It is exam time. I can still remember how I felt all those years ago waiting to go in to sit the first paper of my GCEs (the predecessor of GCSEs), my A-levels, my law degree - and my Bar Finals. That really was sink or swim.

Worse was the wait for the results postcard, or struggling through the scrum to find whether and, if so, where my name was on the pass lists for my degree, or Bar Finals.

The latter was truly terrible, as the printed list, four pages long and in small print, had simply been dumped on a table.

The weight of bodies, and my anxiety, was so great I missed my name, withdrew in dejection, only to have a pal shout: "It's OK, Jack, I've found your name - congratulations".

So my heart goes out to the thousands across East Lancashire involved now in this torment. The only useful advice I can give is: always read the question - and answer what has been asked!

But, whatever my personal traumas at the time, I got through. Not so my driving test.

I took my test twice whilst I was at university and failed both.

I tried again when I was 25 - and failed, again.

My instructor said I could drive safely - I just had to take the test over and over until I satisfied the examiner of my competence.

So one wet morning I was back for the ordeal. I can still remember the sweat.

It started at the back of my neck, then reached my forehead. then the whole of my face.

My spectacles steamed up. I stalled. I'm pretty sure I hit a kerb.

By the end I was convinced I'd failed, and barely heard the examiner say to me: "Well, there were a couple of problems, but you've passed."

"What?" I said "Are you sure?". But I had.

In retrospect, I'm very pleased I was in my mid-20s, and not 17, before I passed.

I was no different from any other young man, potentially capable of doing really silly things - and much worse - without thinking through the consequences.

It's a genetic problem for all my gender, that we all go through a phase like that, thinking we are masters of the universe.

I had a friend like that. A medical student with a glittering career ahead of him; always good company.

His family were well off. He had a fast car - and drove it, quite out of his character, like a maniac.

He went off to a wedding in Somerset one day. He never came back.

With drink inside him, he crashed the car and was killed instantly.

All his friends were devastated; for his family, it was much worse.

Forty years on, I still think about them, and this waste of a life.

My pal was killed just before Barbara Castle's then very controversial drink drive breath test came in.

Those tests have made a big difference. I'm struck that most young people are very observant of this law.

But, drunk or sober, there is still this minority of young men who get what the police call "red mist" when they get behind the wheel, and become oblivious to the danger to themselves, their passengers and everyone else in their path - all too often with utterly dreadful consequences.

The Lancashire Telegraph campaign on this is, therefore, really important.

I'm very pleased my colleague, Greg Pope, MP for Hyndburn, is doing much work on the campaign - including with his latest Early Day Motion.

Greg and I, and the other MPs in our area are also in close touch with transport ministers, to make the case for the reforms, so that this waste of lives, young and old, from this insanity can at least be reduced.