Drivers 'don't trust' road taxes

I'm surprised MPs even had to think about this one. It's been so obvious that car taxes have been a combination of general revenue generation alongside the hateful 'roads for the rich' policy pursued by privileged MPs that I've not known anyone who "trust what ministers say the charges pay for" for some considerable time. I've not believed it for at least fifteen years as the green justifications behind taxes are so obviously a series of great big massive lies with bells on. It's all down to what the government can get away with charging, soaking the poor and ordinary motorists with taxes which barely register against the salary (and expenses) of an MP and his or her high earning chums.

A good demonstration of this lie is when a politician says 'the polluter pays' they don't tell you what the 'polluter' happens to be paying for and little of it happens to have anything at all to do with the environment. Another is the government's current favourable taxation treatment of hybrid cars, even though their production has a higher environmental cost, they have a shorter working life than a conventional vehicle, are slower and, often as not, don't use any less fuel than an equivalent conventional model. When I bought my Toyota Yaris Verso in 2004 I checked it's figures against the supposedly green Toyota Prius. The Yaris was cheaper, faster, about the same size and used roughly the same amount of fuel, yet is taxed higher than the Prius. This has nothing whatever to do with the environment. At all. It's all a combination of money and the desire to get the great unwashed off the roads and onto busses, thus helping the really important people live their lives without interference from the rest of us.

Paying for a prescription in Tyne and Wear

After my tax credit exemption for prescription charges expired some little while ago I decided it was time to get a prescription prepayment certificate from the NHS. I didn't have the web address to hand so I did a little searching on google and found this. If you live in England, even somewhere like North East England, prescriptions cost as follows.

https://www.ppa.org.uk/ppa/ppcdd/patient.do
"The current cost is:
£28.25 for a 3-month PPC; and
£104.00 for a 12-month PPC."

If you live in Scotland, paying the same income tax, national insurance, VAT etc as those in England then prescriptions cost rather less, will cost less again from April 2010 and from April 2011 will cost nothing at all. Fair? I think not.

http://www.psd.scot.nhs.uk/doctors/prepayment-certificates.html#purchase
"How much does a PPC cost?
4 month PPC costs £13.00
12 month PPC costs £38.00"

Our politicians should make it the same for all and stop subsidising a minority of the population. The North East and other regions of England are just as impoverished as Scotland so there is no social reason to do so; it's just buying votes north of the border.

And a reply from the Department of Health

Not a meaningless, out of date, automated piece of nonsense at all. No. Really, it isn't. As Jim Royle may say: "Consultation my a**e!"

"Thank you for your email. We really appreciate the time you have taken to contact us, and we welcome your views on the future of care and support in England.

"The engagement on the future of care and support finished on 28 November 2008. A Green Paper setting out options for reform will be issued for consultation early in 2009, and we will again invite everyone to have their say on its proposals. Please continue to visit our website www.careandsupport.direct.gov.uk for more information about the care and support reform and to see what other people are saying. You can also register via the website to receive updates.
Thank you for contributing to this crucial reform agenda.

"Best wishes
The Care and Support Team
Social Care Strategy Unit
Department of Health
Room 543, Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London SW1A 2NS"

Personal Care in our old ages

A short message I've just sent to the Department of Health on their proposals for paying for personal care in the future. If you intend on living into old age, a response would be wise. CLICK HERE to see more.

"Sir/Madam
I have spent the last several minutes looking for a way to leave a comment on the consultation and have thus far been unsuccessful. If you really want people to leave comments you need a large, obvious button somewhere on the home page where someone can click and comment directly, without wading through page after page of irrelevant material. In hiding the respond function (I still have not found it) the design of this site suggests the DOH don't really want people to comment and hints that this is a shame and a publicity stunt. Please put the respond to survey function some place entirely obvious. As to the consultation: none of the options appears to make sense. The consultation appears to forget we already pay an insurance scheme called "National Insurance" ignores how the Scots pay for free personal care and fails to deal with the underlying problem: a mass of workshy wasters who don't do anything useful but do make ample use of services. If we stop paying for those who refuse to work, the problem will go away overnight."