...Martin Roche...

..a friend of mine, Martin Roche who, apart from being the cleverest man in the whole world, has a lovely wife and many many children, is (much to my chagrin) incredibly good looking as well being an ex England opening VERY fast bowler, has just emailed me with this news about John Stuart Mills..and HIS love of R4's.

He writes: ...."Am I missing something. I know I'm missing a 1987 drop head Bentley Corniche convertible, but that's common knowledge, though a source of considerable private grief to me, but are you about to do something pointless but fun with a Renault 4?

John Stuart Mill, who's 200 anniversary we mark this week, drove one. He thought it brought the greatest happiness to the greatest number."

Can anyone tell me who on earth John Stuart Mills is apart from being Hayley Mills' father?

Martin also has a HUGE house in Kent and when I say huge I mean HUGE and it may well be a good spot for the R4 'gathering' next Sunday to end up for Cucumber sandwiches and a cup of Earl Grey tea or is Canterbury too far?

Yes, Ian, it was JSM's 200th birthday yesterday. I'm sure he had the R4 in mind when he called himself a Utilitarian.

He was one of the 19C philosophers interested in social engineering. He had a lot to say about a lot of things, particularly governments. (A bit like me really). He thought that only laws should be passed that prevented people doing harm to others, and they should be free to do what they liked otherwise. He called this laissez faire. He wouldn't have been very impressed by today's carry on as he disliked oppressive social control and called it dystopia, the opposite of utopia.

I'm happy to say that being interested in R4s makes us one of the proles, a bit like the folk that saved the world yesterday in Dr Who. Don't be a robot and get a Corsa.

In your response to Martin's email you might suggest one reason for his absence of Bentley Corniches - that is they didn't actually make one. Rolls Royce made a Corniche around then, so if he can put up with the pointy radiator shell that might be his answer.

It took Bentley a further 7 years to realise that the financial benefits of a drophead far exceeded the embarrassment of selling a car with a platform designed in the late '60s and with half of the structure removed.

If we're being picky we could also say that it wasn't JSM who talked about procuring the greatest happiness for the greatest number it was Jeremy Bentham. He took his ideas from Joseph Priestly, a great chap who came from Leeds like me.

The utilitarian idea was that the ideal state should provide the greatest happiness for the greatest number. So probably giving everyone an R4 would be the answer.