(On Planet Zorg) Retrospective Road Tax changes have "an element of revenue raising" which exceeds £2billion.
Treasury Minister Angela Eagle has conceded that the policy to apply emissions-based road tax hikes to cars retrospectively has "an element of revenue raising". Nobody should be surprised. Gordon Brown, who earlier told the House of Commons that the majority would be better off when they will not, continues to speak about "the most polluting vehicles". In this he is followed in the manner of a stalker by the more sycophantic elements of the media.The fact remains that Gordon Brown has absolutely no idea which vehicles "pollute" the most as he does not have average annual mileage figures for the cars he refers to.
Anyway, his reasoning by assertion that "plant food gas" (carbon dioxide) represents pollution is nonsensical. He talks about global warming when the planet has been cooling (naturally) overall for six years. Together with other world leaders in precarious political positions, jetting off to dine out in style in Japan while lecturing the rest of us on restraint over resources, Brown is desperately out of touch both scientifically and socially.ABD Spokesman Bernard Abrams: "Hiking the tax on cars already bought will not 'save the planet'. Nor will it affect the decisions made to buy them - which is all perfectly obvious to everybody except the government.""Swapping for a more economical model will be impossible for most families: firstly they may well need the space afforded by a larger car which led to the original purchase decision, secondly the price they could expect to obtain by selling their car has fallen significantly due to the proposed higher road tax bands, and finally they don't have the spare cash to buy another car as pockets have been squeezed to the limit by extortionate taxation elsewhere plus high energy, fuel and food prices.""We think the Government know this, and that is why they have carefully constructed the new road tax bands to make people grumble and pay up rather than change their car. If your road tax has gone up by £245, but the only alternative you can afford which meets your needs has itself increased by £100, then it isn't worth changing your car to save £145 and that's not counting the lower price you'd get for your present car. Like the lady says, it's revenue raising."To add insult to injury, the cost of energy is increasing as a result of the government's 'nodding green dog' windmill based energy policy while food prices are going up as a result of supposedly 'green' biofuel policy plus the increasing cost of transporting goods - a significant portion of this is fuel duty.Angela Eagle speaks of revenue raising at a time when oil price tax gains are swelling Treasury coffers so much that an immediate 6p per litre cut in fuel duty could be made without loss of revenue. A cut in fuel duty is desperately needed by families and haulage businesses and it should happen now. That would be one small step for Angela but a giant leap for transport kind. Not to do so while raising yet more revenue from motorists and hard-pressed transport businesses through a myopic back-dated cash grab could represent joined up thinking, but only on Planet Zorg.
