Boo-racracy

Apologies for my lame attempts at writing clever headlines. A downside of living in Ulster is the bureacracy. In the U.S. they'd probably talk of a nanny state. Two pertinent examples. Every year, you have to have an MOT inspection (I believe that is Ministry of Transport). It takes nearly two hours. They put the car on the lift and look at every aspect. They drive it, go over it with a fine-tooth comb. David had a mechanic inspect our car before the MOT and he said it was flawless. MOT, in exchange for 36 pounds, failed the car saying a cylinder was rusty. We took it to the mechanic who said those cylinders don't rust on Toyotas. There was some grease on the cylinder that he wiped off. David took it back to MOT for a reinspection, paid another 18 pounds, and got the sticker. Our mechanic said they will fail you if you look at them funny. He also said they have a quota and will fail cars for made-up reasons to meet the quota. It seems like a racket to me.

Right now I'm studying for my driver's test. I just learned from Gareth the fitter (who is installing our kitchen) that they have to fail a proportion of driver test candidates too. The driving test costs something like 50 pounds. David took it four times before he passed it (in the early 1980s). That is not uncommon here. This sounds like another racket.

It costs 100 pounds to take five lessons. During my lesson (I'm going to try to get away with only one), I have to unlearn everything I know about driving. I don't use the clutch correctly, I don't use the handbrake correctly, and I don't steer properly. How do you unlearn 32 years of doing everything wrong (according to the 400-page driver's manual)?
3-16