Comments on: No wonder “green taxes” have a bad image

By: beachhutman

beachhutman — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:02:32 +0000

Anyway, the emissions bands are a con trick and a lie. All CO2 is formed from fuel put into the tank, together with oxygen already in the air. It follows that a 40mpg car CANNOT produce the same CO2 per mile as a 20 mpg car. It is scientifically impossible. But the treasury insists (my) 38 mpg Ford Ka is as polluting as a 18 mpg Chelsea tractor. They think we’re all stupid, sheep waiting to be shorn.

By: Adrian Windisch

Adrian Windisch — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:58:33 +0000

One problem is too many cars on the road, the answer is to improve public transport. Another is to reduce emissions, to persuade people who need cars to get ones with fewer emissions. My car costs me £35 a year in road tax, it is comfortable in town or on the motorway, is cheap to run and gets 65 mpg. Why do people need bigger more powerful cars, its a status symbols that is so 70s.

By: adam83

adam83 — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:12:16 +0000

the purpose of green government is to destroy our economy.

The economy is built on consumerism
which is incompatible with sustainability.

Call the greenie meanies off because the economy is uncertain, you say Cliff?
Pile more misery on those greedy westerners, they say. The worse the economy, the better the environment.

Remember these be lefties, they hate the successful.

By: DennisA

DennisA — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:34:32 +0000

I already pay £175 VED for my 10 year old Citroen Xantia estate, which I need for its carrying capability, but cannot afford to replace.

In West Wales, diesel is now 124-127 p per litre. My nearest rail station is 30 miles away, there are buses theoretically every two hours, except when those buses are on the school run. First bus 8-30am, last bus 6-0pm. I don’t use the bus.

I have a dental appointment next week, fortunately it is NHS, but unfortunately it is 60 miles away, the nearest practice taking NHS patients.

If a company were making windfall profits, the government would be seeking to claim some of it. They must be making megabucks from the fuel tax windfall, plus the extra VAT, tax on tax, yet they quite cynically blame global conditions for everything.

This is the government of the “less well off”, seeking to reduce poverty.

They are actively creating it.

Having just qualified for a small occupational pension, I am now on the edge for the 10p up to 20p tax rise. Raising the personal allowance for one year to get through a by-election is an insult.

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:29:47 +0000

What we see at grass roots level, is a great number of MPs who seem to have little experience of anything outside the Students’ Union travelling round in their limos complete with chauffeur. Tony Blair’s appalling example of having 4 houses runs down through the serried ranks.
OK the MEPs are even worse, we know that.
But this means that New Labour has absolutely nothing to do with the poor, the downtrodden, the ordinary people of Great Britain.

By: Steven_L

Steven_L — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:46:25 +0000

I did buy a ‘green’ car, a modern 6-speed Mazda 6 diesel, it chucks out 165g/Km which used to qualify for the reduced £145 tax bracker.

I’m paying 10p a litre more for my fuel than a petrol user even though I’m doing about 15mpg more than the petrol equivilent.

Now they clobber me with a tax hike too. That’s really going to help Gordon win my vote back. How low in the polls can he go I wonder - 24%, 23%, 22%, perhaps less than 20% at this rate!

By: L Taylor

L Taylor — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:42:46 +0000

Sadly the government has been getting away with these “stealth taxes” for a number of years. I believe however the tide has turned against them. As to how long it will take to repair the damage inflicted on the country it remains to be seen. I personally have never been convinced by the arguments put forward to defend “global warming.” The cynic in me believes that neither has Labour, but what better way to impose a raft of new taxation under the guise of “saving the planet” who could object?

By: Cliff

Cliff — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:01:48 +0000

A tax is a tax is a tax. Green taxes of the type discussed will just penalise, yet again, the poor. They cannot afford to go out and buy a new green car. With the way our tax hungry greedy government is going, the fuel in the tank is going to be worth more than the older car.
I see it has been reported locally that, thieves have started to steal the contents of fuel tanks.

In my view, we should put the whole of the green/climate change agenda on hold until after we know how deep the economic slowdown is going to be. It is sheer madness, to land our already over taxed people and business, with even more tax that will make business even less competitive than it is now beneath the burden of rules, regulations and taxation from both Westminster Nanny and Brussels Nanny.

By: Stuart Fairney

Stuart Fairney — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:55:48 +0000

Indeed, it’s even worse than that. If you own a family car that does 5,000 miles per year, you emit far less, (even at 255gms per Km) than you would if you owned a smaller car doing say 15,000 miles per year.

The way to tackle this would be fuel duty but two problems

1. It’s too noticeable and politically unpopular
2. Fuel is already very heavily taxed when no practical alternative exists for many of us (I promise you, I do not enjoy over an hour on the congested M3 going to work in the morning, to pay my 40% income tax!)

So, it’s hide the tax rise ~ again. Once again, all about politics and tax rises at a time when the whole CO2/global warming thing is looking increasingly threadbare considering the planet hasn’t actually got any warmer in the last decade.