Women drivers ...

Women drivers, a recent survey told us, have more trouble than men in negotiating roundabouts. They also have more collisions in car parks. In almost every other category of accident - quarrels with lamp-posts, head-on crashes and the rest - the men outstrip their more careful sisters by far. Which is why British women get a break on their car insurance rates, just for being women. The European Commission, which threatened to even up the rates in the name of gender equality, has now seen sense. Entering the eternal dispute about men and women drivers was a dispute too far - even for the Commissioners.

Women drivers, a recent survey told us, have more trouble than men in negotiating roundabouts. They also have more collisions in car parks. In almost every other category of accident - quarrels with lamp-posts, head-on crashes and the rest - the men outstrip their more careful sisters by far. Which is why British women get a break on their car insurance rates, just for being women. The European Commission, which threatened to even up the rates in the name of gender equality, has now seen sense. Entering the eternal dispute about men and women drivers was a dispute too far - even for the Commissioners.