Buying votes?
Page 9
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Confused? You will be! It's hard to understand how a government dedicated to reducing vehide emissions can justify cutting the cost of unleaded petrol—the most popular fuel of the private motorist—while leaving the price of other fuels needed by essential users so high. We can't help but agree with those that think this cut was just a political stunt to woo the voters.
And still the government protests that an essential user rebate is "unworkable". Unworkable? What about the 75% rebates already given to some passenger vehide operators —now likely to rise to 8o%?
Perhaps the real problem is that cheap public transport is seen as a good cause that will win votes, but encouraging more efficient, cheaper road haulage is seen as tantamount to increasing the number of dirty, smelly lorries on the roads—a real vote-loser among those with no idea how the UK economy works.
This bitter pill is made all the more indigestible by reports that the government might reconsider the fuel duty escalator. Presumably it's a clumsy attempt to persuade us that despite making it cheaper for people to go on "fun runs" in their cars, it still cares about the environment.
As CM goes to press we are still awaiting Gordon Brown's Budget statement, but we have little hope of an essential user rebate scheme for goods vehicles. Yes, we know it would be an effective way of giving hauliers the tax break they need if they are to compete realistically with their Continental counterparts. But when did logic sway a Chancellor in the final Budget before an election?
Whatever happens, the fight for a fair deal for hauliers goes on—and CM will be keeping up the pressure.