[Wombat]

There are only 12 days left to register your objection to the 'Pay as you go' road tax which closes to petitions on the 20th February 2007.
The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody about it.
Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it.
Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.
Democracy in action?
The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your bike / car and paying a monthly bill to use it.
The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver.
A non working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.
On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked.
Somebody will know where you are at all times.
They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.
If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/ " TARGET="_blank">Click Here</A>

 

[boozefighter]

And to think that it has only been 125 or so years since people in England were hanged for highway robbery!

 

[keef]

The Road Pricing Bill is a pretty insidious piece of legislation.

It is a fact that already 80% of the price we pay for fuel in the UK is actually tax, road fund licence costs have risen far above the rate of inflation and public transport in most rural areas has been abandoned altogether. What's more, the majority of this revenue is leached into the government pot and the chancellor's war chest (a general term used to describe the funds available for use on anything unplanned in the annual budget) and not hypothecated for highway maintenance and improvement is evidenced by the deteriorating state of a large proportion of our roads.

These factors aside, what concerns me most about the bill is the erosion of our civil liberties which it represents – particularly when viewed in the context of other recent and impending legislation. Perhaps this is why the government has gone to such lengths to keep certain aspects of it out of the public eye.

For example and amongst other things, the Criminal Justice Act of 2003 made it possible for anyone to be arrested and charged with a criminal offence if more than three people assemble in a public place for any reason – okay, this hasn't really been acted upon yet as a general rule but the legislation to allow it now exists on statute. However, it should be noted that other parts of the same act, supposedly aimed at tackling possible terrorist threats, are already starting to be used to stifle hitherto legitimate and peaceful political protest – we no longer have the right to voice our objections to political decisions within a certain distance of Westminster. At the time we were assured that this was not what the act would be used for and yet, just four years on, it is the reality we all now have to live with.

Very soon, another bill is due to be read in parliament which will make it possible for anyone to be held in detention by the police for 90 days without charge. If provision for the last increase in custody is anything to go by, there will also be no requirement for the detainee to be told what he or she has been arrested for.

It's worth bearing in mind that history clearly shows us that where the power to exert political control over a population exists, even albeit for use only against a specific and transitory threat, within a generation the exploitation of that power is highly likely to become the norm upon the population as a whole. In military parlance, one might call it "mission drift".

Add to this the fact that the forthcoming Road Pricing Bill will make it compulsory for anyone using a car or motorcycle to be tracked anywhere in the country and for every journey to be logged in perpetuity and detail (and pay for the privilege), and you have a recipe for a totalitarian state in waiting.

Be afraid – be very afraid!

 

[bovefrankj]

We must be the most taxed, most spied upon and most legislated against population in the world.

 

[ruscook]

I hope you guys beat this piece of bastardry by the gov't. Not only for you sakes, but for ours. So called democracies always site other countries when justifying their policies. So if you have a resounding win, it will definitely delay when other gov'ts try this on.

Almost makes me believe in Guy Fawkes and the Yanks prattling about the right to bear arms

Good luck.
Russ

 

[blacktiger]

I've signed the petition but I don't think we stand a chance. It may delay it but one day soon it'll be passed into law. My take on politics today is that the members of parliament are just there to get their noses in the trough. They're mostly in it for themselves. So, they don't actually care too much what passes into law. AND, add to that, their efforts to climb up the party ladder and they'll vote according to the party line.
I read somewhere that this "New Labour" government has passed more than 3200 new laws since they came to power. What worries me is all those obscure ones that come around to bite us one day.