Is anyone getting the notion that the Powers That Be do not actually want the peasants to actually be able to drive any vehicle? (via Not A Lot Of People Know That)
Tony Blair Institute calls for electric car road tax to avoid ‘gridlock Britain’
Tony Blair’s think tank has said Jeremy Hunt must “urgently” introduce a road tax which would make driving electric cars more expensive.
James Browne, senior policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), called on the Chancellor to introduce a new system of road pricing to stop the country becoming “gridlock Britain”.
Analysts have warned that the Treasury must step in to plug a £25bn black hole in the nation’s finances and stop traffic jams from surging as more motorists shift to electric vehicles (EVs).
This will happen because EV drivers do not pay fuel duty. As the Government phases out petrol cars as part of its push to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, this means Britain’s fleet of cars will become far cheaper to run.
As it becomes cheaper, people will drive more, while the Treasury’s tax take from fuel duty disappears.
Now, should there be some sort of road tax on EVs? Well, yes. Nothing wrong with that, the roads do need to be maintained, along with infrastructure. What Blair’s think tank wants to do, though, is have a very high tax which will make it almost too expensive for the middle and working class folks to drive.
Of course, this is a problem created by Government mandates. We’ve already seen issues where the gas tax revenue nose-dived in the Obama years when he increased the CAFE standards. Cars got better MPGs, so, less gas, plus, more hybrids being sold. So, they needed to raise the taxes. Now they just want you out of your car.
