Friday 11th May 2001

Taxing Times

ABD highlight level of 'stealth' taxation

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[pips]

I dont think we would mind quite so much, if a lot more of the tax raised from the motorist went on providing new roads and on maintaining existing roads . Its the total money take ( highest fuel costs in Europe and yet the lowest proportion spent on roads) that annoys. But what annoys even more is the sanctimonious and obnoxious way this government has then sought to legitimise this treatment of the motorist by portraying him as an environmental villain, and a species to be culled. The case that CO2 is creating global warming is far from proved, but even if it was, the bulk of the CO2 emmitted comes from homes and power stations - and they reduced the tax on domestic fuel to win votes! And if you''ll bear with me just a little longer to pick up one last point from the ABD inputs; the exhaust from our knackered fleets of ancient,low tech, dateless-reg, diesel buses is highly carcogenic; and who breathes most of this - Our Kids! Have you seen the air when the buses gather to pick the kids up at the end of the day? Its black! And what is Cheesy Tony and Big fat John doing about that? Nowt, they are too busy waging war on the Motorist. To complete the circle of my argument, in addition to spending more of our petrol money on decent roads, more also should be spent on decent public transport, for those who do want to use it. The total transport system of this country is a disgrace, and is increasingly being seen as such by Foreign Tourists too.