of exercising the upper body muscles. Our three cars, none of which has turned a wheel for over two weeks (why are so many clearly non-essential workers still on the roads?) have never looked so glossy at the same time.

Just to be clear, the chances of burning through the paint on a panel with an electric polisher are very remote. You literally have to be very aggressive to do this. That means the polisher is on full chat, you have all your weight pushing through the polisher and remain one one spot for a good 3 or 4 minutes.

Rumour says you can easily cut through the paint on swathe body lines as the paint tends to be thinner here. Ive seen no evidence of this though.

The old fashioned way was to use a lambs wool disc but nowadays, there are plenty of very good foam polishing discs that do as good a job. Just visit any respectable car detailing site such as The Polishing Booth or others. (I have no connection to TPB except as a regular, repeat customer.)

The thing to bear in mind with any polisher, either by hand or machine, is that the paintwork must be spotlessly clean. This means a very good wash, clay bar rub down, re wash and dry. Neither should any compound be left to 'dry out' on the disc else this could introduce scratches and swirl marks.

Before anyone uses an electric polisher, have a look on You Tube for how to do it vids and you may learn a lot.