Leading article: Navigational error

Just when you thought it was safe to go out into the side street or the country lane, a voice warns you "not so fast". News that spending on sat-navs in Britain fell by 12 per cent last year must have lifted the heart of every bystander caught by a Polish juggernaut trying a shortcut through a narrow residential street.

But then comes the news that it's not so much because of an onset of sense amongst drivers. It's because more and more cars are being sold with them as standard equipment and an increasing number of mobile-phones are "sat-nav enabled".

Not that this is putting off the makers. With 50 per cent of internet users owning sat-navs, they're being urged to turn their attention to women, as "this sector of the market", according to Mintel who did the research, "is less mature". Nonsense. It's because women are too mature than to be obsessed with gadgets. And anyway they're always confident of which way they're going, even without a map.