It gives me great displeasure to reveal that the UK has just reached yet another maddening motoring milestone: the arrival of diesel at a soul-destroying, wallet-busting £10 or more per gallon.   

I’m not telling you this because I’ve been searching Britain, seeking to expose the highest prices. Instead, I simply stopped at a handful of the many forecourts I passed during a long driving day last week.

That’s where and when I soon discovered diesel at up to £2.37 per litre, which is equivalent to £10.77 a gallon. I believe there may be other filling stations charging closer to (or maybe even in excess of) £11.

Compare those prices with 2016, when I had my first full year as a volunteer driver of the Marcus Rutherford Foundation educational/cancer- awareness battle bus-cum-ambulance. Then (and every year since) I paid its diesel bills that were, 10 years ago, as low as £1.02 per litre.

A doubling of those retail fuel prices over the course of just one decade translates to a full tank that costs around £200 this autumn – even more if the diesel is peddled by the greediest oil giants operating from the most expensive forecourts. 

All this means that, for now, we’ve been forced to SORN the vehicle, although we’ve at least avoided paying the Government’s exorbitant fuel duties, VAT and road tax. Never mind that by being priced off the road like this, our foundation’s traditional practice of delivering thousands of pounds worth of gifts, furniture, medical and other equipment to innocent young adult cancer patients this Christmas will be severely compromised.