[UPDATE] Speeding killer driver given lenient sentence; BBC reporter belittles death of the cyclist, says “[cyclists] don’t pay road tax”
Kevin Hill, Assistant Editor of BBC East Midlands Today, has sent out a boilerplate answer to all those who complained about a road death story broadcast in mid-April. He admits that the presenter at fault could have asked the “road tax” question “more carefully” and then gives what he believes to be the more carefully […]
Government minister sticks to his mistaken claim that motorists pay for roads
Such a view would be disturbing if it was a junior minister in the foreign office. What makes it shocking is that the MP who holds this view is the Minister for Roads. At a meeting in parliament yesterday I asked the minister if he would retract a statement from last year when he had […]
Page, turn a new leaf, learn about how roads are *really* funded
Lewis Page is an intelligent bloke. He writes for The Guardian, Prospect and is a staffer on tech site The Register. An officer in the Royal Navy from 1993 to 2004, he’s siwritten books, such as Lions, Donkeys and Dinosaurs, a forensic polemic about financial waste in the armed forces. Page, then, is bright. He […]
Shock news: Tax Payers’ Alliance nearly accurate
Last year, the right-wing Tax Payers’ Alliance railed against ‘road tax’. Following iPayRoadTax.com complaints the “independent, non-partisan” organisation now rails against Vehicle Excise Duty. Sadly, when regurgitating parts of the TPA’s press release, The Sun yesterday went off-script and ranted about “road tax”, a tax abolished in 1937. MOTORISTS pay for their road use more […]
Why isn’t beer tax used to build better pubs, or tobacco tax used to tart up newsagents?
Alcohol and cigarettes are heavily taxed by the UK government. Drinkers and smokers pay big-time for their tipples and their filter tips. But why aren’t the billions raised by duties on booze and ciggies spent on bigger and better pubs, and swankier tobacco emporiums? Because taxation ring-fencing is heretical, that’s why. The dedication of the […]