See Whats Hppening With Uk's Road Tax

[djc45]

please pass this on to as many as you can

If you have not already objected & wish to do so, please read below - re the government's proposed "pay as you go" mileage system.

Send to everyone you know, only one week left to act !!!!!

Subject: FW: ROAD TAX

If you drive a car, please read -

Sarah Kennedy was talking about this proposed car tax scheme on Radio 2. 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 and 750,000 signatures are required for the government to at least take any notice.

Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.

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.

If you are concerned about this Orwellian plan and want to stop the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible. Sign up if you value your freedom and democratic rights -

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax

And don't forget to acknowledge the government's return email when you get it or your objection will not be registered

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[billd766]

***kin *ell.

And people are complaining about the police taking a bribe for motoring offences.

For UK 1984 read 2007. BIG brother IS watching you there.

Coming soon on a Labour Party (the party of the working class) election manifesto ...... the THOUGHT police.

I am really glad I quit the UK years ago.

Edited for political correctness

but not for my thoughts (yet)

Edited February 14, 2007 by billd766

[djc45]

***kin *ell.

And people are complaining about the police taking a bribe for motoring offences.

For UK 1984 read 2007. BIG brother IS watching you there.

Coming soon on a Labour Party (the party of the working class) election manifesto ...... the THOUGHT police.

I am really glad I quit the UK years ago.

Edited for political correctness

but not for my thoughts (yet)

i was once told they could never tax you on sex but that might be the next step

[Crossy]

Done, thanks for the heads up. Looks like it's at about 1.4 million signatures now

I never really understood why they simply didn't add the tax onto fuel, bigger engine, higher mileage = pay more, simple! But I suppose we are talking government here.

[Casanundra]

I can see this going the same way as the Poll tax did with the tories.

This will be very unpopular and it will be interesting to see how many people 'actually' buy the tracking device to begin with. The DVLA has enough trouble getting a million or so people to drive legally and to update their records, let alone not paying for tax discs and insurance etc...

At the moment the UK does not have a centralised network of database information to allow government bodies to share information effectively and unless this device is linked to some sort of engine immobilsation system to disable your car for non compliance, as well as being linked into the CCTV number plate recognition system, and then link that to an automated speeding ticket traffic system as well as to a Police records system that connects everything up and down the country then I think it will be some time before they can make this work effectively.

When you add into this the provisions of the data protection act and the new fraud act of 2006 where it is now a criminal offence for a data controller to not inform you of information they are storing about you and to what purpose they will use that information then unless the government gets its act together (which I doubt) then I can see a lot of prosecutions being back lashed towards the government authorities for breaches of the DPA, not to mention what will happen in cases of ID theft and so on and on because with all of this data being centralised you can be sure they will become a target for hackers.

Let's assume that all the drivers of the UK protest and stay off the road, what will happen to productivity in the UK as people just decide to stay at home because they cannot afford to get to work anymore. The infrastructure for public transport is useless and expensive and that is unlikely to change for half a millenia at least and people don't want to spend two hours getting to work when a car can do it in 30 minutes.

UK madness and I will be surprised if this 'really' happens and if it does, that it will stick long time as people will just not comply. Another poll tax fiasco I tell you.

Edited February 14, 2007 by Casanundra

[PhilHarries]

***kin *ell.

And people are complaining about the police taking a bribe for motoring offences.

For UK 1984 read 2007. BIG brother IS watching you there.

Coming soon on a Labour Party (the party of the working class) election manifesto ...... the THOUGHT police.

I am really glad I quit the UK years ago.

Edited for political correctness

but not for my thoughts (yet)

i was once told they could never tax you on sex but that might be the next step

The government don't need to tax us on sex, the missus/gf does that aready.

Seen this a couple of weeks back. Even though I don't ever intend to drive again in the UK I signed up to the petition. Total count was 650,000+ and I seem to remember a cutoff date of 20th Feb.

PS the Labour party cannot be referred to any longer as representing the working class as there is no such thing, in the old sense of the term, in the UK any more. Somebody told me this morning that he read in the newspaper, I haven't had a chance to verify it yet, that 2 out of 3 people in the UK are on benefits of some kind.

The working man. RIP

[djc45]

I can see this going the same way as the Poll tax did with the tories.

This will be very unpopular and it will be interesting to see how many people 'actually' buy the tracking device to begin with. The DVLA has enough trouble getting a million or so people to drive legally and to update their records, let alone not paying for tax discs and insurance etc...

At the moment the UK does not have a centralised network of database information to allow government bodies to share information effectively and unless this device is linked to some sort of engine immobilsation system to disable your car for non compliance, as well as being linked into the CCTV number plate recognition system, and then link that to an automated speeding ticket traffic system as well as to a Police records system that connects everything up and down the country then I think it will be some time before they can make this work effectively.

When you add into this the provisions of the data protection act and the new fraud act of 2006 where it is now a criminal offence for a data controller to not inform you of information they are storing about you and to what purpose they will use that information then unless the government gets its act together (which I doubt) then I can see a lot of prosecutions being back lashed towards the government authorities for breaches of the DPA, not to mention what will happen in cases of ID theft and so on and on because with all of this data being centralised you can be sure they will become a target for hackers.

Let's assume that all the drivers of the UK protest and stay off the road, what will happen to productivity in the UK as people just decide to stay at home because they cannot afford to get to work anymore. The infrastructure for public transport is useless and expensive and that is unlikely to change for half a millenia at least and people don't want to spend two hours getting to work when a car can do it in 30 minutes.

UK madness and I will be surprised if this 'really' happens and if it does, that it will stick long time as people will just not comply. Another poll tax fiasco I tell you.

In the uk now the police can find out automatically with the onboard vehicle recognition camera fitted to most police cars if you have tax, m.o.t and insurance and you are sent an automatic fine through the post.

if you haven’t sent a s.o.r.n to state your car is off the road they send you a fine also

they also have the power to crush your car if they catch you using it illegally

I am not so sure they will not implement this new tax as I doubt if uk residents have the balls to protest any more

Remember the flop with the fuel price protest by the truckers?

[djc45]

***kin *ell.

And people are complaining about the police taking a bribe for motoring offences.

For UK 1984 read 2007. BIG brother IS watching you there.

Coming soon on a Labour Party (the party of the working class) election manifesto ...... the THOUGHT police.

I am really glad I quit the UK years ago.

Edited for political correctness

but not for my thoughts (yet)

i was once told they could never tax you on sex but that might be the next step

The government don't need to tax us on sex, the missus/gf does that aready.

Seen this a couple of weeks back. Even though I don't ever intend to drive again in the UK I signed up to the petition. Total count was 650,000+ and I seem to remember a cutoff date of 20th Feb.

PS the Labour party cannot be referred to any longer as representing the working class as there is no such thing, in the old sense of the term, in the UK any more. Somebody told me this morning that he read in the newspaper, I haven't had a chance to verify it yet, that 2 out of 3 people in the UK are on benefits of some kind.

The working man. RIP

thanks for the post hope many read this as i bet there is more of this on its way from labour party

not many can afford to work in the uk all the wages go out on stelth tax

Edited February 14, 2007 by djc45

[Jim's_a_Thai_Fox]

Thanks for the info, I've sent the link to over a hundred friends and family back in blighty.

I share the posters' concerns about the direction our government is taking...

It's time we emulated our cousins from across 'La Manche'... we should all come to together to simply and categorically say: "MERDE"

(the French stick by their guns when it comes to their government doing a sly one - for example, in a display of unthinkable unlawfulness (to us silent suffering Brits), the entire country refused to pay fines that were introduced on the French roads/autoroutes... the result, massive backlog of fines and the system collapsed. TRES BIEN).

[Penkoprod]

The British Government have already stated 2 things about this online poll

1) they will take no notice of it and press on with their plans regardless

2) they have called the person or persons who dreamt up the concept of these online polls "prats"

Draw your own conclusions !!!!!

With regard to any protests against it, poll tax wise........that will NEVER happen, IMO

The people targetted for this stealth tax arent of the type to protest

They will just moan about it and pay up..........as always (sad to say)

Penkoprod

[spot]

I've signed it and passed it on to others.

The petition seems to have far more signatures than any others, hopefully it's taken notice of.

At least the UK has somewhere to register your free thinking displeasure, unlike some other places....hmm?

Further down the list is a petition to replace the UK national anthem with 'Gold' by Spandau Ballet....

[goldfish]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Time to flog that R1 and buy a lovely little C90

[Crossy]

The response from 'Tony Blair' (more likely a Sir Humphrey workalike).

I assume all who signed the petition will have received this, posted here for the edification of those who didn't (or couldn't because they're not Brits).

Comments anyone?

The e-petition asking the Prime Minister to "Scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy" has now closed. This is a response from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

Thank you for taking the time to register your views about road pricing on the Downing Street website.

This petition was posted shortly before we published the Eddington Study, an independent review of Britain's transport network. This study set out long-term challenges and options for our transport network.

It made clear that congestion is a major problem to which there is no easy answer. One aspect of the study was highlighting how road pricing could provide a solution to these problems and that advances in technology put these plans within our reach. Of course it would be ten years or more before any national scheme was technologically, never mind politically, feasible.

That is the backdrop to this issue. As my response makes clear, this is not about imposing "stealth taxes" or introducing "Big Brother" surveillance. This is a complex subject, which cannot be resolved without a thorough investigation of all the options, combined with a full and frank debate about the choices we face at a local and national level. That's why I hope this detailed response will address your concerns and set out how we intend to take this issue forward. I see this email as the beginning, not the end of the debate, and the links below provide an opportunity for you to take it further.

But let me be clear straight away: we have not made any decision about national road pricing. Indeed we are simply not yet in a position to do so. We are, for now, working with some local authorities that are interested in establishing local schemes to help address local congestion problems. Pricing is not being forced on any area, but any schemes would teach us more about how road pricing would work and inform decisions on a national scheme. And funds raised from these local schemes will be used to improve transport in those areas.

One thing I suspect we can all agree is that congestion is bad. It's bad for business because it disrupts the delivery of goods and services. It affects people's quality of life. And it is bad for the environment. That is why tackling congestion is a key priority for any Government.

Congestion is predicted to increase by 25% by 2015. This is being driven by economic prosperity. There are 6 million more vehicles on the road now than in 1997, and predictions are that this trend will continue.

Part of the solution is to improve public transport, and to make the most of the existing road network. We have more than doubled investment since 1997, spending ฃ2.5 billion this year on buses and over ฃ4 billion on trains - helping to explain why more people are using them than for decades. And we're committed to sustaining this investment, with over ฃ140 billion of investment planned between now and 2015. We're also putting a great deal of effort into improving traffic flows - for example, over 1000 Highways Agency Traffic Officers now help to keep motorway traffic moving.

But all the evidence shows that improving public transport and tackling traffic bottlenecks will not by themselves prevent congestion getting worse. So we have a difficult choice to make about how we tackle the expected increase in congestion. This is a challenge that all political leaders have to face up to, and not just in the UK. For example, road pricing schemes are already in operation in Italy, Norway and Singapore, and others, such as the Netherlands, are developing schemes. Towns and cities across the world are looking at road pricing as a means of addressing congestion.

One option would be to allow congestion to grow unchecked. Given the forecast growth in traffic, doing nothing would mean that journeys within and between cities would take longer, and be less reliable. I think that would be bad for businesses, individuals and the environment. And the costs on us all will be real - congestion could cost an extra ฃ22 billion in wasted time in England by 2025, of which ฃ10-12 billion would be the direct cost on businesses.

A second option would be to try to build our way out of congestion. We could, of course, add new lanes to our motorways, widen roads in our congested city centres, and build new routes across the countryside. Certainly in some places new capacity will be part of the story. That is why we are widening the M25, M1 and M62. But I think people agree that we cannot simply build more and more roads, particularly when the evidence suggests that traffic quickly grows to fill any new capacity.

Tackling congestion in this way would also be extremely costly, requiring substantial sums to be diverted from other services such as education and health, or increases in taxes. If I tell you that one mile of new motorway costs as much as ฃ30m, you'll have an idea of the sums this approach would entail.

That is why I believe that at least we need to explore the contribution road pricing can make to tackling congestion. It would not be in anyone's interests, especially those of motorists, to slam the door shut on road pricing without exploring it further.

It has been calculated that a national scheme - as part of a wider package of measures - could cut congestion significantly through small changes in our overall travel patterns. But any technology used would have to give definite guarantees about privacy being protected - as it should be. Existing technologies, such as mobile phones and pay-as-you-drive insurance schemes, may well be able to play a role here, by ensuring that the Government doesn't hold information about where vehicles have been. But there may also be opportunities presented by developments in new technology. Just as new medical technology is changing the NHS, so there will be changes in the transport sector. Our aim is to relieve traffic jams, not create a "Big Brother" society.

I know many people's biggest worry about road pricing is that it will be a "stealth tax" on motorists. It won't. Road pricing is about tackling congestion.

Clearly if we decided to move towards a system of national road pricing, there could be a case for moving away from the current system of motoring taxation. This could mean that those who use their car less, or can travel at less congested times, in less congested areas, for example in rural areas, would benefit from lower motoring costs overall. Those who travel longer distances at peak times and in more congested areas would pay more. But those are decisions for the future. At this stage, when no firm decision has been taken as to whether we will move towards a national scheme, stories about possible costs are simply not credible, since they depend on so many variables yet to be investigated, never mind decided.

Before we take any decisions about a national pricing scheme, we know that we have to have a system that works. A system that respects our privacy as individuals. A system that is fair. I fully accept that we don't have all the answers yet. That is why we are not rushing headlong into a national road pricing scheme. Before we take any decisions there would be further consultations. The public will, of course, have their say, as will Parliament.

We want to continue this debate, so that we can build a consensus around the best way to reduce congestion, protect the environment and support our businesses. If you want to find out more, please visit the attached links to more detailed information, and which also give opportunities to engage in further debate.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Blair