Argh! Flaming electrical connectors

I'm currently partway through replacing the bushings on my gearshift, but trying to disconnect the mirror controls, the lighter and the ashtray light... for goodness sake. Could they make it any more difficult? Actually the first two aren't that bad, but the ashtray light connector has to be a work of the devil: looks like it should come apart really easily.... but doesn't.

I can just imagine a bunch of Nissan engineers sitting round in a meeting discussing it (obviously in Japanese): "Sorry lads, our field test results suggest that somebody with the patience of Mother Theresa coupled with superhuman levels of manual dexterity might actually be able to disconnect that without slicing their hand into ribbons, so it's back to the drawing board I'm afraid." Gits.

Obviously I do realise that these things have to stay connected and functional for years, if not decades, but surely some simple clip mechanism? The one on there *looks* simple, but is stubborn as hell. Still, got it off in the end so can't complain.