Will the govt give up its nice little bit of auto-escalating tax income?

Brown can not afford to give anything away, he has squandered his earnings through the good years and now has his back to the wall not that there is a down turn. Local councils are being urged STRONGLY to sell any assets they have as the cash goes straight to the treasury.

Add to that his commitments to 2012, the extra billions to Europe, the extra billions to the trident replacement, the extra billions to the European defence force and now the (private money only) new Nuclear stations that I am sure will cost us deep.

More likely that he will raise income tax to 19% to match most of Europe.

Of course we can get pedantic and say ours or we get what we vote for... or dont in 60% of our cases or you could say that is what happens in a first past the post system.

There will of course be a paradigm shift in politics, but only after it is patently obvious that it is too late to pretend that its business as usual... or am I just being cynical?

Politicians are generally as bad as each other but I do think Brown has got a lot to answer for. He followed the Tory spending plans for 2 years when they got in and had a nice healthy surplus. Net government debt as a percentage of GDP plumeted to a low of 29%. Then, despite the economy being in good fettle, he plunged us into a series of ever worsening deficits and helped to stoke up the boom even more. A prudent Chancellor would have used that opportunity to finally do away with the national debt altogether and perhaps start putting some away towards our collosal unfunded public sector pension liabilities.

Right now we when we could do with some tax cuts to ease the pressure on people's pockets, he is faced with the worst public deficit in the G8 even after years of steady growth. That is a poor record. I'd have rather had another 10 years of the Tories. The public services weren't great but they aren't now and at least we would have been solvent.

I think they will cut fuel duty and raise the revenue some other way. People will not stand for it once they see that £1+ a litre at the pumps is here to stay. It might take a year or so, but nearer the election they will all be promising relief for the motorist. Lollipop economics...

Could tax benefits be available to those transporting and supplying food/goods to a local area? Difficult to administer of course but if a feasable way was found may encourage companies to stick to their territory (as such).

I agree though Biff petrol cant get cheaper as people are to easily using the car to "pop down the shops" when a two minute walk will do, also clogging up the streets of our and many other villages and towns! (Rant, rant, rant)

Maybe I am in that ideal world?

Posted By: Nickysells1Could tax benefits be available to those transporting and supplying food/goods to a local area? Difficult to administer of course but if a feasable way was found may encourage companies to stick to their territory (as such).

I agree though Biff petrol cant get cheaper as people are to easily using the car to "pop down the shops" when a two minute walk will do, also clogging up the streets of our and many other villages and towns! (Rant, rant, rant)

Maybe I am in that ideal world?

Hi Nicky

I think it is a horrendously complex issue.

How do you apply tax so that people do not squander fuel but at the same time people trying to earn an honest living can continue to do so.

How do we judge a "petrol head" who drives a high consumption old sports car but only once a month?

How do we get haulage onto trains where it belongs but in a manner that relies on people retiring rather than effectively cutting jobs.

Some people out there are plain lazy, ignorant or just dont give a damn - presumably thats the first place we feel instinctively we want to act but to accurately pinpoint where the effort is most effective and causes least damage to people we feel are actually acting responsibly seems very complicated to me.

I suppose somewhere in the controvesy there might be a hypothetical concept of an individual fuel allowance based on pleasure use, business use, family use and who knows what else but its only an attempt at defining some kind of measure of what would be considered justified needs as opposed to wasteful needs, some attempt to share a precious resource fairly and according to needs but I think such a plan is deeply flawed even if only conceptual.

Pity we cant rely on people to apply their own restraint - that would solve the complexity to a large degree.

I am with you in sentiment but what a complex issue to solve.

I certainly would not like to see fuel prices go down too much.

Suggestion: A compulsory - cost per mile indicator in the dash board of all new vehicles that cannot be turned off by the owner and which is updated with the latest fuel prices by an electronic radio signal at the petrol station. Allow people to be wasteful if they choose but arrange matters so that they can see their own pounds or euros go up in smoke each time they hit the gas aggresively. The technology is there and costs peanuts if designed in new models rather than retrofitted. I have a feeling that all of us tend to decieve ourselves a little. One of the biggest problems about energy is we dont see it being used and so we dont care.

I dont know if this works for anybody elses psychology but if you ever get the chance try getting on one of those cycles rigged up to a generator and see what power output you can sustain and for how long - most people struggle to produce 200 Watts for half an hour - thats three conventional light bulbs that you can keep
lit if you are pretty fit for 30 mins.

Then take a look at a fairly powerful family car on the motorway at speed - 200 KiloWatts !

You would need one thousand fit adults cycling pretty much flat out to sustain your driving !

In many ways its meaningless I know but all the same I find when I think like this it is easier to care about the energy I am using than when it is just the invisible power that sits behind every bit of technology I use.
I suppose in a way thats what I am trying to say about finding ways to ensure people using energy have an opportunity to be really aware of how much they are using and how much it costs them.

Jon

basically, people need to learn how to drive.

I drove to Troon and back this morning for work. 160 mile round trip, partly in rush-hour traffic.

I averaged 50.7mpg.

no it is not a little eco car. It is a 407 estate, with boot laden with stuff, with a 2l diesel engine.

the tosspots whizzing past at 95 probably arrived 10 minutes before me at 21mpg due to the traffic.

there is an interesting bunch in the US called hyper-milers. Was listening to a programme about them on the radio.
They have fuel economy to a fine art, and aim to achieve 100+mpg from fairly normal cars.

plan to do a little research.

How about reducing the national speed limit to 55 mph, including motorways.

I believe if "people" drove correctly we could all save 20% on fuel bills, ie the dolt who does 45 in a 60 causes you to overtake him then is tight up yer a**e in a thirty still wanting to do 45 because he is oblivious to whats going on! (Rant Rant, Sorry chaps whole new subject me thinks).

Well last night I did a reverse experiment. This time stuck to mostly 60mph. From Lichfield down to Camberley, with an odd bit of 70 when over taking lorries so as not to get in the way.

42 mpg from my car wich normally gets 28.5!

And driving was so stress free as I only had to over take 5 times in 2.5 hours. What was scary is seeing how fast everyone else seems when they're doing 80-90 and your only doing 60.

Might not be popular, but surely mandatory speed restrictors is better than higher taxes or speeding fines? Might make driving safer too. You could enforce 20 mph in urban areas. On Radio 4 on the way down co-incidentally they were talking about how no one seems bothered that over 3,000 people are killed every year, which is a lot more than the terrorists get, and yet we seem to accept it as inevitable. How about a switch to kmh as the same time so it doesn't sound as bad... 30kmh instead of 20 mph in town And 100 kmh on the motorway :-)