End of the road for petrolheads

This article originally appeared on The Guardian

It won't shock you to learn that I'm neither surprised nor saddened that the 2010 British International Motor Show has been cancelled. The concept of building a temporary temple to the car each year, in which thousands of people pay considerable sums to pray and give thanks to the car industry, never did make sense to me.

Judging by the line-up of last year's accompanying Motor Show Music Festival – UB40, Alice Cooper, Status Quo, Squeeze, Deep Purple, Blondie, Bananarama, Toyah, Midge Ure, Meat Loaf, Belinda Carlisle, Chicago, Jools Holland – the organisers had a pretty specific target audience in mind, and I wasn't among them. The British International Motor Show is the leather jacket-clad, piston-pumping 1980s in mind, body and soul.

In 2009, where we are waist-deep in a recession that has led to thousands of job losses in the car industry and witnessed unsold cars...

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