Keir Starmer just launched a new ‘war on | Tech News

Campaigns to scrap the 5p per litre rise in fuel responsibility in September are to be welcomed as motorists stay a fixed cash-cow for each authorities and councils in every single place. The Conservatives and Reform UK are proper to stress Labour to scrap the increase in opposition to a backdrop of spiralling fuel prices on the pump due to the struggle with Iran.

At Prime Minister’s Questions final Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer refused to rule out cancelling the fuel responsibility hike regardless of Tory chief Kemi Badenoch’s probing. Should we be stunned? Not in any respect, as a result of for a lot too our political elites have seen the motorist as an simple goal on the subject of grabbing money. Take the price on the pump: tax on fuel (together with fuel responsibility and VAT) accounts for 57% of the price of a litre of petrol and 54% of the price of a litre of diesel.

Despite the Tories overseeing 15 years of fuel responsibility freezes when in authorities, Britain nonetheless has the fourth highest responsibility on diesel and the tenth highest responsibility on petrol in comparison with EU member states. We proceed to be financially battered just for eager to drive a car.

Politicians wish to recommend that people journey by car by selection slightly than necessity, however that is utterly out of contact with actuality. Take the trains – we dwell in a nation the place regardless of forking out a first rate chunk of money to journey during peak occasions, your service will be cancelled on the final second or delayed. Even if it does flip up on time, you aren’t assured a seat or a working bathroom onboard. How can this ever be acceptable?

When you flip up at a railway station or take a look at a rail company web site and are instructed they can not guarantee you’ll attain your vacation spot, is it no marvel we attain for our car keys? Then there are bus providers.

Forget it in case you dwell in a rural space the place providers appear sporadic or stop working by 6pm. If you reside in a massive city or metropolis, you may need higher luck, however would you’re feeling secure travelling alone at evening on a bus? Not me.

Only final week the London Youth Assembly known as on Transport for London and the London Ambulance Service to launch a pilot scheme that may see bus stations and “high risk” bus routes function “bleed kits” to help victims of stabbing.

We now dwell in a nation with “high risk” bus routes – just let that sink in. Public transport will not be all the time a selection which is why people determine to make use of their car and that’s when they’re hit by all types of pernicious fees. Yet London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ charging zone continues to solid a shadow over the capital with drivers of older autos that they can not afford to interchange being unfairly focused.

Labour-run Cardiff council is planning to introduce a new system of parking permits which is able to hit heavier autos similar to household vehicles and vans. They purpose to divide town into 4 sections: metropolis and civic centre, internal parking space, bay parking space and outer parking space. No parking permits shall be accessible within the metropolis centre for any autos which is able to drive motorists to make use of non-public parking or car parks.

Elsewhere within the metropolis, autos weighing more than 2,400kg should pay more, falling to 2,000kg – it will then seize electric autos (EVs) that are heavier resulting from their batteries. Perversely, the Welsh authorities has been encouraging residents to buy EVs through the years. Cardiff is the primary place to usher in such a coverage – and you may wager it is not going to be the final as councils squeeze more money out of native motorists.

Elliot Keck, campaigns director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, mentioned: “There should be little doubt that this is simply the beginning of the next war on British motorists. What begins in Cardiff will likely spread across the rest of the UK, as greedy, car-hating councils view families and tradesmen as cash cows to draw upon.”

Aside from punishing motorists with increased charges, councils are also guilty of making driving harder locally – from introducing 20mph speed limits and ludicrous “Dutch-style” roundabouts that prioritise cyclists and pedestrians over vehicles and always at great expense to local taxpayers.

Motorists within the UK have been used as cash-cows for a lot too long – it’s time to cut us some slack and stop punishing us for deciding to drive a car.