Feb 15 2007
What part of No doesn’t this government understand?
The government says it wants to know the public’s views. It spends enough of our money on consultations and opinion research to have a very clear idea. Yet all too often it is a case of trying to find out if we agree with them, rather than listening to our well based and strong disagreements.
Some of us MPs, paid to tell the government what the public thinks, told them English people did not want regional government.
Many millions of pounds later they secured a thumping No vote to North Eastern regional government. Instead of accepting the No they have carried on with an unelected version, and are looking for ways to slip more reigonal government in everywhere else.
Now some of us MPs are telling the government the public do not want to have pay more to drive around, as they knwo they are alraedy taxed at very high levels for a rotten roads service.????The government tells us the only answer to congestion is to tax the poor off the busy roads. 1.3 million people sign a petition against - a massive No. Anyone was free to set up an alternative petition on the No 10 website to show support for road pricing, but of course no-one has done so. The government does not dare, because??it guesses how few signatures it would receive. Pay as you drive could have some advantages, but not unless you scrapped other motoring taxes to make up, and started to improve the dreadful highways.
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So to all those who say well, it’s only 5% who have signed the petition, ??I say don’t you believe it. Most people would vote against paying more as motorists to a government that has been so bad for motorists - and all travellers - over the last 10 years.
And to the government, who say there is no other way to tackle congestion, I say "Nonsense". Try phasing traffic lights to help traffic flows for a change. Try removing some??of the bollards and barriers which have been put in to cut road capacity. Try putting some right hand turning lanes at?? busy junctions to help the flows. Try widening ??dangerous and jammed junctions. Try stopping so many Council and Highways Authority roadworks. Try completing the trunk road and motorway network, which still has pinch points and glaring holes in it. Try expanding rail capacity.
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John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
Much as I hate to say it, the most equitable form of road tax is the tax on fuel. You pay as much tax as fuel you use which is in proportion to the amount of road you use.
So called gass guzzelers, those owned by the ‘rich’ pay more because they consume more fuel. All round an relitively equitable tax. Other than the obscene level of taxation - something like 89 pence of every pound spent on fuel goes to the government. And people have the stupidity to complain about the multinational energy companies when the price of fuel goes up by four or five pence.
I mean the energy company actually invests in the people and equipment to go out and prospect for gas and oil, the energy company actually does something. The government just throws the tax revenue.
Anyway, road pricing is just a way for the European Union to get back some of the stupid amounts of money it has wasted on the galileo (gps) system. We pay for Galileo twice, once in the taxes the government pays to the EU and now in road pricing. Galileo will be the mechanism to track and bill us. Oh, and by the way, the Americans have given us GPS for free.
I don’t think the petition is any such thing at all.
What it is is a device to try to win more votes.
Anyone who signs up to a petition has a strong view on it. The government will have their name and email address. It is therefore technically trivial to use that to send ‘targeted’ government propaganda to those people - this has already happened with some petitions.
How can any politician ignore a petition of more than 1.5 million?
Well, Douglas Alexander can very easily. His constituency is in Scotland and this is a devolved issue. He is free to impose this road tax on the people of England, knowing it will not affect his constituents and any unpopularity would therefore not affect him nor any other Scottish member of the cabinet.
The Scots and Welsh can decide not to introduce road pricing, but Scots and Welsh MPs can vote for it to be implemented in England, as they did with Foundation Hospitals and Tuition Fees. We would then have the situation where Scots and Welsh motorists are able to use English roads for free, whilst the English have to pay. Are we to allow this measure to join the ever lengthening list of the English being made to pay for generous benefits that the Scots and Welsh award themselves?
I know why Labour don’t want to play fair with England (Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas), but why won’t the Conservatives level the playing field and give the English the same democratic rights as Scotland?
I liked your thinking John, on two tier MPs at Westmenister, but you won’t persuade the Scots to give up their Parliament now. We’ll just have to have one ourselves and if it costs money, it costs money…democracy can be damned inconvenient at times and it always costs money… but it is worth it, believe me!
It seems that if people really want to cut the costs of energy, particularly of transportation costs and the tax on fuel that goes with them then they probably need to get of their backsides and do it for themselves. Look at this car fuel saving device I found. If it lives up to its claims petrol costs could be cut by a third, and the tax along with it.
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