Spent last night in the company of David Smith, Jaguar Land Rover’s new CEO. He’s an amiable chap who was originally responsible for negotiating the deal that saw Ford sell the companies to Tata. Now gamekeeper turned poacher, he explained the how the bureaucracy of the Ford empire had been swept away. The board new consists of just three people. “We can make decisions in minutes that would have taken several meetings at Ford,” Smith told me. “This will mean we can bring vehicles to market faster.”

Sounds to me, like a much better way of running a car company.

Gordon Brown is probably the most unlikely of automotive ambassadors, but that didn't stop him from opening the British Motor Show this morning. Yep, Prime Minister Brown - who doesn’t actually hold a driver’s license and wants us all to drive hybrids within ten years - visited London’s Excel this morning to check out all the ‘green cars’ on show.

Sadly, I must have missed him. Maybe he was looking at the fuel cell version of the Nissan X-rail or had a quick peek under the covers at the Honda Hybrid Concept? Green agenda or not, Brown and his government desperately need the majority of otherpetrol and diesel-powered cars in this hall. The Treasury currently creams in £25million worth of VAT from fuel every day. My calculator makes that nearly £9bn a year. And if you thought that wasn't enough casht, the government nets an additional £30bn a year in fuel duty.

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