Legal Question

So: I believe that it is illegal (or at least against the Highway Code, which is not necessarily the same thing) to reverse from a road onto a more major road. I believe, as a consequence of this, that it is at least as illegal to reverse out of your drive onto the road. If the snarl up caused by the Fiat Multipla[*] in Sonning Common this morning is anything to go by, it bloody should be illegal.

However, various friends have assured me it's fine to reverse out of your drive on to the road - it can't possibly be illegal, because "everyone does it". Anyone know ?

[*]Surely the ugliest car in the world, and clearly born out of some deranged mechanic's bastard vertical cut-and-shut project.

( Baaaaaaaaa! )