Quote Originally Posted by Harrison View Post
And then we have the rise in car tax coming next year, so any car with a large engine is going to have to pay over £400 a year in car tax. It definitely isn't the answer to traffic congestion. You will just get even more people on the roads without tax or insurance than we already have (already estimated at over 10% of all cars).
The current car tax is a useless system when it comes to this environmental/congestion business because it doesn't take into account the fact that many performance cars are only used at the weekend. That's not to say I want to see PAYG road-pricing either because that system, aside from costing an absolute fortune to implement, allows the operator to track exactly where you're going (and as such see the regular trip you make to work, see which school you take your kids, see which gym you're a member of, see which sports team you support etc.) and also by timing the journey and and measuring distance it can work out your speed and bang, instant fine issued each time you exceed the limit.

The obvious answer would be to scrap the tax and add it onto the cost of fuel. I know this makes fuel even more expensive but at least it's fair depending on the miles you do and means you're not being tracked.

Saying that, I'm still quite sceptical about this whole environmental thing. There a lot of bad science being thrown about by people and people making tiny insignificant changes. There's a bloody great big ball of fire in the sky, that despite being some 90 million miles away that when it's visable makes it warm, and at night when it's not can make the temperature drop by 20 degrees C. A couple of degrees C change could easily be just the effect of the sun. That's not to say we shouldn't waste resources but when someone got all hung up over the fact I use shower gel instead of a more environmentally friendly plasticbottle-free soap bar as if I was single-handedly killing the planet, I do start to wonder what we're coming to.