A Matter of Priorities

God have mercy on anyone coming between an Englishman and his Mondeo.

The British Prime Minister invents a pack of lies to excuse the invasion of a country which results in the murder of over one hundred thousand people and nothing happens.

The NHS and schools are being privatised through the back door and nothing happens.

The country’s future is being mortgaged with corporate loan sharks through PFI /PPP deals and nothing happens.

Greedy developers have been allowed to hijack the property market to such a great extent that millions of people cannot get on the property ladder without handouts from their family, friends or the government and nothing happens.

Yet, when the government proposes introducing road charges over 1.7 million people sign a petition against it. The British certainly know what is important in life.

Road charging is wrong. It is not wrong because “I’ve paid my taxes through fuel duty so I should be able to whatever I want with my car”. It is wrong because it is yet another regressive tax that have become very popular with governments in recent years.

It may seem fair that people pay based on usage but any system which ignores the ability of the user to pay is inherently unfair. The poll tax did this - everyone paid the same amount irrespective of whether they were a fat cat director of a FTSE company or a pensioner living on a miserly state pension. This was the fatal flaw which eventually led to the demise of the poll tax.

The congestion charge in central London has clearly shown the regressive nature of a road charging system which ignores the varied personal financial circumstances of drivers. The number of vehicles in central London has reduced by 30% and yet paradoxically congestion has actually increased. Why?

The 30% of cars that have been driven out of central London belong the poorest in society who cannot afford to pay £8 a day for the privilege of driving to work in order to make a living for themselves and their families. This, initially, resulted in a reduction in congestion. This in turn caused the rich, who can easily afford the congestion charge, to increase the use of their vehicles in central London. Previously they would have left their Mercs, BMWs and Jaguars at home and used the public transport to get to work. But now with all the riffraff off the streets they could get to work in the comfort of their Chelsea tractors. Hence the increase in congestion.

Cars aren’t a luxury - they are a necessity. Especially so since public transport, controlled as it is by the profiteering cartel of Arriva, First, National Express and Stage Coach, is abysmal. Road congestion is a real problem but the solution isn’t to price the poorest in society off the streets. The solution is to provide a convenient, comfortable, reliable and affordable alternative. This means bringing public transport back into public ownership. And it also means investing more money in public transport. Money raised by increase direct, income based taxes.