When you drive a car that does 14 miles to the gallon, you tend to notice that fuel is a little bit pricey. Now many people would say that just serves me right for driving such a big, thirsty, impractical car and not using public transport more... But it's not just me that's getting ripped off - it's everyone. A lot of people in this country simply do not have the choice of using a public alternative. The governments argument that by increasing fuel taxation, they will somehow gently dissuade people out of their cars and onto some clean, efficient, reliable communal alternative just simply doesn't wash. If there was a viable alternative, maybe people would not need this 'stick' method to force them out of their automobiles.

The facts, reproduced courtesty of the 'Boycott the Pumps' website - who advocate a montly fuel boycott, beginning August 1st to make the government take notice of motorist's anger at fuel prices. It has been known to work in the 'States...

Petrol is now approaching £0.90 per litre. That's £4.10 a gallon. For every £50 fill-up, you're just giving the government more than £38 out of your own pocket.
This percentage tax figure, until quite recently, was much higher. It has only been with the increase in the price of crude oil, that the governments share is effectively reduced - but of course the motorist has to pay much, much more.

Work it out for yourself. If you and your spouse commute a 50 mile round-trip each day (which isn't unrealistic in today's world) then in the weeks leading up to mid June, you took a combined salary cut of around £700 a year.

Leaded petrol was supposedly taxed highly for environmental reasons. Why then, when it was replaced with LRP did the price not come down? Diesel fuel is cheaper, yet pollutes more. LPG is the cleanest fuel there is but you don't see the government promoting that do you?

You buy the planet's most expensive petrol, but do you see that money going back into the roads? No you do not. A recent study pointed out that most of Britain's roads are up to 15 years beyond their structural refurbishment date.

When a haulage company has to fill it's tanks with diesel taxed at such a ridiculous rate, it's running costs become so expensive that companies take their business to haulage firms based on the continent. That in turn means a loss of income for our country.

Buses and coaches become more expensive again because of the underlying cost of running them. The privatised rail and bus companies continue to slash services and close branch routes because running them is not "cost effective." i.e. the shareholders aren't getting their dividends. And the government are doing nothing about it. Rail companies have been underperforming and missing targets as stipulated by their contracts ever since privatisation. Yet they're all still in business.

In 1992/3 the government netted 19.6 billion pounds from the motorist, £5.8 billion being set aside for expenditure on roads. In 1998/99, taxation had nearly doubled to 34.9 billion pounds, yet expenditure on roads had shrunk to just £5 billion.

Clearly, as any economist will tell you, there are various negative side effects associated with the automobile usage. The best way to represent these 'negative externalities' is for the government to tax cars sufficiently so that the true cost of their use is reflected in the price.

But... cars are becoming much cleaner, more efficient and much, much less harmful to the environment than ever before. Why then is taxation going up? Why can't the government be a little more transparant about how much cars should be taxed and provide sound economic reasoning as to why - instead of merely bleeding the British motorist dry in the name of enviromentalism?

If you're not bored by now, here are my musings on the Budget!

And also a very interesting piece about modern 'anti car ideology' that was posted on the boycott the pumps message group. Click here, not sure who its by...