Motorists have been used as cash cows for too long | 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 all over the place. The Conservatives and Reform UK are proper to stress Labour to scrap the increase towards a backdrop of spiralling fuel prices on the pump due to the conflict 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 far too our political elites have seen the motorist as an straightforward goal in relation to grabbing cash. 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 simply for eager to drive a car.

Politicians prefer to recommend that people journey by car by selection fairly than necessity, however that is fully out of contact with actuality. Take the trains – we stay in a nation the place regardless of forking out a respectable chunk of cash to journey during peak instances, your service might 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 lavatory onboard. How can this ever be acceptable?

When you flip up at a railway station or have a look at a rail company web site and are instructed they can’t 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 the event you stay in a rural space the place providers appear sporadic or stop working by 6pm. If you reside in a large city or metropolis, you would possibly have higher luck, however would you are feeling protected travelling alone at night time on a bus? Not me.

Only final week the London Youth Assembly referred to 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 characteristic “bleed kits” to help victims of stabbing.

We now stay in a nation with “high risk” bus routes – simply let that sink in. Public transport isn’t all the time a selection which is why people resolve to make use of their car and that’s when they’re hit by every kind of pernicious fees. Yet London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ charging zone continues to forged a shadow over the capital with drivers of older automobiles that they can’t afford to exchange being unfairly focused.

Labour-run Cardiff council is planning to introduce a new system of parking permits which is able to hit heavier automobiles such as household vehicles and vans. They intention to divide town into 4 sections: metropolis and civic centre, inside parking space, bay parking space and outer parking space. No parking permits will probably be obtainable within the metropolis centre for any automobiles which is able to pressure motorists to make use of non-public parking or car parks.

Elsewhere within the metropolis, automobiles weighing more than 2,400kg will have to pay more, falling to 2,000kg – this may then seize electric automobiles (EVs) that are heavier because of their batteries. Perversely, the Welsh authorities has been encouraging residents to buy EVs over time. Cardiff is the primary place to herald such a coverage – and you’ll guess it is not going to be the final as councils squeeze more cash out of native motorists.

Elliot Keck, campaigns director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, stated: “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 far too long – it’s time to cut us some slack and stop punishing us for deciding to drive a car.