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Road Charging

Posted by Freethinker on Monday, 29 January 2007 20:38:37

Dear Mr Cameron,

Although I don't know if you or anyone else will bother to read this, I mean why should they, I'm just a voter after all, but I would like to get this off my chest so here goes anyway.

With almost 600,000 signatures and still growing, the petition against road charging is already the biggest in recent history.

Why is it though, that with such an outcry against this lunacy, is it not more widely reported by the media ?

In his novel 1984, George Orwell wrote "The Ministry of Truth exercises complete control over all media"

In spite of the apparent Media "blackout" it should be clear by now to even the dumbest politician, that Road Charging is NOT going to be accepted by the UK public. END OFF.

THIS IS NOT OPEN TO NEGOTIATION, IT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN !

JUST WAIT TILL THE ELECTIONS TO SEE WHAT THE PUBLIC THINKS OF THIS REDICULOUS IDEA !

The Public is not going to surrender it's right to chose whatever vehicle it wants to drive, just because Politicians see Climate Change as a convenient Cash Cow by which to extort more revenue from the already overtaxed population.

It was recently reported that Two Jags, when offered a Hybrid vehicle for his ministerial duties, refused it, reasoning that his Jaguar better suited his position ! Bum to him and anyone else that tells me to use a smaller car, What's good for the goose and all that !

Dear old Ming Campbell, bless him, says his outfit will increase road tax on all 4x4 vehicles to £2000 per year to help combat Climate Change. Will someone please tell the poor old soul, that any 4x4, Land Rover or Chelsea Tractor with a diesel engine, when using biodiesel is Carbon co2 NEUTRAL !

Biodiesel is nontoxic and poses no health risk to humans. biodiesel is carbon-dioxide (CO2) neutral and will not add to the Climate Change crisis, it also has fewer heavy Hydrocarbons (HC) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) than petroleum based diesel, and as it does not contain sulfur it will not contribute to sulfur dioxide emissions that result in acid rain.

Obviously if politicians could give one fig about Climate Change then surely the first step would be to insist all Council busses and all diesel trains used biodiesel, instead of the sooty cheapo crap that they currently run on. But Hey, Im forgetting, Big Gordon needs his whack from the huge oil companies so why look for cleaner sustainable fuels and risk upsetting the oil giants when its easier to just shaft the gullible !

ALL politicians better take note of the highest ever petition in recent times because the surest way to lose an election is to IGNORE the voice of the people.

There are plenty of ideas THAT WILL WORK to combat Climate Change but simply victimising the motorist is NOT one of them. Lets hear some sensible ideas from the Conservatives and NO MORE of this Road Charging Cash Cow malarky !

Freethinker Edinburgh.

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Posted by DaveGould on Monday, 29 January 2007 23:44:28

Road Charging, like every New Labour initiative for the last 6 months, is all about snooping on the British public. Not content with tracking us using ANPR (automatic number plate recognition), they want to track us with satellite transmitters as well. This will be linked up via your ID database record (automatic with passport renewal) to every single bit of data the Govt holds on you, and probably your emails, phone calls, bank statements etc.

No one in their right mind believes a governmental technological project can actually save money, never mind make it.

The supposed premise of the system of rich people being able to pay poor people to get out of their way is also suspect, coming from the Labour Party.

Welcome to 1984.

Posted by davetheslave on Tuesday, 30 January 2007 19:12:02

@Freethinker

Biodiesel is not the panacea that you claim it is. For a start, using current techniques, it is carbon-positive, not carbon neutral as you claim, although it does reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 78% compared to petrodiesel. Also, the raw material used for biodiesel production, rapeseed, must be grown on arable land. To grow enough rapeseed for to supply Britain with fuel would require all of our farmable land. And, although you make a great deal about reduced (non CO2) emissions from biodiesel, this is compared to petrodiesel, which is much dirtier than petrol. Petrol is still "cleaner" than biodiesel (though with much greater CO2 emissions). Most of these problems are also inherent in the production of other biofuels such as bioethanol, although recent research shows than carbon-negative bioethanol can be produced from unfarmed grasslands. My point is that, although alternative fuels (including electricity and possibly hydrogen fuel cells) will be a part of the solution, they cannot be considered the whole solution. Better engineering, car-sharing and increased use of public transport will all have to play a role. London has demonstrated that smart taxes can change behavior, and the government would be stupid not to at least consider this approach. What I do feel though, is that a viable alternative should be provided before penalties for car use are imposed (i.e. greater investment in the rail network).

References: Biodiesel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel
Bioethanol http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/314/5805/1598

 

Comment edited by davetheslave on Tuesday, 30 January 2007 19:15:44

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