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Original poster

Except it isn't in the news - government is trying to bury this

183 replies

Freckle · 05/02/2007 17:58

Was sent the email copied below. If you care about freedom and want to avoid more Big Brother heavy-handedness from this government, sign the petition.

Apparently there is only one month left to register your objection
to the 'Pay as you go' road tax.

The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell
anybody about it. Therefore at this time only 250,000 people had
signed it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them
introducing it.

Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full
address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send
you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll
have signed the petition.

Democracy in action?
The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you
having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a
monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200
and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28
for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working
mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one
month.

On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked.
Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know
how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep
over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of
Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.

If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website
(link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible.

petition
Hope you don't mind me sending it

OP posts:
foxinsocks · 05/02/2007 19:22

the whole transport policy is farcical - loads of people have very limited access to public transport.

It just reeks of 'improving public transport is too difficult so we'll just tax the hell out of road users anyway' sort of money making scheme.

I'm all for encouraging people to use public transport but think you need a bit of carrot and not just the stick.

And as for tracking people, those Oyster cards can track your journey right round London - although I didn't register in my name, I guess they could take the card number and find out exactly where you've been.

cazzybabs · 05/02/2007 19:24

OMG - I am amazed so many people are for this! I think it is good - we have to take the bull by the horns and try and root out stupid use of the car and this is one way!

BTW - I am not a car owner!

itsmeNDP · 05/02/2007 19:25
quadrophenia · 05/02/2007 19:25

no kidding cazzybabs

peanutbutterkid · 05/02/2007 19:25

This is the same government who can't get a computer system together to correctly track:

Child Support payments
Tax Credit payments
Other mean-tested Benefits
Pensions
Medical records

The list goes on and on. No way they will be able to track individuals' driving movements; they won't even be able to prove who was driving the vehicle.

I thought the only reliable way to implement this was a recorder in the car (like mileage gauge), except it would respond to roadside transmitters. It would note the mileage,AND time of day and congestion charges associated with that road at that time of day/day of week. This would just be added to a running tally; no individual journey info would be kept (well, maybe last 10 journeys or some small number). Then it would all be assessed at end of the year. Thre is just no way could the govt. filter through hundreds of millions of daily journeys to track our movements.

There is just no way it could be done with only GPS collecting all the data as it goes. 26 million cars in this country, doing an average of 2 journeys per day. On complicated road routes. Impossible to manage more than days' worth using the best of current technology, even in the super-data handling big brother foreseeable future not more than a week or so worth.

quadrophenia · 05/02/2007 19:27

and fior the record until very recently i wan't a car owner either I know it can be done, but I would see alot less of my family and do alot less with my kids both of which are important in my life, so feckin sue me, Oh yes the government are, they are taking me for every penny i fookin have and yes it pisses me right orf.

quadrophenia · 05/02/2007 19:28

and excatly how much money would that cost to implement?

SueW · 05/02/2007 19:28

I wish they would just scrap the annual road tax and tax only by usage, through fuel consumption.

And I absolutely don't agree with all this tracking of people, DNA databases, etc. But I've already ranted about that on mumsnet enough, I think.

Caligula · 05/02/2007 19:31

Is it possible to rant enough, SueW?

I think I've probably ranted about everything I feel strongly about, and I still haven't run out of rant. Hmmm.

fannyannie · 05/02/2007 19:31

I@m not in favour of charging I've afraid - DH simply CAN'T do his job without his car.......and if he was charged for mileage he would have to leave his job...or his company would foot the bill and then more than likely cut commission and bonuses which make up the bulk of people's income from them

PrincessPeaHead · 05/02/2007 19:35

I wish they would tax airline fuel before doing this.
But they won't. Because this will hit the poorest in the country (the rich will just sigh and pay) who can't kick up too much of a fuss and the airline fuel tax will hit colossal businesses and shareholders of them who DO kick up fusses, and will also have to be debated internationally which sounds Too Much Like Hard Work.

But it would be much more effective to cut emissions than penalising poor people in rural areas who live a 2 mile walk down a single track road with no pavements from the nearest bus that only goes 4x a day to their nearest small town with no rail station. As is the case where I live for example. Not that I care, because I can afford to pay

SueW · 05/02/2007 19:37

caligula, prob not!

I am just reading 'Road of Bones' by Anne Fine (having bought it for DD) and have just finished 'Number the Stars' by Lois Lowry. Prob not the best books for me to read since I am absolutely convinced this country is liked to be completely @£%*ed in the next 40-50 years. Everything needed to help a dictatorship rule supreme is being put into place.

Caligula · 05/02/2007 19:39

This reply has been deleted

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indiajane · 05/02/2007 19:39

Well whatever they decide, we can be sure that they will spend a few billion on systems, then a few more on putting it right and getting it to work. Then another party will come into power on the back of a manifesto that promises to scrap the whole thing anyway.

Or am I just cynical?

Caligula · 05/02/2007 19:40

Cross-posted with PPH. But exactly, your RH.

SpaceCadet · 05/02/2007 19:41

just out of curiousity, who will pay for the tracking device???..

quadrophenia · 05/02/2007 19:45

we will have to SC

Original poster
Freckle · 05/02/2007 19:46

And don't forget the knock on to the general public when transport is taxed. Haulage companies will pass that on to their clients who will in turn pass it on to their customers - us. So the companies who pollute the most doing the most mileage will not actually be affected that greatly because they can offset the charge all the way down the line so that the people who are actually paying it is us.

OP posts:
SpaceCadet · 05/02/2007 19:50

oh thats great..cos we all have 200 hundred odd quid to pay for a poxy tracking system dont we..

mytwopenceworth · 05/02/2007 19:52

and just out of interest, how many people who are so happy about this and are talking about using the public transport, live in cities where there's loads and how many live in the sticks where you walk for 20 minutes to a bus stop and the next one's due at 6.......... on Thursday!!

AND where you phone for a taxi and they tell you that you need to book it a week in advance and, no, they cant do that day/time next week anyway because they've got a booking!

IntergalacticWalrus · 05/02/2007 19:56

I've signed it.

If this comes in, that's my living down the swanee.

IntergalacticWalrus · 05/02/2007 19:58

Public transport is expensive here.

For example, it costs DP and I £5 return for us to get into Bath city centre on the bus.

It costs £2.70 for 4 hours in a city centre car prk (not for much longer though, as they are putting the prices up soon)

Hardly an incentive to use the bus.

SpaceCadet · 05/02/2007 20:01

i live in quite a rural area and could not rely on public transport, its a considerable distance to the primary school and playgroup and i have a disability which means i have to drive everywhere..i can barely afford to put petrol in the car as it is..i have signed this petition.

coppertop · 05/02/2007 20:03

It's £2.80 per adult for a return ticket on the bus here (2.5 miles away). There are no return fares for children and a single ticket is £1.20 for a 5yr-old. No guarantee of a seat either.

sockmonkey · 05/02/2007 20:05

I hate the idea of this. I live quite a way from my family, we have no money cos DH is unemployed at the moment. We have to scrape together to get petrol money for me to visit the folks every other month or so. We can't afford £200 to have ab tracker put in our car.

But as DBro said, the government can't even keep track of paedophiles and murderers, he says they have no chance of making this happen, it would involve too much organisation.

Fingers crossed that this is just another pie in the sky idea.