Date published: 2011/05/26
The BBC says:
The US government has been sent a London congestion charge bill for Barack Obama's convoy, including his limousine, nicknamed The Beast.
Mayor Boris Johnson said the motorcade was charged, unlike the Popemobile, because roads were not closed.
He and Mr Obama exchanged "points of view", he said, over £5.2m worth of unpaid congestion bills when they met.
The US Embassy said it was exempt from paying "direct taxes" but the mayor maintains the charge is not a tax.
...
Mr Johnson has said previously that the levy was not a tax but a charge for services.
Boris Johnson is allegedly a clever chap, but here he descends into the usual role of political hack. The so-called London congestion charge is obviously a tax, rather than a charge for services. So the revenue mostly goes to the company that runs the scheme, and what little there is left over mostly goes to subsidise bus and tube services. None of the revenue goes to provide any service to the people who pay it, unless keeping ordinary people off the streets of London counts as a service. Therefore it is a tax.
It is ironic that Johnson is then willing to make an example of the pope. So the pope was provided with a special service (i.e. the closure of roads) and yet in this case one apparently does not have to pay the 10 pounds. If you get a service you do not pay and if you do not get a service you do pay.
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