Dave Plowman (News) ) gurgled happily, sounding
much like they were saying :

It's an oddity in that it says "This is what you do to the exhaust"
rather than "This is what you should be shoving out the exhaust" -
legislating the means not the target.

You've not been paying attention. There are no regs requiring a cat.
on a petrol engine - merely that what comes out of the exhaust passes
the spec for emissions.

You sure? MOT certainly doesn't, but C&U does.

Oh, and LB can't meet the NOx regulations specified for petrol
engines.

It can't... at the state of development it was left in when
compulsory cats killed it.

It was widely publicised that they could never meet the NOX emissions
regs.

At the state of development it was at at the time.
Who knows what further active development would have resulted in?