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Let’s clean up the mess

17th November 2011
Page 2
Page 2, 17th November 2011 — Let’s clean up the mess
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

As Europe collapses around us (it’s the toughest hour since the war, according to German chancellor Angela Merkel, clearly confusing sovereign debt levels with invading Poland), it’s worth contemplating the mess politicians can cause, and how hauliers end up working harder to salvage themselves from the wreckage.

As I write this, MPs were set to debate the price of fuel in Parliament today. If I were taking the floor, I would say that the planned 3ppl rise in duty for next year is a tax on the economy itself. It is a tax on the movement of goods to build houses, it is a tax on manufacturing goods for export and it is a tax on job creation – nay, job protection – in the road transport industry. Let us hope the debating MPs get this point across.

MPs are also indirectly responsible for the Driver CPC (as it emanated from the EU). This week we discover that nearly half of Freight Transport Association members say they are going to miss the 2014 target to get drivers to complete their training. So, come 2014, the jobs market for drivers will have been distorted by politicians.

Finally, we remain restricted by the Working Time Directive – the biggest source of consternation for our readers who want to work harder to earn more money and stay in business. This, again, is your representatives curbing the way you make a living.

If MPs, MEPs or Technocrats want us to save them from this mess of their making, they need to take the brakes off and let hauliers do what they do best: make money. That will pay off the debt.

Christopher Walton


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