News Motorists Get the Shaft Again?

[ramathorn]

I've just started driving again in the last few months - my dad, being the usual bearer of good new emailed me this this morning:

Petrol to rise by 15p a litre as Government raises taxes from motorists to pay off massive debts | Mail Online

Are motorists an easy target for taxes? Fuel here is already massively taxed and it seems every time the government need to raise a few quid motorists are the first ones hit.

 

[dysfunction]

They need to do something to reduce the debt...one way or another you will be paying more. It's not going to be pleasant...

 

[ECA]

Did they need to sell our gold at the bottom of the market and claim they'd beaten boom and bust economic theory with an amazing chancellor and thus spend like loons?


They can CTFOADOA.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Hmm, this is going to be a bit ouchy. Because of the times of day I work, there is often no public transport for me to get to/from work and a car is the only way for me to keep my job.

 

[TdC]

a car is the only way for me to keep my job.

I wonder if the government providing round the clock mass-transit will cost more than the petrol tax will provide? ^^-)

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

In no way would I suggest such for the very small number of people that would benefit.

However, this will affect me quite a lot since there is no other option for me to be able to travel to work on many of my workdays.

 

[TdC]

nono, I mean, imo there should be 24x7 mass transit! *braces for onslaught* perhaps not at full rush-hour frequencies, but people will use it if it is there.

recently here in NL, we had a negative travel advisory for both cars and trains. how the fuck am I supposed to get to work then? in parallel I mean, if a car becomes too expensive for you to use, and there is no alternative, how are you supposed to get to work?

 

[Tom]

Easy money for the government. Increase fuel duty, increases the cost of everything dependent upon road travel, which in turn increases income tax and VAT receipts on goods sold.

 

[rynnor]

Easy money for the government. Increase fuel duty, increases the cost of everything dependent upon road travel, which in turn increases income tax and VAT receipts on goods sold.

Sweet - bad for inflation though - the Govt will be stuck with rising inflation and low interest rates.

If they raise interest rates too early to tackle inflation we'll be looking at a double dip recession - next year will be painfull whoever is in Govt.

 

[Moriath]

Isnt this just daily mail speculation at the moment i havent seen it anywhere else

 

[dysfunction]

Isnt this just daily mail speculation at the moment i havent seen it anywhere else

No it seems to be true...

Petrol prices set for major rises in 2010 - Business News, Business - The Independent

Although perhaps not as much as 15p increase....

 

[Wazzerphuk]

The scrappage scheme was the single worst idea ever. Let's try and force poor people, who don't have any money to buy a brand new car and scrap their old one. You can have some money off it, but we'll counter this by pushing petrol prices up so that in effect you're not;
a) saving any money, except in the immediate short term (if you have the money to buy a new car spare, something very few people have)
b) making any improvement to the environment as it is more economical to drive an old car until it dies than to scrap the old one and build a new one from scratch.

I honestly, genuinely, cannot think of a valid reason for such a retarded scheme. And don't give me that 'saving the industry' bollocks because the savings and amount of cars affected by the scheme (as well as total number sold in the scheme) isn't even close to what would be required to 'save' the industry.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Scrappage isn't too awesome. If you're too poor to afford a new car without scrappage, the price of a new car and the trade-in value /scrappage value of your old car are unlikely to equal what you can afford as at a minimum you are still looking at spending several thousand pounds for even the most basic vehicle that isn't a pushbike.

Scrappage only helps those that can already afford a car but had other reasons for not buying one, or perhaps allow them to get a slightly better one.

 

[Wij]

The whole economic management we have is car crash now. Let's spend our way out of recession with money we don't have and then tax the life out of the country afterwards.

I thought we'd been through the pain of the 80s to stop all this shit happening again

 

[dysfunction]

The problem is politicians never learn from past mistakes and failures

 

[rynnor]

The problem is politicians never learn from past mistakes and failures

Thats because politics is too short term - its all about winning the next election - doesnt matter if you screw the country long term as long as you gain a short term advantage.

 

[Chilly]

At some point interest rates are going to go up to 5-10% and the country will explode - that will be the real recession. What we've had is fuck all compared to what is coming. House prices are STILL RISING......what the fuck for? They are already 40% overpriced, andmore in some areas.

 

[rynnor]

At some point interest rates are going to go up to 5-10% and the country will explode - that will be the real recession. What we've had is fuck all compared to what is coming.

What people dont realise is that we are in the eye of the storm - the bank of england has been giving life support to the economy in the form of quantative easing and low interest rates - this cannot continue indefinately so we are now set on course for a double dip recession imo.

House prices are STILL RISING......what the fuck for? They are already 40% overpriced, andmore in some areas.

I'm selling some property at the moment and its become clear that the reason prices are going up is purely down to lack of supply - practically no-one is selling so prices rise in a rather artificial way.

Fundamentally there must be a further fall in house prices because noone will be able to afford the prices

The reason prices rose so high was lax credit and people able to obtain 5x their income type mortgages - these deals are unlikely to come back anytime soon so prices must fall - probably once interest rates start rising in 2010.

 

[Chilly]

The reason prices rose so high was lax credit and people able to obtain 5x their income type mortgages - these deals are unlikely to come back anytime soon so prices must fall - probably once interest rates start rising in 2010.

And until that correction, no one wants to buy. I'm holding off buying simply because I dont think it's worth maybe 12-18 months of almost no interest compared to the huge amount of negative equity I'd probably end up in.

 

[Embattle]

We are all doomed.

 

[Chilly]

Unless you sell something you dig up out of the ground, be afraid!

 

[Raven]

A big fuck you, at the ***** that voted these ***** into power.

 

[Chilly]

tories would be doing the same shit.

 

[Raven]

Tories wouldn't have sold our back up plan (gold and other assets) for buttons...

 

[Wij]

Tories wouldn't have sold our back up plan (gold and other assets) for buttons...

Or have notified the market that they were going to do a big gold-sale in advance so that the price could drop dramatically. The clueless ****.

 

[Trem]

All cars made after 2001 are liable to the new road tax brackets, remember that the next time you think the scrappage scheme was ever so kind of Labour.

They did it as a lie, they did it to make themselves look generous but its a double edged sword, the more that get newer cars the more they can tax.

I swear to god this country is a fucking joke now, more so than ever before, it will take 10-20 years to put it right and the next government will get blamed for Labours errors.

 

[Chilly]

relatively speaking we are less in debt than our european rivals.

 

[SilverHood]

If you're in a bus going off a cliff, does it make you feel better than you're at the back off the bus rather than the front?


Anyway, what about the 2p duty on petrol that was put on because of the reduction in VAT? Now that VAT is going back to 17.5, will that duty disappear? I'll bet you it wont.

 

[Chilly]

If you're in a bus going off a cliff, does it make you feel better than you're at the back off the bus rather than the front?

We're not going off a cliff though. No one is actually going anywhere. We can profit from other nation's demises if we are at the back of the proverbial bus imo.

 

[MYstIC G]

I swear to god this country is a fucking joke now

Jokes are funny and have a punch line. This country is a tragedy.

No, actually it is bankrupt.