Gordon Brown the Budget and the Environment
In this weeks budget, the chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, made mention of his plans for the environment and reduction of carbon emissions by, amongst other things, hitting the motorist.
Does he really care about the environment? or is this just another ploy to gather in yet more taxes to pay for previous financial indiscretions? The one that immediately springs to mind being the war in Iraq.
Obviously I am concerned about the environment and do as much as I can to help, I am not, however, convinced that owning a 4 x 4 as I do, is going to make any difference whatsoever to the environment. Working in the agricultural / horticultural industry necessitates the use of a four wheel drive vehicle. I often have to drive in rough terrain to enable me to do my work. I opted to tow a large trailer rather than buy a van thinking that only having one vehicle on the road would mean that I was polluting less. I cover approximately 130 miles a week in my Isuzu Trooper, nothing compared to some lesser powered vehicles that travel two or three times that distance in a week, who is polluting more? In my opinion the smaller car.
I never do the supermarket shop or pick kids up from school in it, so why should I be penalised with a massive increase in road tax?
Emissions from airplanes, trains and boats are a far greater problem than those of us with large vehicles. The vast increase in air travel is due to people taking advantage of cheap holidays abroad. Holidays are for pleasure, there should be greater tax put on these flights.
If the government is so keen on cutting emissions from vehicles, why build more and more roads and motorways that cut through swathes of countryside where trees and fields once stood, the latter being far more useful to the environment than the roads which will further increase the use of cars and lorries and further pollute the atmosphere.
Why keep on building out of town retail parks which mean the shopper has to get in a car to visit the retail parks thus producing more exhaust emissions.
No, I do not think the government give a damn about the environment, yet they cleverly try and put the blame for global warming at our doorsteps to make us feel guilty when all the time it is those in the corridors of power that should ultimately take responsibility for rapidly destroying this planet.
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