Driving along the middle lane of the motorway to pass lorries on the inside lane, the speedometer showed 120 km/h, a figure that equates to around 75 mph, however, the speedometer does overstate the speed by around 5 km/h, so progress was being made at or around the English motorway speed limit of 70 mph. A dark shadow appeared in the outer lane, almost silent in its travel, a black Lamborghini. It would have been a simple matter for the driver of the Italian sports car to have applied the slightest pressure to the accelerator and to have disappeared into the distance. He seemed content to roll along at a speed not much greater than that of an ageing Peugeot 207.

A strange thing happened as we moved along, contentedly. A bright yellow Seat with twin exhaust pipes came up behind the Lamborghini, driving along no more than a few yards behind. As if taunting the Seat driver, the Lamborghini moved over to the middle lane to allow the Spanish saloon car to pass. The Seat drew alongside and the Lamborghini went slower. The Seat did not pass, but stayed alongside, the driver of the black car made no attempt to accelerate. Eventually, other cars came up the outside lane, travelling at 80 mph or more, and the driver of the Seat moved over to the middle lane – abandoning attempts to provoke the Lamborghini.

it was a laughable scene to watch, a complete mismatch, like a small child attempting to overpower a tolerant adult who need only pick the child up to put an end to the game. Had the Lamborghini driver wished to respond, his car would have been at 150 mph while the Seat was struggling its way up to ninety.

Presumably, the Seat driver thought there was a possibility that his small car might for a few seconds have matched the masterpiece of Italian engineering, perhaps he thought that his acceleration would have been sufficient to claim a moral victory. Anyone familiar with the specifications of the respective vehicles would have known that even for the briefest of moments there could only have been one victor in the contest.

The taunting of the Lamborghini by the Seat seemed a metaphor of contemporary politics. Social media are dominated by the Left, taunts of the rich and powerful fill the feeds and threads. But it seems all as effective as trying to outpace a large sports car while driving a family saloon. Taunts do not change anything; until dissident voices find a way to develop real influence and power, they will be left standing in the middle of the road.