Budget

[GrahamS4]

Everyone happy with the Budget (ducks for cover!)?

Us pre 2001 owners get off lightest as there is some nasty regrading going on for the newer cars.



http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/2/5 ... aptera.pdf

[derdle]

Call me a cynic...but the above and everything else has absolutely nothing to do with the "Environment", it's all about raising taxes (which is what a Budget is for after all) and just trying to disguise it. If the Government was really serious about environmental issues they'd have dozens of new nuclear power stations built in the next 10 years and all gas, oil and coal fired ones closed down.

Next election I'm voting for the Bring a bottle party.

[MarkB]

It's 23rd March 2006 that the sting starts.

[bobbler]

Call me a cynic...but the above and everything else has absolutely nothing to do with the "Environment", it's all about raising taxes (which is what a Budget is for after all) and just trying to disguise it. If the Government was really serious about environmental issues they'd have dozens of new nuclear power stations built in the next 10 years and all gas, oil and coal fired ones closed down.

Next election I'm voting for the Bring a bottle party.

I am with you Derdle. Its already been proven by many parties that the whole CO2 issue is crapola. Its about the least dangerous of the gasses coming out of your cars exhaust, but its the only one Joe Bloggs has heard of so its easy to just blame it on the CO2.
There are several vehicles placed in the enviromental charging thing of London that fall below the CO2 rating but are way higher on several more poisonous gases!
Additionally while watching the budget on Sky news yesterday (and the question time leading up to it) it became blatantly obvious that they seem to think the budget and government is only there to serve the City of London. It was bizarre listening to the answers to questions regarding increasing the usage of buses and them answering "In London we have...blah blah blah". Erm, hello?!?
They really do believe that there is nothing outside of the M25 and it was a real eyeopener for me as I don't really pay much attention to what any of them cocksmiths say.

[derdle]

Did you see the bit on the news about the "Low Emissions Zone" for London. Non compliant lorries (tractor units) are being loaded onto low-loaders and hauled through London, then the low loader returns and takes the cargo through. Any non-compliant tractor units face a daily charge of £200. So this is hitting charities hard as they use old tractor units cannot afford to convert them. Result...twice as many journeys being made.

Sorry, I'll take my tablets now and calm down......

[PetrolDave]

What really amuzes me is that if you look at the VED increases from 2008 to 2011 owners of the most polluting cars (like those of us with RS4s) do NOT pay the biggest increases....

Here's the figures taken from the Budget Report:
CO2 Increase from 2008/9 to 2010/11
up to 100 £0
101-110 -£15
111-120 £0
121-130 -£25
131-140 -£5
141-150 £5
151-160 £10
161-165 £35
166-170 £10
171-180 £40
181-185 £100(!)
186-200 £60
201-225 £100(!)
226-255 £30
over 255 £55

So the BIG losers are NOT the high polluters, but the drivers of family cars, MPVs, soft roaders and even some superminis!

The publicity has been totally misleading....

[derdle]

Isn't that basically what the commentators were saying yesterday...he is caning "Middle England"?

[bobbler]

to me it's blatantly obvious that the charges are not about Climate Change (weird how it's been renamed Climate Change, was it because calling it Global Warming and people started to notice it's not getting warmer ) and more about pricing you out of your drivers seat.
That is all they are interested in is making money from your car. They certainly have no interest in providing ANY alternative whatsoever to ENCOURAGE you out of your vehicle. They have not a clue about the environment either, that's just an excuse. The problem is that we sit there and take it. Not for me this time round, vote most certainly will not be going anywhere near Labour.
Call me paranoid but I firmly believe that there is a policy of making the motorists life deliberately miserable via lengthy roadworks, traffic light timings and increase of bus lanes (which go completely unused for 90% of the day!)
They just keep using that stick when the carrot works so much better

You can add me to that cynic list too.

[derdle]

If the Govenment was truly committed to green/environment issues relating to transport, then they would take the step of abolishing VED (road tax) and just throw 5 - 10p on a litre of fuel. Nobody can avoid paying fuel duty but they can avoid VED - easily. Then the more fuel a car uses the more tax is collected. Drive slower and you save fuel and tax (or pehaps that's precisely what they don't want?). Downsides...redundancies at DVLA and places across the UK including Post Offices handling VED but think of the cost savings. The mechanism for collecting fuel duty exists already so doesn't cost a penny to setup or change.

Also charge foreign lorries £ 50 a day road tax and £ 5000 for every accident they cause.

Sorry, those pills don't seem to be working..must take some more.

[JohnW]

I had a conversation with the guy next to me here at work, and its almost identical to whats been posted here.

The to$$ers - sorry 'MP's seem to think the budget is a tool to persuade the population how they should live. By increasing taxes we are all magically meant to go buy cheaper cars, or use public transport. I bet little of the increases go anywehere near improving roads or public transport. This also takes no account of those who do not live local to work, or have little choice over how they travel. Also they gloss over the fact that all produce transported by road will now become dearer, and what do you know, the vat goes up a bit too - wehey lets all have a pay rise !!
I find it really frustrating that the to$$ers make no concessions for the likes of motorcycles, which reduce conjestion and consume less fuel, yet they won't even allow them in the bus lanes, despite recent surveys showing accident rates dropped (not only for motorcycles, but cars and bicycles too).

The funny thing is, I always thought a budget was just that - plan how much you need, where it will be spent, and then justify why you need the funds to do the tasks. The national budget actually makes no mention of how the money will really be spent, unlike the county councils that show where their money goes. Its like they think up new ways in how to fleece us in every conceivable way, then work out where it will go.
Okay, so they give some figures, but not the full picture.

All this b0110cks about 'green' issues is just another way to be seen to listen to and act on what is said by the tree huggers.
Taxes are not, and so should not, be used as a tool to influence public spending or style of living.
This government has its head up its ar5e as said above. The world does not revolve around inner london.
Why add tax on 4x4s. Just because the rich in london drive them and that's what they want to deal with, we all get clobbered, despite a large percentage of them being used out of town.

also, we should not be raising yet more taxes to pay to pikey thieving scumbags who happen to have a drug habit, or pay illegal imigrants to go home !
Jees, what I'd do is give them f_ck all, and make them work for their money. Now there's a novel idea, how about we sign up any offender to a job to earn the money rather than just hand it out to try to stop them stealing !!
As for illegal imigrants, send the b@st@rds back, they are ILLEGAL and so should not be here. Period.
If they want to come here make them apply BEFORE they get here, just as legal imigrants generally have to (It takes over 6 months of paperwork to emigrate to NZ or Aus, and that is for a well paid professional person with a job lined up).
Also, don't give them any hand outs until they have paid in to the system. I recall in the 70s one of my aunties not getting a pension as she had never worked - spent her entire life looking after her ill parents. When they died she had to pay death duties, and could only do so by selling the house - the same one she was born and lived in all her life ! ffs.

I better stop there before my viens explode

bottom line(s):
can I change anything ? no.
is it therefore worth worrying about ? not really

[JohnW]

If the Govenment was truly committed to green/environment issues relating to transport, then they would take the step of abolishing VED (road tax) and just throw 5 - 10p on a litre of fuel. Nobody can avoid paying fuel duty but they can avoid VED - easily.
<snip>

Also charge foreign lorries £ 50 a day road tax and £ 5000 for every accident they cause.

Sorry, those pills don't seem to be working..must take some more.

VED is used not only to tax us, but to monitor and control the number of vehicles on the road. It is also a way of supposedly ensuring all cars are road legal, and insured. Petrol duty would not do this.
Agreed on the foreign lorry bit too, or at least make them take a fecking driving test !

Pass the pills when your done

[derdle]

One of my clients emigrated a few years back - he had to complete a tax form before he left and one question was "Why are you leaving the UK?". His reply was priceless...."Because it's a sh*t Country". Spose it sums it up!

[MarkB]

All very true John. It seems mad that the VED is to prove insurance and MOT when they could just scrap it and replace it with an MOT cert that goes on your screen. The MOT could be obtained once you have insurance (linked)

They could also charge different amounts for different vehicles being MOT'd

It would cost a fair few jobs though...

[derdle]

supposedly ensuring all cars are road legal, and insured.

The modern MoT system ensures they are road legal and all insured vehicles are registered as insured. If you every get tugged by a copper in a patrol car he'll not ask you to produce Insurance or MoT cos it's all on a database (somewhere).

[PetrolDave]

If you every get tugged by a copper in a patrol car he'll not ask you to produce Insurance or MoT cos it's all on a database (somewhere).

What if you have a private plate? My July '06 RS4 is on an "RS 04 xxx" plate (because it's an RS4) so it looks like I need an MOT if you look at the plate, but I don't (not until July 2009).