Saturday, April 10, 2010

Fuel Duty: SNP rant but Lib Dems act

The BBC's Raymond Buchanan has just tweeted that the SNP is jumping up and down about fuel duty, calling it a "poll tax on wheels" and "indiscriminate". Apparently this is part of their campaign for rural motorists.

They are right - a car is something you absolutely can't live without if you live in many far flung parts o Scotland. But what have they done about it?

As I pointed out a couple of weeks ago, the SNP Government is dragging its feet on this. George Lyon, Scottish Lib Dem MEP has been working to try to secure a deal from the EU to allow us to drop our duty in rural areas. It should be easily accmplished but the SNP Government at Holyrood is dragging its feet on its part of the effort.

Read more and join George's campaign here.

2 comments:

Graeme said...

Further, I feel you should never be in a position where you are obliged to have a car. I've managed to 45 without even learning to drive but in the mean time public transport has withered on the vine as people in non-rural areas decide they must have a car (or two) then afterwards try and retro-fit excuses as to why they 'need' it.

That in itself is bad enough, but in deregulated times, it lessens demand for public transport and those of us who loyally stick with it are penalised for something outwith our power when routes are cut and fares rise.

If motorists think petrol is expensive they should look at the cost of public transport fares over the same period.

Richard T said...

I think you might also give an honourable mention to Alastair Carmichael who has been pursuing this at Westminster for a considerable time and with every respect to George Lyon, long before he raised it in Europe. He has come up against an absolute Treasury block on it but as I recall the last time he raised it, he got a more sympathetic hearing from Alastair Darling.

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