Lib Dem's plans to tax motorists 640

JNugent

Actually , yes.

I genuinely believe that the LibDems were heading in the right direction a year or so back and would vote for them.

There is now a pretty widespread acceptance of environmental issues as something that needs to be addressed. Most people are happy with the idea of recycling (though the implementation is often flawed) and with rising energy costs , efficiency is now relevent. "The public" are actively trying to save money on their fuel bills to offset rising costs.

The LibDems sounded sincere on issues like that and were striking a good balance between carrot and stick by planning a moderate shift in taxation based around green issues. There was the potential to raise income from those who didn't care , and for those who made the effort to be better off - a good thing IMO. In addition , the 50p tax rate for very high earners was something that had a lot of support and could help to reduce the gap in available income between richer and poorer parts of society by using some of the extra revenue to help the lowest earners.

They also seem to have been very popular and successful in local government.

They weren't going to win the next election but I honestly believe that had they continued in their current vein , no party would have had an overall majority with all three being much closer together. They would have formed part of a coalition government and could have exercised real authority.

Now in the space of a year they have gone from having a likeable leader , have shown themselves to be untrustworthy by concealing their leader's unsuitability for office , and at the time when the conservatives are giving themselves a new young face , have brought in a far less likeable "old-guard" person with a silly name to be at the top of the tree.

He has shown himself to be totally insincere on "green" issues because he couldn't even be bothered to spend twenty or thirty quid on low energy bulbs to replace his existing ones - something that would have very quickly saved him money as well as wasted less energy.

Now to top it all you have a huge shift in taxation that is likely to leave a lot of people very much worse off with no real benefit for them as the nail in the coffin.

Think about the situation for a family on a relatively low income that have a car worth a couple of thousand. They suddenly face at least an extra thousand pounds a year in motoring costs. They can't afford that , and changing for a smaller car would be a non-starter. Their current vehicle will be effectively worthless overnight (would you buy a car that will cost you as much again each year in VED?) and the smaller alternative would be unaffordable. They either ditch the car or drive illegally. Better for the environment , yes , but on a global scale it's irrelevant as 10 chinese people are taking to the road for every car removed here , and incredibly unpopular. Are they going to vote for a party that would adversely affect their lifestyle to that extent? No.

-- Alex

Piece by piece the penguins have taken my sanity www.drzoidberg.co.uk www.ebayfaq.co.uk