Would just like to say that I dont necessarily agree with everything in my first post, I was merely playing devils advocate to open up discussion, and there are some very good points that have been made.
The point is that if the tax wasnt on fuel it would be on something else, and that is the most worrying thing.
I do however feel that the heaviest road users should pay the most, and tax on fuel is a farily efficient, but not fullproof way of doing this. Maybe there should be some subsidies for buses and taxis and other public transport, however I believe the government should subsidise rail travel for freight thus encouraging more use of the railways we already have. Lorries do use a lot of fuel, and are one of the heaviest types of vehicle and therefore probably the most responsible for damaging the major roads (ruts in the motorway etc), if more goods are moved by rail, with short lorry journeys at either end the cost will be the same if not cheaper for the manufacturers and therefore the consumers, and the government will save some money on repairing the roads which can be better spent on public transport.
The tax is too high, but fuel does need to be taxed. The whole system needs looking at, however fuel protests by the minority of road users (and you will be in the minority) will simply cause anger amongst the non protesting fuel users when they cant get any fuel. This is exactly what happened last time.
The only way to solve the problem is to vote in a goverment with a good transport policy, one which will put the freight on rails, provide better bus services and find a fair way to tax the road users according to how much the use them - unfortunately we dont seem to have a party that is in touch with reality. Rightly or wrongly we are going to have to lump it because fuel protests really wont make any difference.
Remember 5p on a litre of petol is only £3 a tank......
Sam
1997(P) 2.0 Sport S SWB - Running great but dented in a freak trailer incident :LOL:
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