They say nostalgia isn’t what it used to be but there’s certainly a lot of it around at the moment.

All sorts of things are coming back as the recession forces us to cut back spending and, in some cases, change our habits quite radically.

Take Spam, for example. This deeply unlovely but cheap pork luncheon meat died a death after World War Two and was thankfully never heard of again apart from in the classic Monty Python song. Now it’s back and flying off the shelves by all accounts.

Allotments are also going great guns, with news this week that there’s a waiting list of 40 years in some parts of London.

And now hitch-hiking seems to be making a tentative return.

After the heady years of the 1960s and 1970s, hitching dropped out of fashion as car ownership took off and the view took hold that anyone standing by the road with their thumb stuck out must, by definition, be a murdering psychopath.

Most of them were, of course, but some were just savouring the joy of the open road and getting from A to B, from home to college or down to the rock festival for free.

A lot of the best hitching spots — like laybys just after roundabouts — have long since disappeared in road improvement schemes but there must still be a few good ones around. Any recommendations? 

Do you think hitching could ever come back? Would you be prepared to offer a ride? 

As a top-flight racing driver, Britain’s Science Minister Paul Drayson may seem an unlikely critic of the auto industry.

The self-confessed “car nut” owns a motor racing team and competes in a 200mph Aston Martin in competitions around the world.

 But at a news conference in London, he attacked the “significant minority” of auto industry executives who he claims still deny the evidence for climate change.

 ”It shocked me that those views were held by senior managers,” he said. “I have been actually quite surprised…(by) how many of them just do not accept the scientific evidence around climate change. It really shocked me.”

 Climate change is “the greatest challenge of our generation”, he added, and the problem is bigger than the global economic crisis.

 Pressed by reporters to name the doubting managers and their companies, Drayson declined and said the sceptical attitude was not confined to the car industry.

 He had met industrialists in all sectors who have yet to be convinced that human activities contribute to climate change.

 Car makers around the world say they are committed to reducing emissions blamed for contributing to global warming and are working hard to make their products more environmentally friendly. Battered by the economic downturn, they say they need more state aid to switch to electric and hybrid cars.

 While Drayson accepted that many in the car industry do accept the evidence for climate change, he said it was crucial to persuade the rest of the grave threats that lie ahead.

 ”What we need to do is present them with the evidence to say this can’t wait,” he told reporters at the Royal Institution, an independent charity devoted to scientific research.

 Part of that evidence will come, he hopes, from a new UK-based coalition that will use satellites to monitor the Earth’s climate, sea levels and atmosphere.

 More than 100 scientists from 26 British universities will work for the National Centre for Earth Observation, studying some of the biggest environmental questions.

 Its director Alan O’Neill said it will be a “vital tool in measuring and managing the health of the planet”. It could help see where earthquakes or volcanoes are likely to occur next, he added.

 ”This research is of vital importance,” Drayson said. “It is very hard to look at this data and still maintain the position that climate change isn’t happening.”

Tata Motors, which bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford earlier this year, may now have to pump at least $1 billion into the brands to keep them alive. That's bad news for U.S. automakers trying to sell brands.

While auto assets up for sale by U.S. automakers were expected to linger for a while, Tata's rough road with Jag and Land Rover are likely to keep those assets on the block for much longer.

Tata has agreed to inject "tens of millions" of pounds into the company to tide it over while the government mulls a bailout,  media reports have said. This is in addition to "hundreds of millions" of working capital provided since Tata bought Jaguar Land Rover from Ford in March.

That's a lot of cash for any automaker. And it's a lot of cash for an Indian automaker, which makes most of its profit in Indian rupees.

And that's bad news for U.S. automakers hoping to lure buyers -- some from emerging markets -- for various assets. As Detroit's three surviving automakers seek interest for Volvo, Saab, Viper and Hummer, the most likely buyers are Asian automakers. But Tata has its hands full with the two brands it bought from Ford. And Mahindra & Mahindra, another Indian contender, is bound to be discouraged by Tata's experience. Investment bankers have said that Chinese automakers were waiting on the sidelines to see how the Tata experience works out.

Hummer and Viper have both been on the block for a few months in auctions that have gone on a lot longer than anyone had anticipated.

Part of the problem is that the finacing markets are bad and it's tough to get a deal done. But another part of the problem -- and a larger one perhaps -- is that no one is really interested in buying a U.S. auto asset right now.

U.S. vehicle sales in November plunged 37 percent to their lowest level since 1982. The slowdown has spread to Europe and Asia, and Japanese automaker Toyota this week forecast its first-ever loss, showing that no one is immune to the slowdown in auto sales.

It was already going to be a hard sell for U.S. automakers. Now the likelihood of Tata having to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into brands it bought just a few months ago is going to keep buyers at bay for even longer.

Anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) says serious thought should be given to a ban on smoking in cars.

In a report which says smoking costs the NHS 2.7 billion pounds a year, the lobby group argues that millions of children and young people are exposed to second-hand smoke in vehicles every day.

Similar bans are in place elsewhere in the world and a poll shows that the British public also supports such action.

Pro-smoking groups say such suggestions are just an attempt to stigmatise smokers and bully them into quitting. Lobby group Forest says such moves are an attack on the freedoms of adult smokers.

What do you think? Send us your comments

By Francesca Lagerberg, head of the national tax office, Grant Thornton

Most Budgets have all the attraction of being slapped in the face with a wet kipper and sadly this one is unlikely to reverse the trend. As expected, from today up goes the cost of booze (4p on a pint) and fags (11p on a packet). Also for those who like driving larger less-green new cars there is a “showroom” tax coming in from 2009 that could cost them around 950 pounds.

However, for the entrepreneur there was a little cheer. After strong representations from business, Chancellor Alistair Darling has deferred the “income shifting” rules that were due to start from this April. These were a direct attack on family-owned businesses that include lower tax paying family members who take out dividends or profits but make a less significant contribution to the business. A case last year (Jones v Garnett) went against the government and it was looking to legislate to get the result it wanted. The proposals were wide-ranging and ill-targeted. A deferral will hopefully allow time to revisit this whole approach.

The working family got several name-checks in the Budget speech and this broadly amounts to an increase in child benefit (20 pounds per week for the first child) and the child element of child tax credit, but this will not take effect until April 2009.

There was no further change to the capital gains tax (CGT) regime so that from April 6 all individuals will be paying at a flat rate of 18 percent with the only hope of reducing the charge being a special entrepreneurs’ relief that has stringent qualifying conditions, but may help the smaller business to take their charge down to an effective rate of 10 percent. However, some others clearly benefit under the new regime. For example, those looking to sell a buy-to-let property after April will find that the new rules help them as the best tax rate they would get under the existing legislation would be 24 percent.

For non-domiciled individuals, the Chancellor provided further details on the radical changes taking effect from April 6. If they want to continue to get the tax advantages of being non-domiciled in the UK after then they will have to pay 30,000 pounds for the privilege once they are resident here for seven out of the past 10 years. However, for those who would not remotely be able to pay such a high levy remitting just small amounts of foreign income (2,000 pounds) will not be caught. This is a slight increase on the original 1,000 pound proposal. There is also a new test of where you were at midnight to work out what days you were really present in the UK, which may be more useful to internationally mobile workers than the rules we heard of last October at the pre-Budget report.

So, overall Darling’s first Budget was short on drama, but long on minor detail. A massive 207 pages of back-up notes support the Budget Red Book. For most people this event will provide little to cheer, but equally little to passionately dislike.

The headlines say it was a budget that hit drinkers, smokers and gas-guzzlers.

Chancellor Alistair Darling hiked up the usual “sin taxes” in his first budget.

But he also postponed a 2p rise in fuel taxes until October.

He also made a bid for the green vote with a call for a new road pricing scheme and for retailers to charge customers for plastic bags.

Analysts said he had little room to “pull a rabbit out of the hat” because of the slowing economy and global credit crunch.

And indeed, he cut growth forecasts and ramped up borrowing.

Has it been a good or bad budget for you? - And was it a success or failure for Darling?