unclebuck

As a delighted 'black box' salesman boasted of the accuracy of his sat nav trackers Radio 4's PM programme conducted some trials based of 34p per mile charges.

These included a school run mother, a commuter and a van driver. Charges they were invoiced with ranged from £60 to £180 per week. School run mother was completely stunned. The commuter said it wasn't too bad as the company (he assumed) would bear some of the cost and the van driver said he would simply pass the costs on to his customers. All of them just seemed to accept that this was the future but as usual were just resigned to it becoming law.


So there you have it. No resistance, no talk of revolt, just an apparent blithe apathetic acceptance that these taxes are an inevitable part of future of motoring and the usual 'I'm alright jack' attitude that somehow they would be able to dodge paying.


The Government must be rubbing it's hands with glee at the prospect of all that money they will be extracting from the economy under the guise of 'saving the planet' and 'cutting congestion' and the complete lack of resistance it is going have implementing road charging nationwide.


If you have a chance have a listen online to Friday's PM – it's in the second half somewhere and makes truly frightening listening.

powerman1

cant judge anything on three handpicked indivuals,once reality kicks in then well see

unclebuck

Once it 'kicks in it' will be game over for all of us. Time to cement those plans to get the hell out of this country.

KiwiGTI

You can see it happening easily. If commuters on trains can afford £300+ a month for season tickets then why can't the average car driv er pay the same. That's they way they think.

Tam the bam

Too true...

How long before we get barcodes tattoo'd on our arms??

powerman1

fuel blockades comes to mind when fuel prices were increased

unclebuck

I think the commuter was about £90 per week in charges. Don't forget to add parking, fuel, road tax, insurance, monthly repayments on the car and depreciation. That would work out at a hell of a lot more than £300 a month - thats probably the cost before the £360 road charge on top.

Deviate

If youve done nothing worng then you have nothing to fear! I favour a chip in my neck (rather like my dog has); then the forces of social control can just scan me when ever they choose.....

FlightMan

I spend £20 on insurance, £60 on petrol, £9 for road tax, and allow £15 for servicing etc. That's £104 per month, work and pleasure driving.
Even at 40 per mile, my monthly commute bill becomes £320, and that doesnt include the petrol. At £1.34 per mile ( I'm M3 J4 to M25 J14 ) its £1072!!
If this happens I'll emigrate, I swear to God. The alternative is to jack my job in and scrounge off the state, and I'm f@ked if I'm doing that.
This country is heading for a revolution.

Jonno_johnson

Well this country jsut rolls over and takes it now, and if you speak up agasint it, there is always a bunch of jobsworth tree hugging ****s ready to shoot you down.

robby

Don't forget most people have a loan/ finance on their car so you could add an average of £200 a month on top of the figures

Brit_in_Japan

If I had chosen to drive to/from work each day when I lived in Japan I would have had to pay a 750 yen expressway toll each way. That works out at roughly 35 quid a week or 140 quid a month. Instead I used the train which worked out at just over half that. If the public transport system had the required investment and infrastructure to offer attractive alternatives, then you pays your money and you takes your choice. But if they simply introduce road pricing and force the price up for everyone, there'll be trouble ahead.

I don't like the thought of road pricing, but it's more for civil liberties reasons than just cash reasons.

mykp

Know what you mean, when I lived in Akashi I used to communte to Osaka as it was quicker and cheaper than driving, the result was my car did just 3800 miles in a year.

I wouldnt even dream of getting on the train here as the last three times I've been down to London on Virgin its either late, full and no where to sit, or it broke down (more like stopped) at watford and we had to wait for the next one which was full.

If the goverment want to charge us for the mileage we do each year then they need to reduce the tax on all fuels, especially low emmisions fuels as well as road tax. If they continue to bend the motorist over a barrel and bone us into extinction then the country will just implode.

Goods wont get transported, people wont be able to afford to drive to work and for all those saying they should use public transport, public transport cant cope already, how many of you have to stand up on the train or bus (will they be taxed as well) because they're over loaded.

However I digress, as I think any government who does bring this in will be commiting political suicide.

Ben v7

To be honest I am starting to feel this way.

Just becoming more and more unattractive here on an almost weekly basis. The only people who seem to be doing better out of all this are those at the bottom end of the scale. What's the point of me working hard in the UK now, contributing to the economy, when any attempt to enjoy my earnings will result in paying well over the odds in taxation for the priviledge.

It's like this higher tax's nonsense for uneconomic vehicles... your already paying more tax anyway precisely because you use more petrol!

Just another sign that Gordon Brown's 'wonder' economy is starting to crumble... and I'm not really prepared to pay through the nose propping it up along with all the rest of this governments actions.

The best way I can show my lack of support is to pack up and go somewhere else... contribute to a different economy and pay taxation to a different government.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Once it kicks in it's too late

The only way the Poll Tax was kicked out was because it was replaced by something else.

Once Labour start to get a tax out of us, they WON'T back down and stop taking it, you mark my words

As an example, other European governments LOWERED their cut of the tax on fuel when it went over £1.00 a litre here, to keep the price the same as before. Did Labour even consider it? And they WERE asked.

Alcazar

Leslie

I think it is worth remembering that the Labour party has always hated the personal freedom that having a car provides to the electorate, so it is not surprising that they will take great glee in imposing these restrictive practices as well as jumping for joy over the extra money that they will be able to **** against the wall in their usual PC Plonker style

Les.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Whilst in no way supporting road pricing I look forward to the day when it drives all you whining fascisti out of the country and we can have some peace and quiet

Its a democracy. Put up or shut up or shove off!

Rannoch

StickyMicky

you promised us last time that you would leave

Trout

iTrader: (1)

To whoever negative repped me for this post at least have the courage or the conviction to give a reason. I assume it was from one of the whingers.

Luan Pra bang

Surely over all its a good thing. At the moment the traffic situation is a joke so why not make it impossible for the less well off members of society to have a car ?

FlightMan

Well, one reason is the less well off members of society wont be able to afford to travel to work. They'll loose their jobs. And you'll end up paying more tax to support them.

KiwiGTI

Don't forget that the lower paid members of society are often the most important. Police, Nurses, Paramedics, Firemen, Teachers etc.

FlightMan

The problem with that is that it will cost the Govt money, and wont raise any extra tax. It would work, but for those 2 reasons, will never happen.

Luan Pra bang

If the revenue raised was spent on a half decent, subsidised Public transport system I would hope it would make it easier for people to get to work. Also taxi drivers should be exempt as they could then afford to ferry people around without is costing the earth. I would also hope that these measures would only start out beeing applied in congested city areas where there is a transport system already in place.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I think I may just give the f*ckers my wages each money, save all the fannying about thinking of new ways to squeeze it out of me, would they be happy, no they would still want more on top.

PAYE = F*CKED !