Fuel Price Increase

[Will]

Central heating, telephone, electricity...

All luxuries really - when does an accepted common item become a luxury or not? Just curious - honest!

I'd personally say that a luxury car is more of a luxury than a car itself - all cars can pretty much get people from A to B - where as some do it in more comfort/style/speed than others. Is a bicycle a luxury as surely you could just walk?

Really we could live on just food and water?

Will

 

[BonzoDog]

When I lived in Islington and worked in Paddington, it WAS a luxury.

Possibly though your move to the country was enabled by the fact that you could use a car. This has enabled many people to move to places a long way from work and now they claim the car is essential. A car is not essential to normal life.
I would suggest that as the car has been a catalyst in these moves, the realisation of the overall cost will serve as a catalyst to encourage people to live near their work.

 

[andy_k]

Central heating, telephone, electricity...

All luxuries really - when does an accepted common item become a luxury or not? Just curious - honest!

I'd personally say that a luxury car is more of a luxury than a car itself - all cars can pretty much get people from A to B - where as some do it in more comfort/style/speed than others. Is a bicycle a luxury as surely you could just walk?

Really we could live on just food and water?

Will

Agreed they are all luxuries and we pay tax accordingly (although it's reduced on electricity)

I have no issue with anyone enjoying their lives and having all these luxuries. What bothers me is the way they are treated as essential.

Very few people NEED any of these things, we just want them and they do make our lives a whole lot easier - unless of course you are talking about mobile phones which are just a nuisance

Andy

 

[DieselE]

May I suggest the film "An inconvenient truth - a global warning"?

Yes, I've seen it. The fact that the world is warming up is probably beyond dispute. You can probably say the same about the fact that both America and China are not doing enough to reduce emissions.

But, it is also true that the world has both warmed up and cooled down before. So whereas it is a current bandwagon that the latest warming cycle is all down to the profligacy of man, this is the area where there is room for doubt.

The point being made in the snippet I quoted was that 275 years ago the average temperatures in Britain in Autumn were higher than today. Pollution had very little to do with it then so why should we assume it is the sole cause today.

 

[DieselE]

People now throw stones at me and my beloved car, why didn't I get the CLS?
Oh that's right it would get absolutely ruined on the sites I go on, wouldn't be able to carry all my equipment, wouldn't seat all my family ( new sprog due in July so thats five, and to think I was so close to getting a CLSphew ) and wouldn't be so versatile.

Marcos the Leper

Five kids. Before you have to trade your ML in for an ex London Transport Routemaster, you might like to consider a personal modification. I can recommend the "black ball" club. The pain is very little and the discolouration wears off after a few days.

 

[marcos]

Five kids. Before you have to trade your ML in for an ex London Transport Routemaster, you might like to consider a personal modification. I can recommend the "black ball" club. The pain is very little and the discolouration wears off after a few days.

Sorry I meant five of us in total including me and the wife

 

[DieselE]

Another "You Couldn't Make It Up" News Story

If you were thinking of going totally green and trading your 4x4 in for an Ox Cart, think again. According to a United Nations report that has just been published, more greenhouse gases (methane and carbon dioxide) are emitted world wide by cows than all forms of transport.

You can now drive your 6.3 AMG ML with a clear conscience as long as it has cloth upholstery and you have given up beef and milk.

And scientists wonder why the general public become cynical about every "End of the World is Nigh" pronouncement.

 

[GregE240]

The sooner this shower of **** excuse for a Government are voted out, the better.

Christ, even Gordy is pillaging the Lottery Fund to pay for the Olympics. The Olympics? 4 weeks in London in 6 years time. Meanwhile our national heritage quietly rots away as we get further shafted in indirect taxation.

 

[kikkthecat]

What actually happened was

No-one likes taxation... Gordon Brown sees a problem

Everyone wants to be *green*.... Gordon Brown sees an opportunity.

And if you think all the extra money will be spent improving public transport or improving the environment have another guess.

 

[l5foye]

Politicians are like nappies. They need to be changed often and for the same reason. While increasing tax on fuel brings in more revenue, why can governments not work out that increased fuel costs puts up the price of virtually all goods, adds to inflation and makes the UK less competitive?

 

[Benzowner]

The sooner this shower of **** excuse for a Government are voted out, the better.

Christ, even Gordy is pillaging the Lottery Fund to pay for the Olympics. The Olympics? 4 weeks in London in 6 years time. Meanwhile our national heritage quietly rots away as we get further shafted in indirect taxation.

I take it Greg, you are a blue tory man, well, please remember, it was your lot who introduced the fuel escalator, which Gordon has stopped for the last couple of years, and even worse, it was your lot who increased VAT by nearly 17%, from 15 to 17.5% when you had to subsidise the poll tax. Politicians are all as bad to the other side whoever is in power, you cannot please all the people all the time, and remember stealth taxes are a direct result of reduced personal tax, also introduced by the Tories

No personal attack and written with a smile

 

[richard]

This whole anti-4x4 stuff, and the related tax increases are just the great british politics of jealousy ("green politics") .. 'I can't have one, so why should they' attitude rearing its ugly head again.

I had great pleasure in confusing someone who was have a discussion about big-engined cars the other day - they were talking on a subject they clearly had very little knowledge about - by the end of the conversation they knew that.

The discussion went something like this. SL55, thats really poluting, road tax should be £1000. My comment was something like 'well i've got a A180 diesel as-well' - answer was 'thats much better, thats why road tax is less on those'.
I pointed out he was talking utter crap, then went on to explain that the SL55 did 2500 miles per annum, the A180 did 18000, and the actual CO2 output in grammes in a given year was *far* more in the A180 than in the SL55.
I then told him that I therefore found it stupid that I should pay more for road-tax on the SL55, in fact if he was really green then he should campaign for road tax to be scrapped and an extra 10p put on fuel. Then all polluters would pay for the pollution they created.
His answer, thats a bad idea he'd have to pay more !

Anyway, that was my entertainment for a day

R

 

[nickg]

the country and world has a serious problem. big cars isn't it.
The problem is that the developed world has become too affluent for its own good.
We are so well off that our profligance has reached huge proportions. We waste huge quantitities of everything, because we have huge quantities of everything.
The only way that waste can be controlled is by raising prices/restricting supply.
If things cost more, people take more notice.
Unfortunately, increasing prices by raising tax means that the money raised goes straight to the biggest wasters of resource in this country - the government.
They waste unimaginable billions on non-managed public spending. They waste it because they have too much of it (see above).
So the real answer is not to go after easy target people with (relatively big) cars,but to start a long term process that leads to generally better management of all resources in this country.
And if this country votes for Brown, it is simply further cause for those of us who can look after ourselves to make even more sure that we do - because you can be damn sure that our govt gives not a toss about us.
(mind you, given that other options are useless as well, we are basically just b*ggered).

First off I want to see a tax on christmas trees - why cut down millions of trees just to plonk one in your lounge for a couple of weeks??
Put a tenner of tax on each one.
bah humbug

 

[kikkthecat]

the country and world has a serious problem. big cars isn't it.
The problem is that the developed world has become too affluent for its own good.
We are so well off that our profligance has reached huge proportions. We waste huge quantitities of everything, because we have huge quantities of everything.

Well said. We were discussing this over Sunday lunch last week and that turned out to be

Lamb from New Zealand

New potatoes from Egypt

Green beans from Kenya

The yorkshire puddings were probably made with eggs from Poland or France

And in the dessert were strawberries from Israel

The one saving grace was the carrots were from Lincolnshire.

How the hell is taxing the motorist even more going to deal with that little lot ? If you take every car off the streets of Bradford for a day, all the greenhouse gasses you dont emit are replaced by flying one crate of green beans in from Kenya and moving them by wagon to the supermarkets.

We need a radical rethink of our lifestyles but until it happens we'll just have to put up with whichever government is in power dipping ever deeper into our pockets

 

[Thmsshaun]

The thing is not matter how much most of us are taxed now I for one know that I am substantially better off than my Grandad was at my age and i am sure that almost everone on this site is in the same situation. Really we just dont know how good we have it now.

By the way I hate tax and subsidising the government as much as the rest of you.

 

[masqueraid]

You can now drive your 6.3 AMG ML with a clear conscience as long as it has cloth upholstery and you have given up beef and milk.

Surely if you have the leather upholstery this represents a net decrease in CO2 emissions ??!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Surely if you have the leather upholstery this represents a net decrease in CO2 emissions ??!

Deforrestation to provide wooden inserts on the dash offset the reduction in cow count.