UK Road Pricing

[JonFB]

Hi Guys, I've not been reading new posts for a few weeks so apologise if this has already been discussed, and indeed I'm not sure if it's a spoof or not but anyway, here it tis:


The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it.
The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver.
A non working Mum who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.
On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times.
They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit you can expect a NIP with your monthly bill.
If you care about our freedoms and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website.


http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

Hi Jon, yes this has been raised before. I think the general concencious was that petitions are a complete waste of time. Just look at how many hospitals are closed even after massive protests (look at the war in Iraq).

Sadly this will happen I believe, but not for many years.

 

[jberks]

Sadly this will happen I believe, but not for many years.

True - the technology isn't anywhere near reliable enough yet, plus I suspect they will introduce them for new cars rather than attempt to force people to fit them retrospectively in the same way as higher tax bands are introduced.
That way, it drifts in quetly rather than as a big sudden hit which would have a similar reception to the poll tax.
In any case, when they do introduce it, I'd imagine they would phase it in so in the first few years, it was relatively cost neutral. Then creep it up slowly. Suggestions of £100pm extra tax is pure scaremongering as this would price most people off the road entirely, with the associated backlash.
The gov may be fairly dumb but they're not suicidal!

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

.
The gov may be fairly dumb but they're not suicidal!

I don't know about that, Maggie Thatcher's government were when they introduced the Poll Tax.

 

[jberks]

I don't know about that, Maggie Thatcher's government were when they introduced the Poll Tax.

At the risk of getting political - it was a stupid move but with the best of intentions, at least in theory. I was actually in favour of it, despite having to start paying up (lived with my Parents at the time) - it was fairer for me who was working to be stumping up rather than my retired neighbours paying more, just because they lived in a nice house. Anyway, as most councils were Labour run and got to set the prices, it was a gift to them. They overcharged the public and maggie got the flak.
Anyway, a lesson not lost on Blair or Brown I suspect - else why would Brown only put up the tax on new 4x4s!

 

[MarkF]

Suggestions of £100pm extra tax is pure scaremongering as this would price most people off the road entirely, with the associated backlash.
The gov may be fairly dumb but they're not suicidal!

Dont you beleive it, they can charge what they want and they also know we will pay it as for the vast majority there will be no alternative, what happened when the gov de-regulated the bus service, the ones that were needed the most, the village run were scrapped, I know as my previous village I lived in has no bus service now, the only way my wifes parents can get shopping is by car.
As for what they have done to the rail industry, well they need shooting, the recent rail fare increase is nothing to do with investment in the infrastructer, train opperators have nothing to do with this its Network Rail, and beleive it or not, they get more public money than when it was BR, so there is no alternative to road, they know this and thats why they will charge what they like, and we as english, moan a lot but put up with it, will pay up. How many moaned about the M6 toll road, its now £4.00 for cars but we still use it.
Petitions may not work but if we dont do anything they will think we all agree to it
Sorry to rant on, but having spent the last 20 years in the rail industry it makes me mad to see what our so called Goverment have done, that why I left and went to the great Marconi, saddly now also gone.
Dont let them get away with it.

 

[jberks]

Sure, if they think they can get away with it, they'll hit us. However, Brown is surprising scared of the motorist these days, probably following the fuel protests I suspect. Governments generally and this one in particular are complete cowards, They won't have a go at anyone who could fight back. Hence they always hit individuals rather than groups or small companies rather than big ones. If someone had wanted to close a southern rail route, they'd have got involved, but a small rural one is a double whammy for this gov as they don't care about the little guy anyway plus they hate country dwellers with real malice.
I have no doubt this madness is coming, but they will bring it in gently and slowly over a long period. Personally I suspect they will bring it in for new cars, so as to hit fleets and high mileage users first, then as cars filter down and the rest of us get them they'll get us too.
The fact that fuel tax and traffic jams combined are just as effective as this scheme will be in bringing down conjestion (plus a hell of a lot cheaper to operate) is immaterial. Naive thinking from the Notting Hill brigade but the other lot also live there so there will be no change for a while yet.

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

Mark, I'm usually the first to complain about anything (just look at my threads ) but the government will say we approved of it even if there were a million people marching on London to protest. Look at Fox hunting. Whether you agree with it in principle or not, a larger percentage of the country voted to keep it than get rid of it but our great "democratic" government chose to ignore the will of the people anyway. And they keep telling us it was a good thing and we agreed to it.

Same with hospitals, trains, police etc. They have all gone to pot but the government keeps saying how wonderful they are. They tell us public eductaion is fantastic and then put their own kids into private school.

They are shortly going to charge us based on the amount of rubbish we produce, despite the fact that we already pay for this as part of our council tax. They also ignore that the amount of garbage we produce is not down to us but down to the companies that produce packaging.

They keep banging on about "the environment" but have absolutley no idea what happens outside London. Recycling is good, apparently, so is sending all of Londons garbage out into the country side, and covering the south east in concrete and houses.

I wont say that's "rant over" as I'm sure I have more things to say. Consider it rant suspended......

 

[MarkF]

Mark,
I wont say that's "rant over" as I'm sure I have more things to say. Consider it rant suspended......

I agree totaly with you, every word, except we dont have a democratic goverment we have a dictatorship, be it a nicely put one, but as you say they will do what they want.
I think Scotland has the right idea wanting total inderpendance, I for one will be going north of the boarder if this happens, may even be sooner.

 

[jberks]

sadly this gov ran out of ideas about a week into their term. Their only way to change our behavour is to increase tax on whatever it is they want us to move away from. Sadly, they have no other ideas.

 

[RFdesigner]

I wouldn't worry.

There is no radio they can put in our car that the ally tray from a takeaway can't kill stone dead.

Sorry officer, my tracking device seems not to be working, I really had no idea!

how about a broken antenna lead.. . very effective.. or even oops the fuse seems to have blown.

No, sorry Mr Brown if you expect the public to pay to maintain a complex piece of radio equipment in order to get taxed then you're onto a loser. There will simply be mass evasion.

The only way to go is number plate recognition, and how many miles of country roads etc. are they going to have to ignor?

No the easiest, simplest to administer and most ecological etc. route is fuel tax, we pay as we drive and are encouraged to avoid snarl ups as the mpg figures drop off a cliff then. We are encouraged to drive efficient cars and to keep them efficient, it's a good system, why fix it...

unless it's not a tax thing........

Derek

 

[Myros]

Politics 101

" He who governs best governs least..." Discuss.

They have to do something to fill their day, and in reality, all the big stuff is decided in the White House anyway, so no wonder they like a pop at a sitting target.

The really tricky stuff is just that, and least susceptible to government intrusion. Carousel fraud anyone?

 

[Hibbo]

we dont have a democratic goverment we have a dictatorship

Please explain your reasoning behind this statement.

want.
I think Scotland has the right idea wanting total inderpendance, I for one will be going north of the boarder if this happens, may even be sooner.

Have your any idea of how hopeless the Scottish parliament has been so far? The amount of money it has absorbed? It beggars belief. Do yourself a Google search for "Holyrood", unbelievable!

 

[Blobcat]

Please explain your reasoning behind this statement.



Have your any idea of how hopeless the Scottish parliament has been so far? The amount of money it has absorbed? It beggars belief. Do yourself a Google search for "Holyrood", unbelievable!

There is one down here as well, although they haven't spent quite as much as the Socts on their building :mrgreen:

 

[redmilly7]

Hi,

Now I am NOT politically minded Idont care who gets into power they are all the same. Anyway "WHERE" does all the money go???? Why do they always have to tax us????
There is a film set in the middle ages, anyway the king is taxing everybody because he wants more money to build his castle. He needs more of it and suddenly says I think we could get more money by taxing people for using the dirt roads. and hence the road tax comes into operation. Then the food tax, then the water tax then the waste tax, then the tax on clothes then the tax on everything. WHY, oh and then the tax for earning too much or the tax anyway because you have to pay the government for earning a living. Im sorry but the whole thing stinks. I havnt thought of the alternative I just wanted to have a moan.

 

[MarkF]

The government dont listen to what the people that put them in the big house want but do what we think we need, they feed us the right amount of bull to confuse the mass population.

As for the Scottish, no establishment wastes more money than Westminster, if it was a company it would have been bust many years ago.
I originate from Crewe in Cheshire, the home of Bently motors, now living in North Wales.

Dont we already pay enougth fuel tax, and what about all the road tax, certinaly does not go into improving the road, or they would not have neede private money to build the M6 relief road.

Anyway I think I have said enough.

 

[television]

Hi,

Now I am NOT politically minded Idont care who gets into power they are all the same. Anyway "WHERE" does all the money go???? Why do they always have to tax us????
There is a film set in the middle ages, anyway the king is taxing everybody because he wants more money to build his castle. He needs more of it and suddenly says I think we could get more money by taxing people for using the dirt roads. and hence the road tax comes into operation. Then the food tax, then the water tax then the waste tax, then the tax on clothes then the tax on everything. WHY, oh and then the tax for earning too much or the tax anyway because you have to pay the government for earning a living. Im sorry but the whole thing stinks. I havnt thought of the alternative I just wanted to have a moan.

I hope that they do not bring back the window tax and apply it to cars.


Malcolm

 

[redmilly7]

if so ill take my chances and have open plan to the elements haha

 

[stevex]

Britain has invented a new missile. It's called the civil servant - it doesn't work and it can't be fired.