BLOOD FROM A STONE
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pen University Course in Fiscal Comprehension and Advanced Metaphysics; Exercise 1. Take a stone the size of a cricket ball. Place in palm of right hand. Squeeze firmly for 10 minutes. Note results. You don't have to be a member of Mensa to know that you won't get any blood out of it. Sadly, the Treasury's men in grey suits don't seem to have got the message. If Kenneth Clarke slaps 9p on a gallon of diesel—and it could well be more—then something will have to give. On the face of it this could be just what the road haulage industry needs: let a tough fuel tax sort out the current over-capacity once and for all; clearing out the economically inept and leaving the financially fit. But it wouldn't happen that way. For every operator who goes bust there are 10 bright-eyed hopefuls queueing up to step into his place. The trouble with the planned hike in diesel is that road hauliers are being clobbered for the sins of others. Look at the statistics: 430,000 goods vehicles and over 21 million cars. Spot the biggest polluter. It would take a brave Transport Secretary to tell the nation's car users that they can no longer travel where they like, when they like. But if traffic volumes continue to increase that day will come, and sooner rather than later. We all want to reduce air pollution but, at the risk of being cynical, wouldn't a major rise in diesel duty allow the Chancellor to make vote winning tax cuts nearer the next general election?
As for Transport Secretary Dr Brian Mawhinney's plans to "blitz" city centres to take the worst polluters off the road, well bang goes a large slice of Britain's bus fleet (see opposite). Stand on any street corner in any major city and see where the black smoke's coming from. If the Government is serious about cutting air pollution, at least from goods vehicles, it must realise that by raising running ' costs it only encourages operaAN 0 tors to keep older, less efficient 41■,-, and more polluting vehicles longer. Now's the time to offer grants to buy cleaner Euro-2 engines well ahead of the legislation deadline. if the DOT is as Green as it says, let's see some of the folding kind.