Azara Blog: Lib Dem conference votes to crucify car drivers and air passengers

Date published: 2006/09/19

Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell has won a crunch vote on his tax plans at the party's conference in Brighton.
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Sir Menzies said he was "pleased" after he Lib Dem leadership saw off an attempt to stop the party dropping its previous pledge for a 50p top tax rate.
Delegates also approved plans to use new taxes on "gas-guzzling" cars and aviation to pay for income tax cuts.
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The package is meant to have no overall effect on tax revenues.
But critics question whether there will be a black hole in the sums if the green taxes do succeed in changing people's polluting behaviour - something Lib Dem officials deny.

Of course "there will be a black hole in the sums if the [so-called] green taxes do succeed in changing people's polluting behaviour". Campbell admitted as much on television tonight. But he seems to be relying on the behaviour changing slowly and then when it does change (if it ever does) the Lib Dems would then introduce some other whacking great stealth tax to make up the difference. This is cynical politics. And of course one of their two targets, car drivers, are the only group in Britain who already pay a carbon tax, yet they are supposed to pay even more tax. And plenty of sources of carbon (e.g. domestic gas and electricty consumers) get off for free. The main principle of a carbon tax should be that if you produce a certain amount of carbon you pay the same tax no matter how you produce it. It should not be up to the control freaks in the government to decide that certain sources of carbon are somehow allegedly worse than others and therefore are subject to an extortionate tax rate whereas other sources are somehow allegedly holy and therefore have a low (near zero) tax rate. Hopefully the Lib Dems will not be part of any government in the near future. Not that the Tories are much better. And Labour under Gordon Brown will probably be similarly inane.

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