uk drivers please note...

edited February 2007 in conversations
If you drive a car, please read -
>Sarah Kennedy was talking about this proposed car tax scheme on Radio 2.
>Apparently there is only one month left to register your objection to the
>'Pay As You Go' road tax.
>
>The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody
>about it. Therefore at the time of Sarah's comments only 250,000 people had
>signed it and 750,000 signatures are required for the government to at
>least take any notice.
>
>Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address,
>just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a
>link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.
>
>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 mother 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 in time you can
>probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.
>
>If you are concerned about this Orwellian plan and want to stop the
>constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new
>website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible. Sign
>up if you value your freedom and democratic rights -
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax

Comments

  • edited 7:36AM
    although i had signed this last week, or the week before, and the petition is now numbering around 1.6million, i still doubt that a democratically elected government will listen to the wants of it's citizens. it's not about green, it's about generating revenue.
  • edited 7:36AM
    yeah, i actually agree with what you sock - i have no faith in the government as it is, they'll just continue on the "leave this country in a wreck" agenda

    ~ also has signed :)
  • ihcihc
    edited 7:36AM
    this particular petition is about harvesting emails by the way.

    there is no reason to take overly much significance from petitions in general, least of all e-petitions.

    Much of the Downing Street website is informative and serious. But online petitions of the kind the site has invited since last November are neither. Indeed, petitions are one of the worst possible ways of drawing the public into the political process. By their nature, they encourage single-issue campaigners and a crudely binary approach to complex issues which require the reconciliation of contradictory interests.

    The road-pricing petition tells us that many people want neither to pay more for driving nor to feel they are being spied on when they use their cars, and that lots of them are willing to spend one minute protesting about it. What the petition doesn't do is provide any clue as to how journey times should be speeded up to the benefit of both individuals and the economy.
  • edited 7:36AM
    ihc: What the petition doesn't do is provide any clue as to how journey times should be speeded up to the benefit of both individuals and the economy.
    exactly, and charging people for using their cars is not a way to do that - hence the petition to stop it. i don't drive myself btw, but like chris said "revenue generating" and tha's all - it'd be fair enough if people were renting the cars from them (and petrol for that matter included).
  • edited 7:36AM
    cars suck! fuck 'em.
  • edited 7:36AM
    fuck em indeed merc - got me thinking though, it is a way of pushing and trying to get more people to use public transport but then again they need to radically improve public transport systems to make them more reliable before people would do that out of choice
  • edited 7:36AM
    cars are cool, keep them! :)

    i want a truck next.

    i say 'next', i mean i want a truck and i want to keep the current car and two motorbikes.
  • edited 7:36AM
    but seriously, if the public transport was better any good at all, i wouldn't say so much. it's different for you lot in that london, cars make no sense up there.
  • ihcihc
    edited February 2007
    middigit:it is a way of pushing and trying to get more people to use public transport but then again they need to radically improve public transport systems to make them more reliable before people would do that out of choice
    arrgh that oft offered trite response makes my blood boil - have you become our next resident daily mail reader madge?

    suggested reading:
    Introduction to Coase's theory
    by David Friedman
    Why Externalities Are Not a Case of Market Failure
    by Brian P. Simpson
    vortexual:ihc

    Problemo?

    Go bash one out and relax

    have a nice day you pretentious cunt
    clearly i shouldnt disagree with v :awkward::surprised:
  • edited 7:36AM
    ihc:
    middigit:it is a way of pushing and trying to get more people to use public transport but then again they need to radically improve public transport systems to make them more reliable before people would do that out of choice
    arrgh that oft offered trite response makes my blood boil - have you become our next resident daily mail reader madge?
    i don't read the papers ihc :) just speaking my mind ;)
  • edited 7:36AM
    i signed it, i couldent bare with big brother watching my speed
  • edited February 2007
    Got my copy of the mass mail shot from his Tonyness this morning, and it said pretty much what I expected it to. "Reducing congestion will solve all of the worlds problems, blah, blah, blah" , which is kind of similar to the governments recent statements of "Compulsory ID cards will solve all of the worlds problems, blah, blah, blah", and "Detaining people indefinitely with no evidence of any crime will solve all the worlds problems, blah, blah, blah"

    Tony and his cronies seem to suffer from a major case of what I call "Magic Button Syndrome" where they spout dictates from on high without really using what little common sense they posess, and expect some poor sod somewhere to find a big magic button to press that will solve all their problems.

    I do however have complete faith in the fact that whatever solution the government (whomever it may be) finally arrives at regarding the issue of transportation infrastructure (constantly whining about congestion is just avoiding the real issues), will be ill thought out, massively expensive and will only benefit those who are raking in the profits from running it.
  • edited February 2007
    gosh, he started a sentence using "but", then a couple of words later he uses a colon followed by a lowercase letter! didn't he go to stage public school? he should know better :)

    anyway... wtf is this?

    tony says: I know many people's biggest worry about road pricing is that it will be a "stealth tax" on motorists. It won't. Road pricing is about tackling congestion.

    so, it isn't a stealth tax? ...yet we don't know how much it will cost us until we get an invoice at the end of the month (or our journey). it's about tackling congestion? what makes you think that it will do that? increasing duty on fuel prices did not work, what is different about this?

    i see myself agreeing with peter roberts' views (he created the petition) -
    peter roberts' views, from the petition website
    ...Before we even consider this massive, complex and hugely expensive road pricing system, we should offer a comprehensive network of free school buses, staggered school opening times, decent park & ride schemes, tax breaks for people working from home and encourage commercial vehicle movements outside peak journey times.
  • edited 7:36AM
    got it, couldn't be arsed to read it - load of twaddle anyway prolly
  • ihcihc
    edited 7:36AM
    or use cars less
  • edited 7:36AM
    ihc:or use cars less
    erm, i think the point is that many people have little viable alternatives available to them at the moment, ihc.
  • ihcihc
    edited 7:36AM
    of course - for some

    for many - thats a matter of opinion
  • edited 7:36AM
    and for the "some", what do you suggest?
  • ihcihc
    edited February 2007
    eat it
  • edited 7:36AM
    /me sighs...
  • edited 7:36AM
    I'm dissapointed that tony didn't leave his email address so I could respond to his very kind email :happy:
  • ihcihc
    edited 7:36AM
    ihc:eat it
    chris:/me sighs...
    well to be frank thats why externality taxation exists
  • edited 7:36AM
    erm... what is why, frank?
  • edited February 2007
    BLAIR MUZZLES PETITIONERS' REPLY
    Anti-government message stifled despite promise of debate - pistonheads

    //edit

    ROAD CHARGING TO COST £300 A YEAR
    That's the cost but how much will you pay? - pistonheads again
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