The Daily Express Web Site
I first heard that the Higher Eco-Tax story was in the Daily Express.
It is not my favourite rag, so I don’t look at it very often, if at all. But I did go to the web site to find out about the story. You’ll note that I actually link to the Press Association. The reason is that you can’t enter the Daily Express web site without getting an extra copy of your browser with an advert.
So I won’t be visiting it in future.
Other web sites that I hardly use because of this practice include IMDB and Friends Reunited.
There are alternatives which I use instead.
Higher Eco-Taxes
I have always been an advocate of high environmental taxes on energy. I first wrote about this some years ago in a previous blog.
The main reason is that if the taxes are basically neutral and are balanced by a reduction in Income Tax, this measure probably would take a large number of people out of the tax system completely. This would give a greater incentive for people to work hard and cut large numbers of dead wood out of the tax collection system.
Obviously, if energy was expensive you would spend your extra money to save it, by putting insulation and energy-efficient heating systems into your house and getting a more efficient car. People would also work more from home and ideas would be developed to facilitate this. Perhaps pubs and post offices could become local business centres in both towns and the countryside.
The higher the taxes, the more innovative people will become.
Perhaps surprisingly, even if the measures were tax neutral, you would raise more money, because a lot of the worst gas-guzzlers seem to be owned by those with no visible means of support. i.e. higher eco-taxes would be a tax on the black economy.
So I was pleased to see the Green Fiscal Commission thinking my way.
They make one mistake thought, in that they feel there should be a high tax on new cars. That is wrong, as we want people to buy new cars that are fuel-efficient.
I think too, that we should encourage people to have a range of vehicles for different circumstances. For instance, you might use a very fuel-efficient runabout to go to work, but at weekends, you may use say a five or six seater to take your family and dogs to the coast. I would also replace Vehicle Excise Duty, with a small Registration Tax, that would be enforced very rigidly. You’d only pay the tax, when you bought the vehicle.
The Anonymous Widower 