Road Tax

The government is proposing a new plan to collect road tax revenue. They plan to make drivers pay as they go. I read this yesterday on the BBC website. I don't have a problem with the concept. It's an idea that has been kicked around for years. It's good for the average driver because it means that the people who do millions of miles a year pay more. It would also mean that people who bring cars from the continent would be liable. Currently they are exempt from purchasing road tax. Successive governments have talked about this but always failed to implement anything. One of the reasons is that drivers currently generate considereably more tax revenue than is spent on roads, and governements are reluctant to meddle with a good earner.

This new proposed scheme differs from all previous ideas quite significantly however. Up until now the idea has been to scrap the licence duty payable on each vehicle, and simply increase the price of fuel to cover the cost. This new scheme intends to install a satellite tracking device in every car and monitor where they have been. They can then be billed for the milage. It is proposed that rural areas get charged a very low rate (2p per mile), while urban rates could be as high as GBP 1.34.

Is anybody else thinking sledgehammers and nuts here? Lets assume the cost for setting up the system comes out at 200 pounds per vehicle. I think that's a fairly low estimate considering development costs and then the hardware involved. There would also be an ongoing administrative cost of course, but let's ignore that for now. Where is this money going to come from? Is each driver going to have to pay this cost personally?

What bothers me more than the ridiculouos complexity and cost of the scheme is the fact that it's just another attempt, like the id card scheme, of keeping tabs on everybody. What is this government obsession with creating an Orwellian state? I bet this plan won't even get off the ground, but it worries me that the goverenment think it has a chance.

Thanks to Mr CatV for the heads up on this. I had already seen it by the time I read the note, but it's a sign that people are recognising my objection to authoritarian principals.

Jack Straw is expected to tell MPs today that the plan for a UK referendum in the Spring will be shelved. Well that's a huge surprise to everyone isn't it. They're still trying to tell us that there could be a referendum in the future of course. I'm quite pleased at how many MPs are declaring the EU constitution dead. I had an idea that the constitution would probably go ahead in some disguised form. It still might. But I tihnk it's encouraging to see even Ken Clarke seemingly resigned to the fact that it's just not going to happen. Or he might just be relieved, as is Mr Blair no doubt, that a UK referendum doesn't now have to go ahead.

I ran three km at the weekend. It gets a little further each time. I did stop after two km though. It's kind of embarrassing to actually feel good about running such a piffling distance. I used to be able to run 10 km. What happened to me? Actually I know what happened to me, beer and tobacco, driving licence. It should be easy to get back where I was. I drink very little these days, haven't smoked in about 3 years, and I don't drive in the city because I don't have a licence here. Must be some other factor I'm missing.