7j0 by Janus onsultation Nas a charade
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'WHAT about tax, then?" asked vlaggie's brother Cromwell.
I tried evasion. "You mean the 11/ programme Brass Tacks?"I isked hopefully.
Cromwell shook his head. 'Only if you use 'brass' in the (orkshire sense. I remember you using extravagant
anguage to praise the )epartment of Transport's onsultation exercise on Vehicle Excise Duty — 'new era in .elations between Government end the industry', 'taxation basis ;learly explained', and much else. I take it that, since the 3udget totally ignored the -esults, you now agree with everyone else that it was a mere ;harade."
"I must confess that when I leard the Chancellor say that he Nas putting the tax down for ighter vehicles and up for the leavies I thought he had misread his script," I admitted. 'But on closer examination I can 3ee what he meant when he said t followed the Transport Minister's track costs study."
"It only followed it," replied L:romwell, "in the sense that the Budget came a few weeks after the DTp had falsely raised operators' hopes. It certainly didn't follow the logic of the study."
"Don't forget the tax reductions on lighter vehicles," I said. "It was only the heaviest vehicles which suffered." "Only!" thundered Cromwell. "Only! Isn't this just another example of the Government's unco-ordinated approach to increased vehicle weights? For what seemed years we saw David Howell's lugubrious face on TV telling us about the economic benefits which heavier vehicles would bring for hauliers and their customers. After waiting years for him to pluck up courage to put the legislation to Parliament we found that almost all the benefits were siphoned off in last year's Budget. And now this! All the benefits go to the Treasury."
"It could have been better handled," lagreed. "The trouble is this surcharge for environmental costs. Armitage said that if the Government was going to levy this it should fall on the heaviest vehicles, and that is what happened."
"Exactly!" said Cromwell. "The RHA accurately described the idea of such a surcharge as monstrous, and added that it would turn the industry into a milch cow for the Chancellor. That is precisely what has happened. The inquiry should have seen this danger sooner and fought it harder."
"Perhaps they were diverted by the down-licensing issue?"
Cromwell nodded. "I suspect the DTp of using down licensing to divert attention from their real intentions. The environmental element was only introduced into the discussion at the last minute. By then it was much too late to fight it."
I tried to change the subject. "What do you think about the controversy over the treatment of overloading? Are you for prosecution or prohibition?"
"Neither. I think that all the fuss diverts attention from the real issue. This is the difficulty for a driver to find out whether he is properly loaded. Nicholas Ridley and Lynda Chalker should devote more attention to that, instead of running scared before ignorant public opinion.
"The DTp must have spent hundreds of thousands on dynamic weighers which are Only used for a few hours a week, and then only for enforcement purposes. It ought to be possible for them to be made available for ordinary use during the rest of the week. I suppose that it suits the Minister to be able to sound off in public about 'overloaded juggernauts' rather than to do anything to help drivers and operators keep within the law."
I tried to divert Cromwell away from his bete noire, the DTp, towards another target. "What about the new EEC drivers' hours proposals?"
"Isn't that typical of the whole Common Market set-up?" he complained. "Prime Ministers and Presidents practically come to blows at the Summit, and put the whole Community in real danger of bankruptcy. And from this mountain of potential disaster suddenly emerges this piffling little mouse. It's like Nero fiddling while Rome burned."
"But you can't deny that the existing rules need improving. And since it is almost certain that the financial crisis will be solved this side of catastrophe it surely makes sense to get on with business as usual in other policy areas. After all, the Common Transport Policy has made little progress so far."
"Of course I'm in favour of sensible drivers' hours laws," said Cromwell. "But that is not the EEC's main transport problem at the moment. This year we have seen British meat lorries hi-jacked by French farmers, and later the Mont Blanc blockade.
"If lorry drivers are physically prevented from moving their vehicles what does it matter how many hours the law lets them drive? While anarchy can prevail on the roads it is futile to discuss whether a driver should be allowed eight or nine hours at the wheel."
But he wasn't going to let the DTp off the hook, and returned to his favourite target. "Isn't the handling of the Severn Bridge crisis absolutely typical of the way road transport is treated?" he demanded.
"For the last twenty years industry has been taking location and investment decisions on the reasonable assumption that access between both sides of the Bristol Channel would be assured. It has been obvious for at least five years that the present bridge has major problems. If action on a new crossing had been started then we would be somewhere near a solution by now.
"As it is the DTp is only now beginning to study the mere possibility of another crossing. It couldn't be built in less than another eight years. Meanwhile trade and industry must take into account at least the possibility that the present Bridge might have to be totally closed for a time, even if it doesn't actually fall down. Yet the DTp has the brass neck to continue to charge tolls!"
Except where the DTp and the EEC are concerned Cromwell is normally a cheerful chap. One way of lifting him from gloomy condemnation of the bureaucracy and all its works is to asks him what has pleased him recently. So I did. To my surprise he congratulated the EEC Commission.
"Their attitude towards removal of barriers, to international haulage has really encouraged me," he admitted. "Their wish to get rid of permits has almost converted me to being a supporter of the Common Market. Of course", he suddenly added, "it will never happen. But at least they don't issue consultation documents favouring one policy to hide the fact that they are preparing to do something totally different. Whereas your DTp friends ..."
I gave up.