So What Gordon (is a mooron)

If you really could, you wouldn't feel the need to shout about it ;)

Sheer lunacy. Class war. Desperation. They can get away with it.

That's debatable.

Biofuel is being taxed at a normal rate; it actually costs MORE when produced as proper fuel, rather than just dumping vegetable oil into the car.

They're VIPs. They need protection. Of course, back in the Good Old Days, Politicians were respected, and didn't really fear for their lives when they walked on the streets. Now, I can't imagine anyone seeing Brown, Prescott or Blair passing up the opportunity to kick them in the bollocks.

But, don't worry about your silly 4x4. If you need it, you're going to have to pay for it, and if you don't need it, then you'll end up choosing something else if the costs bother you that much.

Of course, your approach makes me suspect you're the latter, and probably have a Pajero, or Warrior, or whatever the current 4x4 repmobile of choice is.

Richard

They aren't.

HTH.

cheers, clive

Yes I could buy a Micra.

But will it tow 2 tons on the tow bar,

I am not realy complaining, just having a giggle (and a wind up)

You see if they scrapped the road tax complete, and put it on fuel, then the people that used more would pay more.

Do you think it fair that I use my car every day, yet have to pay the same tax as poor old Gracie down the road who only uses hers once a fortnight to go to tesco's

Regards. Slim.

Well, you don't. She pays less tax, because she's using less fuel ;)

Road Fund Licence is just a load of bollocks. The roads are s*it, the amounts charged are actually quite trivial (yet net a significant income for the Government, of course) in terms of the overall running costs of a car. The primary reason for targeting higher polluting cars with an incremental increase is simply an assumption that the drivers will pay it; more to the point, the company car drivers who have tax on their windscreen included in their contract hires won't notice.

If people want to get angry about taxes, I'd rather see them getting angry about employer's contributions to NI (you think your NI contribution looks bad, IIRC it is matched or slightly bettered by what the employer pays - all part of the total cost of employing you, and therefore a tax on YOUR income) - and you get bugger all for it in terms of genuine social security. If you go private for healthcare and pensions, you still have to pay NI, and you really do have to go private unless you are healthy or loaded (of course, inheriting a 3 bedroom house in SE England will land you with a tax bill...). Anyone working who gets seriously ill is going to be out of work a lot longer if they rely on the NHS.

Road tax is annoying, but it is far from expensive overall.

Richard

(re nhs)

IME the NHS is rather good. They try very hard to keep me healthy - lots of preventative stuff.

Dunno if what I had counts as 'seriously ill'. 2 weeks off work, and it would have made no difference if it were private or NHS - if I had gone private I'd have had the same doctors. But I'm on injections several times a day for life, and there's no way I'll ever get sensibly priced health insurance cover. Which means going private for healthcare will probably never be an option.

cheers, clive

I've just started contracting.

I've just realised I have to pay both parts of it.

-- JackH

Oh yes they're all towing trailers aren't they ?

Putting the tax on fuel penalises those in rural areas who already pay over the odds for almost everything and I live in the city.

And the enormous damage they do is not confined to pollution. The town and estate streets these thing now dominate were never designed for these monsters and because the owner are so concerned about getting them scratched they are quite happy to destroy the pavements and verges making many areas look really derelict.

Personally I would have made it a £1000.

Andy

In message , snipped-for-privacy@tesco.net writes

Nice rant..... wrong newsgroup!

( snipped-for-privacy@tesco.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

They aren't.

They're introducing a newer top band of CO2-related VED, 225g/km upwards.

Personally, I think there's a strong case for another band from 300g/km upwards.

JackH ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

No, your employer still pays the employer's half.

It's just that you ARE now your employer, so get to see that they didn't employ you free before.

But then that would upset two jags, wouldn't it? :o)

He needs two cars, one for each buttock. :o)))

PDH

In message , Clive George writes

Imagine how much better still it would be if most of the extra money pumped into it hadn't been swallowed by wage increases.

One NHS trust is now laying off 1000 staff. It says that the service to patients will not be affected.

One has to ask, therefore, why they employed the 1000 staff in the first place...

The "4x4" stuff was a softening-up exercise. We all hate 4x4s/we all hate 4x4s/let's tax 4x4s/oh look a tax that hits even the Renault Clio. Hard to tax vehicles that are not always "gas guzzing" but just annoyingly taller than average. So he plays politics.

If there was - gasp - a principle involved, a sliding scale formula rather than rigid bands is needed. Might as well buy a new car doing

Still, hospitals are closing despite the extra taxes so he's not going to fool all the people for another 10 years is he?

Hey stupid s*it, couldn't you have just contributed to the other 50,000 threads?

Does your driving licence allow you to tow more than a 750kg trailer?

Blonde moment here, but don`t we already pay yet more sodding tax on fuel ?

If you do have private healthcare provided by your employer, you even get taxed on that.

an onimous ( snipped-for-privacy@clarky.freeserve.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Quite rightly.

It's a perk - a benefit - provided by your employer to avoid having to pay you cash which you pay tax on.

All cars on the sliding scale (banded maybe). All of them. For the three years prior to the first MOT then you get taxed at the emission level your car should be producing as per the manufacturer's tested level.

They already test emissions at MOT.

The MOT is now computerised.

A little sticker on the MOT Certificate and a note in the record of your CO2 test result. That places you in your VED band for the year. No extra work involved and you can tax all the older cars on the sliding scale too. A well maintained older car that is looked after and serviced properly should get a better result that the tired out thrashed to death Saxo that has been the plaything of a couple of 18 year olds who haven't changed the oil in 4 years.

Warwick