"Andrew Dyke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >I thought that as this will affect most of you it may be of interest.
It is. It turns out that possibly the only way to get a low price for diesel for boating in future is to get the Chancellor to get rid of (most of the) fuel duty imposed on diesel for road use, and to replace it with road pricing. So, all boaters should be lobbying hard in favour of road pricing. Certainly they should not be signing petitions to oppose it. >Sarah Kennedy was on about this proposed car tax scheme on the radio, >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 so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them >introducing it. > >Democracy in action? 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. AIUI, it is intended that the revenue from road pricing will be matched by a decrease in road fuel duty, so the measure will be revenue neutral (i.e. not a tax increase). Also, there are technically-feasible ways to implement road pricing that do not involve the tracking of individuals. In other words, this petition can be described by a word which begins with "c", ends in "p", and has the name of a sun god in the middle. Adrian Adrian Stott 07956-299966
