Spinning it through the back door

So the government are going to offer incentives to get a few motorists to try out their road pricing scheme. Motorists who become guinea pigs for the governments tax raising plot will be given a discount on fuel duty in return for strapping a little black tracking box in their car. This is as a result of the Government's genuine shock and surprise to just about every single person in Britain when they responded badly to the road pricing plans via the anti road pricing e-petition that got 1.8m signatures and mass media coverage. And who said Labour is out of touch?

Instead of taking notice of all this opposition, the Government aren't going to review the scheme or come up with an alternative. Oh no - what's the point in that, New Labour knows best, it's everyone else that is wrong. It's nothing a little spin won't sort out either. It is reported "-Under the new approach, drivers would be encouraged to see the black box as a useful tool, not an intrusive tracking device-." Drivers will be encouraged to see the back box as a useful tool!! How on earth will that ever happen? They hope that by having the black box we will be able to keep an eye on how much we spending on road charging... so it will be useful in the sense that if we get road charging we will know how much we're being charged - but that was never the issue!! The problem is, the motoring public do not want road charging in the first place - useful tools or not!

It seems that road pricing is inevitable as this government will never listen the general public. This is just the first step - get a few people using it, spin the benefits and then before we know everyone will be forced in to the scheme. Then we're in a position where the government can tinker with the pricing levels as much as it wants and we are powerless to stop them. Shame on all those who volunteer for this scheme, you are the catalyst for higher taxes for the rest of us.