Martyn from the UK has a gripe. (And from the length of it, I would say the man is angry!)
For those who hail from shores other than the UK the London Congestion Charge is a levy applied to all cars entering central London during the day. The levy is currently set at £5 but is due shortly to increase to £8. It is collected by the GLC and is the brainchild of the Mayor of London Ken Livingston. The UK is a Country that promotes freedom of all sorts of things, including movement. Our passports still carry the legend that the British Government demand that it subjects are allowed to pass "without let or hindrance", although this is from an age when we could actually do something about it if anyone chose not to heed the warning. However, we now have a mayor obsessed with removing vehicles from the City of London regardless of the damage or cost to the industries that live there, and with let and hindrance.
We are told by our gracious Mayor that the congestion charge is to reduce the number of cars in London and the resulting pollution caused by them. The increase coming soon is to further reduce the volumes of traffic entering the City. But analysis of a not too deep nature reveals that any charge does not guarantee any reduction in traffic levels. Indeed if 50 million people decided to drive into London tomorrow the traffic levels would actually increase ! So what we are seeing is another form of sly taxation. Mayor Livingstone makes great claims to his socialist background which in this instance he appears to have forgotten. Of course any fixed rate of tax will always hit the poorest first. Indeed I am sure amongst the many top earners in London thee are some who will gladly pay a charge of £10 plus per day to get more poor people off of the road to make their journeys quicker.
If Ken wanted to reduce traffic flow he could implement a method that would guarantee reductions. For instance alternate days could be defined as Odd or Even days based on the number plate of the car. On an Odd day any car with an odd number on their registration would be banned from entering the City. Alternatively ban all single occupant cars or define days for colours of cars (a stupid suggestion that one - but you never know with this mob). These ideas would not create the huge income that the Congestion Tax generates but It's not about raising money is it Ken?
A further worry is that our increasingly authoritarian government has seen this as a great idea to raise more taxes whoops sorry to cut pollution and congestion all over the country. We must resist all attempts to do this as the inherent cancer that comes with these schemes are the cameras recording all of our journeys and when we made them. I refute the old adage it doesn't matter if you have nothing to hide. I ask the question would you trust a government that brought you the sexed up dossiers, the BMW / Rover debacle, the 45 minute warning etc etc; not to use information about anyone they suspected of opposing or interfering with their "project" ?
Note from Leesie: Martyn, thanks for your contribution. This is the kind of stuff leesie.org prides itself in. I see your point and I agree that this government is full of lies. I hope they get kicked out in these next elections, although I'm not sure we'd agree on who should replace them...!
I found a flier through the post yesterday from our local Labour MP. He promised, in two sequential sentences, to: 1 - increase the minimum wage 2 - reduce inflation and maintain low interest rates
Ummm. Quite. Let me explain supply and demand: You give people
money for nada, they spend it. Many people spending pushes prices up.
The really worrying thing is, not that the government assumes the electorate to be stupid, but that the damn electorate IS stupid. Watch these clowns get voted back in in May.
