Protesters have until 20 February to add their name to the government’s online petition objecting to ill conceived plans to introduce
road charges.
There are more than 626,000 signatures to date, it is the biggest online poll set up by Shropshire man Peter Roberts.
However, I’m not entirely confident of it receiving the time of day from Transport Secretary Stephen Ladyman, having heard him say on the radio this morning that protesters have got their facts wrong.
He denied that drivers could be charged up to £1.34 a mile, that no amount had been decided, and said their whereabouts would not be tracked by the government. He insisted the plan was to get commuters off the road at peak times, that research had shown that 25% of motorists stuck in traffic jams had other choices.
He kept using the word “incentive” to describe his alternative road charging scheme as an attractive option, that commuters could adjust their working life and travel during less busy times.
This is a totally unrealistic theory, people have to arrive at work when their bosses tell them, and the British working day tends to be fixed around a 9am start. There is very little flexibility, surely this is where government should be focusing its attention if they want to reduce peak hour commuters. Could they enforce this kind of regulation on businesses? Of course not, so how can peak hour travellers be expected to go along with it, it is unworkable and unfair for those who have no choice.
In reality, there are no real alternatives, we certainly all pity the rail commuters who pay thousands of pounds for a season ticket and have to stand during peak times.
At the end of the day, our jobs are important, and with record numbers of homes being repossessed, people will work the hours they are told to keep their head above water – not when it best suits Stephen Ladyman.
I agree with you, Ellee. Very few people have flexibility in their work hours so why punish them for it?
In short Ellee, none. There is little room for democracy in the country.
Ladyboy is a Liar it is exactly their plan to track drivers and the only reason for any of this is that they have reached the limit of fuel duty for taxation.
Governments hate cars other than their own .Cars are freedom, and deep in their grubby souls they know their enemy .That is why every Town Coucil wants to turn their Town centre into an echoing soulless pedestrian theme Park and that is why drivers are treated alternately like cash cows and criminals.
HOW DARE HE use the word incentives when he means punishment, the cretin , HOW DARE they pretend this is a virtuous tax WHEN THEY ARE NOT REMOVING TAXES ON GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENT TO BALANCE THE EQUATION. IT IS JUST A TAX, YET ANOTHER.
Brown is bankrupt he has to cut expenditure or risk melt down and he has to raise revenues without being noticed. Look at the amount of stealth tax we pay now , its as large as income tax. Hiding taxes is the most pernicious lie you can tell and undermines the whole basis of government.
Imagine a product sold in a manner whereby most of the costs are in tiny print and you have no choice after the initial deal. Exactly the same story with so called Green taxes . Take aviation; they are pitched at exactly the level to make no difference but raise revenue while we are busy opening new airports .NEW AIRPORTS, joined up thinking ? Sadly, yes it is, its about the money.
We allow ourselves to be treated like foolish children and if we don`t do anything about it we deserve to be.
If they were building fast routes adjacent to the ones we have already bought , then maybe, maybe they could be run privately. This nothing of the sort .
This petition is not just about road pricing it is about speed camera cpz`s fuel duty green anti car rubbish and all the rest of the illiberal do as nanny tells you state crap aimed at the tax payer.
And you Ellee Seymour are playing into their hands by going along with this global apocalypse theory that just doesn`t add up but does require world governance and TAX TAX TAX When , and only when , I see tax breaks for green and virtuous behavious will I believe one dam word of the whole sorry steaming pile of Guano
( But I forgive you)
Newmania, I don’t have all the answers, but I believe very strongly that this proposal is unfair for all people who have to travel to work peak hours. What about those single working mothers that the govt wants to get back to work, will they be able to pick and choose their working hours?
My husband travels around 120 miles a day for work, this will really hit us hard too. He doesn’t have a choice about when he starts, he is in the retail trade and his hours are 9am – 5.30pm. What can he say to Ladyman?
Despite all those many signatures, the government will take absolutely no notice and do what they want to do.
This is likely to be NuLab’s Poll Tax.
(Mind you, so are ID cards, pension looting and trough snouting).
However, IF other taxes were reduced this would actually be an excellent way of progressive taxtion. It would tax those most who use the resource and would also be demand led.
We may not like it, but it would be progressive and help to reduce congestion by making people consider the impact of their actions.
On the other hand, we know this is a pathetic tax raising gmabit so I am dead against it. Also I fear it is yet another increase in state monitoring as the government would know everywhere you went in your car via satellite tracking. I don’t want our Big Brother state expanded further.
Why doesn’t the Government make schools start at 8am to get rid of the school run traffic that clogs the roads every school day!?!