Jeremy Clarkson: New Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Helped Me Vote

It was all very nerve-shredding but I thought I could just about make it before the 10pm deadline

I was using the new 500-horsepower Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, right, so I’d have the oomph to do overtaking. But it only had a 58-litre fuel tank. So if I drove fast, I’d have to make a pit stop. It was all very nerve-shredding but I thought I could just about make it before the 10pm deadline.

Unfortunately, the nation’s highway traffic officer wombles had other ideas.

I’d heard before I set off that a lorry had crashed on the M40. But this had happened at 12.30 in the afternoon. So by eight at night, obviously, they’d have it cleared and the road would be open again.

Oh no it wasn’t.

I could understand it if the lorry had been carrying toxic waste or leaky nuclear warheads. But it was full of nothing more hazardous than frozen cow parts.

I hope that whoever becomes Prime Minister puts everyone responsible in jail

I could also sympathise – just – if the driver had died. But reports said he’d gone to hospital with nothing more than a “suspected” ankle injury.

Which means they took ten hours to put a lorry back on its wheels and sweep up the mess. Ten hours. It’s pathetic and I hope that whoever becomes Prime Minister puts everyone responsible in jail.

Happily, despite their best efforts to keep me out of the polling station, I used the M4 and made it with minutes to spare.

That new Alfa. God, it’s fast.