eublues

Why Road Pricing will happen

19-02-2007



Why Road Pricing will happen





Road Pricing will go ahead despite 1.6 million signing the petition, because of an EU law the government has signed up to.



A directive on electronic toll collections has committed Britain to a system of road charging which is run from Brussels.



UK Independence Party transport spokesman Mike Nattrass condemned the plans as "a disgraceful scheme to spy on people and take their money at the same time."



"This government signed up to Directive 2004/52 which will ensure the entire road pricing schemes in EU countries are the same, and can be linked to Galileo.



"The Transport Secretary might say he welcomes a debate, but in reality we have very little choice.



"The fact of the matter is that Galileo has to be paid for somehow. And as usual, it is the tax payer who has to foot the bill for something they were never even asked about. The British tax payer has already paid £200 million into it - what's a few more million to this government and the EU?"



Mr Nattrass added, "Is there no area of life this government and the EU won't pry into, and no area of our pockets they won't take money from?"



Ends



Galileo exists to challenge the (free) American GPS system. It is near bankrupt, the only way that the EU can afford to fund it is to find ways to pay for it, either out of direct or indirect taxation. Because our Government support the project and supports the directive it must either pay straight, or pay a licensing fee for using its road pricing facility.





The Directive can be found here

http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/...en01240143.pdf

DFT advice can be found here

http://www.dft.gov.uk/162259/165240/185897/Annex_C.pdf

European Parliament comments

http://www.epp-ed.eu/Activities/pday03/day168_en.asp

The Petition is here

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

mkpdavies

Wouldn't it be nice if the media reported this to the 1.6 million who though they were petitioning for a reason?

__________________
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http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/
http://lpuk.org

My ignore list

Labour, Lib Dems

Mark Croucher

My response, as a private individual, is that people should simply refuse to pay. Parking tickets, congestion charge, even road tax. Anything they can get away without paying. Buy a diesel engined car, and run it on vegetable oil from Sainsbury's (only £ 1.54 for 3L, compared with £1/L from BP, plus its environmentally friendly [like I care], smells nicer, and despite manufacturers claims, doesn't damage the engine*) And if people are worried that their expensive cars will be repossesed, then buy an old junker as a part of the protest. Hey, that's what I drive all the time anyway.

No-one's putting a satellite tracker on my car. I won't hold an ID card. And if you use your car for business purposes, the bailiffs are prohibited from taking it as payment for supposed 'fines'. Neither can they gain entry to your house unless you either leave it unlocked, or are unware enough to let them get the proverbial 'foot in the door' by opening it to them.

*Currently running a Fiat Tempra 1.9 turbo diesel estate on SVO (straight vegetable oil) mixed with 10% (in very cold weather, to prevent emulsifying) diesel or white spirit. Previously a 1973 Bedford Ambulance with a 2.3 Perkins Diesel engine on SVO.

Rgds

Mark

PS nice avatar of 'Union Jack' btw Matt

mkpdavies

That's the bottom line now isn't it. Either you submit to Blair/his puppet masters fascist new order, or you become an outlaw.

__________________
http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/
http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/
http://lpuk.org

My ignore list

Labour, Lib Dems

Mark Croucher

Outlaw every time. Although I don't fancy living in Nottinghamshire, or wearing green tights.

Rgds

Mark

harryaldridge

I will find the GPS device and put a lead sheet over the top. Problem solved?

Mark Croucher

I remember when Sucuricor first introduced their Datatrak system fortheir money transports armed robbers used to place a tin bucket over the aeriel. The resulting RF feedback destroyed the van maounted unit

Rgds

Mark

g hall

Thats if Galileo works and gets launched and the Yanks Chinese Russians etc dont get the hump and knock it out

__________________
"That government is best which governs least."
"This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all diseases and miseries".
"To be "matter of fact" about the world is to blunder into fantasy --and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful."
TANSTAAFL TANJ

NoMoreEUSSR

I thought the Chinese were bankrolling Galileo in the first place?

It's not as though the weedy EUSSR can afford to pay for the thing all by itself, they've had to team up with one of the world's superpowers.

Britannist

China and India both put some money into Galileo but have since started work on developing their own global positioning satellite systems which, apparently, will be free for anyone to use. The EU wants to charge for use of Galileo. The American system - which is nearly as accurate as the Galileo system - is free to use. Concerns are growing (among critics of the EU) at the cost of Galileo and the fact that free-to-use alternatives (to Galileo) are to grow in number.

One university has already (allegedly) broken into the Galileo security codes - even before it is properly built and operating.