It's official or is it?
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It's official—partial flagging out is against European law. Or is it? While the EC has this week suggested that partial flagging out contravenes the EC cross-border hiring agreement, others maintain it is within the law. Meanwhile, the Department of Transport continues to sit on the fence and wait for the courts to rule on this issue.
But why has this argument been going on for months, leaving hauliers either dithering about aimlessly or taking the plunge with the risk of getting it wrong?
To keep an already hard-pressed industry in limbo this way is inexcusable. It's high time the issue was resolved. So why don't the VI or Customs & Excise simply take a test case to court? Could it possibly be for fear that they might lose, opening the floodgates for hundreds more companies to opt out of Britain's ludicrously high VED rates? That's a cynical view, perhaps. But what else satisfactorily explains their apparent unwillingness to prove their point and put flesh on the bones of their blusterings? Come on guys, try to prove us wrong, and let's see what the courts decide. At least then we'll all know where we stand.
• Place your bets! Will Gordon Brown comply with the FTA's request to use his pre-Budget statement in November to announce the end of the fuel duty escalator? While we wait to find out, CM wonders whatever happened to the protest movements that were so active earlier this year. The FTA continues to apply pressure via its media campaign but other groups have been conspicuous by their absence lately—just when the pressure needs to be kept up. What message will that send to Mr Brown?