Fuel duty and road fund licences
This is my way of reminding them but they are so forgetful, it's more than likely they'll forget again. At least I will have tried, though.
I believe we should do what we can to protect the environment but I am appalled by the government's cynicism in raising revenue on environmental grounds and then not investing in its protection.
I retaxed my motorcycle yesterday. Last year it cost £62 - it's a BMW R100GS, the big trailie, an air-head not one of those new fangled oil heads. This year the reminder was for £64. Except it wasn't £64, it was £66. In some good-natured repartee with the lady in the post office, she pointed out a disclaimer stating that the price might change, well go up. No chance of a decrease.
"But," she said, "just be thankful you're not taxing a gas-guzzler. They went up far more than £2."
I wonder what the environmental justification is for increasing the road fund licence cost for motorcycles? Shouldn't they be encouraging the use of smaller road vehicles?
I don't believe any of this extra revenue will be spent on the environment despite anything the government says.
My next port of call was Liskeard railway station to buy my weekly season ticket for the forthcoming working week of commuting into Plymouth.
I suppose I might be called an enthusiastic user of public transport. With reduced numbers of trains (over the six years I've been going to work by train), increased fares and no obvious improvement in reliability I still prefer to use the train for a daily commute, even though I'm a car and bike nut.
I don't enjoy the regular drive into Plymouth with all the other half asleep lemmings. There are loads of those other sources of revenue, too - the Gatsos. And they're just the visible speed cameras. Quite often there's a traffic jam, though, and speed is only possible in short snatches of dual carriageway where it's a race to reach the next bottleneck.
On the train, I can read, talk to my fellow passengers or exercise my option to fall asleep on the return journey and wake up in Bodmin. I've only done it once, though. Try doing that behind the wheel of your rep-mobile. Then again, don't.
Since taking to the train in this way I enjoy my driving much more. I have become a leisure driver. I drive out of choice.
Although living in a rural area it's often the only viable option. We have an hourly bus service from Tremar into Liskeard and I have used it from time to time. But after having to come home in a taxi when the bus didn't show up one dark and stormy night I won't be doing it again when I have to actually get anywhere in a hurry. At least if I've driven to the station with my car, if the train doesn't show up I can continue my journey. Introducing two forms of public transport into a regular commute don't work.
Believe me. I tried it.
I want some sort of visible commitment to the environment, something tangible like a forest of trees - not greedy governments using it to make us feel bad all the time to squeeze more money out of us.
So I've signed the petition. Politicians work for us after all.
I think they want us to use our cars more often. Think about all the money they make and all the money they save by not investing in public transport.
If you follow the link above, have a look at the other petitions. I missed the deadline for one opposing restricted use on cars over 10 years old but they managed over 22,000. Needless to day, the government creams off lots of tax in new car sales. Environmentally this proposal is flawed because a vehicle's greatest energy and pollution impact is when it's made.
The best thing we can do is keep our well-maintained Vintage Things going. And that's exactly what I intend to do, as well as using public transport wherever possible.
I'm off to grow some more trees.
You won't catch the government doing that.
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