http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/article3848818.ece

"Sir, If the Government is keen to reduce congestion and emissions it
should abolish road tax and VAT on motor vehicles and transfer the
same to fuel (report, April 30).

That would mimic congestion charging to an extent, encourage the
purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles and discourage use."

OK, I'm with you so far.

"In contrast, taxing large cars"

Um, the tax is not levied on large cars. The tax is on cars with
higher CO2 emissions.

" will bear on those who legitimately need a large vehicle. "

Erm, so would putting the tax on fuel instead (provided one
substitutes "non-economical" for "large"). So the author manages to
contradict himself in the same leter. The technical term for that is
"doing a Bollen".

"Probably this misguided policy is driven by the politics of envy
rather than anything else (the campaign against “Chelsea tractors” for
instance). In any event, the effect on emissions will be microscopic.

Brian Whitehead hotmail.com> wrote:

Well his point was not well made, but I for one don't see why someone
owning a vehicle with a large engine should be penalised for keeping
that vehicle on their drive. I used to have a six-litre vehicle that did
a few hundred miles a year, yet I had to pay the same VED as my
neighbour driving a 1.6 Cavalier 20-30k miles a year.

On 1 May, 23:11, %%ste...@malloc.co.uk (Steve Firth) wrote:

Excatly, like you say VED dosn't take in to account useage or the
owners overall carbon footprint. My house generates approx 1.5 tons
less than the national average in CO2 emmissions, so that writes off
the emmissions from me driving a big car. But the system doesn't work
like that, if my house put out more emmissions and I drove a smaller
car then I'd pay less tax, but the net result would be the same
ammount of CO2 emmissions!

Mind you, this letter is madness, petrol prices are far too high and
approx 80%% of it is already tax, so the last thing that should be done
is add yet more tax to it.

In article @y38g2000hsy.googlegroups.com>, says...

The good new is G.Brown has just been well and truly fucked over in the
council elections and the London Mayor election looks like it'll not be
going Livingstones way. Now is not a good time to be a Labour candidate
at any level.

Conor hotmail.com> gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

Newsflash... The current petrol prices aren't the fault of this
government.

Most other things are, but not the petrol prices.

Conor hotmail.com> wrote:

I'm laughing that Londoners apparently want to elect someone who is
dumber than George Bush to be mayor. Indeed a cartoon character who will
no doubt dream of "spiffing wheezes" that will make the lives of every
Londoner absolute hell.

I'm so looking forward to it.

In article registered.motzarella.org>,
toomany2cvs@gmail.com says...

So, the 80%% tax isn't the government's fault? ...

In article <1igc09x.1w5rpe71r04ntqN%%%%steve%%@malloc.co.uk>, %%steve%%
@malloc.co.uk says...

Oh, come one Steve. At least they'll have a buffoon who is amusing,
rather than one who is just, well, dumb.

Adrian gmail.com> wrote:

Errm well about 80p/litre *is* the fault of this government.