Cars affect us all, particularly if you're living in more remote areas. And that's very common for farming folk.
A petition on No.10's website against road pricing - a Labour plan to deal with the fact that there are now some 7 million more cars on the road since it came to power - has received 1.8m signatures.
Top Gear's Richard Hammond tackles the PM in a podcast.
As a farming person who needs a car, I wonder if you think road pricing is fair. It certainly doesn't seem to be a system that can account for differing levels of need. It seems to me to be a one-size-doesn't-fit-all policy.
It's just another Labour tax to "invest" in solutions.
But listening to the podcast, sounds like the PM is back-pedalling to me. "The idea that you are going to come forward with some policy [without it going through an election process]...it's not going to happen like that," says the PM. "The idea is to engender a serious national debate about what the options are so that people can study them."
So when everyone says "no", you'll can the idea Tony?
Comments (1)
As a starting point pay per mile makes sense, particularly when the rate is higher in congested areas. It is also right that some account needs to be taken of need - commercial v pleasure v commuting which could use public transport instead. The alternative is one-size-fits-all rises in the cost of a tax disc - which takes little account of the pollution caused by the vehicle's use and no account of the congestion it causes. This debate has a logn way to go - farmers should get involved and have their say. What's the NFU's position?
Comment left on March 5, 2007 11:07 AM
Posted on March 5, 2007 11:07