Owners of 4x4s got off lightly in Gordon Brown's mini-Budget this week. They'd expected a hefty rise in their road tax, but escaped, like other drivers, with a small increase on petrol tax.
However, if posts on UK message boards are to be taken seriously, Brown is the least of their concerns. A wave of protest of the kind associated with hunting, animal research and nuclear power looks set to hit the 'Chelsea Tractor' set.
According to the insurers Direct Line, vandalism claims by 4x4 owners are already rising. A manufacturers' survey released this week found that sales of new 4x4s have fallen by more than five per cent this year, ending a decade of rising popularity.
Activists are taking their cue from established movements abroad. In the US, the Earth Liberation Front has claimed responsibility for
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Forget Gordon Brown, 4x4s are threatened by militant eco-activists, says mike wendling |
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torching hundreds of cars in recent years. A set of attacks in California in 2003 caused more than $1m in damage. In France, protesters have been annoying but effective by letting the air out of 4x4 tyres.
Britain's climate change protesters are turning to direct action, breaking into power plants in Yorkshire and Oxfordshire and delaying planes with a sit-in at Nottingham Airport. Now 4x4s are on their list.
"Armed only with two tins of spray paint and a pointed rock I did £2,400 worth of damage," read a recent report posted on a UK forum.
A London protestor wrote: "We are not going to stop climate change by changing to low-energy light bulbs. We're trying to say to people that you're not going to be happy driving around in your 4x4 every day."
Hang on to your roll-bars, it could be a bumpy ride. 
FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 8, 2006
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