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.