Be Excellent To Each Other

Are you affected? There is a list of the new rates here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/629/629/7293011.stm

According to the main story here, it's only when you get to band H that you may start paying more tax.

I'm rather relieved to be in band E, though it only goes a tiny way to compensating for the ridiculous price I'm having to pay for diesel.

I'm in band K.

Diesel Micra next then.

Yeah but band H is a sodding 1.6 Focus, it's not exactly a stretched HumVee.

And being in Band E like you (and me) saves us a whole fiver.

I have a Honda Civic Sport and it's in Band H. I'm not exactly destroying the world, am I?

"Sport?"

You murderer.

It may look like a Type-R, but is actually slower than the Clio I used to own.

Band H, I'll be paying a fiver more in two years time, it seems that most people will be paying slightly more, in two years. How is this even news?

It's OK. I'm gonna open up a bank account in GazChap's name and use that for fun and shenanigans.

Because the people in those stretch HamVees are paying £200 more and the people who make the news programs tend to drive battletanks.

To be fair, it's stupid because it's retroactive. You're punishing people for a buying decision they made 7 years ago. It should take affect for registrations from 1/8/8.

Well, it's not like people bought enorm-o-cars and expected them to be cheap to run!

Yes, it's naughty to be retrospectively doing this.

Unfortunately, petrol chaps, you emit more bad things per mile than those of us who run on d-cell(s).

Band J for me, then. Noice.

Company car here, so no worries.

What band does my Veyron come under? And my F1 car? What about my land speed record car?

I'm in band G it seems, so that's about a fiver more from the off by the looks of it.

I'm quite surprised that my 2 litre big-ass Mazda is band E. Excellent.

Gar, my wimp of a car would of been in band C but it's too old. Is the tax changing for older cars?

M.

What does paying more if you emit more achieve anyway? Where does the money go?

edit: oh, reading helps. It's punishment. Cheers, Government.

My non-sport 1.6L 2004 Civic is... also band H. Fuck.

Ha. 1998 car, so woot.

Hahahaha my Range Rover is £195 for 12 months - the same as a Vauxhall Zafira 1.6!
/blows raspberry

Fucking government doesn't have a clue.

Band F.

1.2 12v Skoda.

Bah!

That's because it's the same car underneath all the Max Power stuff.

Okay, four points:

1) band E in a Ford Ka??

2) What does the car being from 1998 mean?

3) Grim... "Fucking government doesn't have a clue." 100% correct.

4) Eh?

I didn't notice the registration date bit. I'm safe by 4 months.

IT'S CALLED PETROL TAX, COCK-HEADS!

Because last time they changed, they weren't cunts like this, older cars still use the older car tax system based purely on a couple of bands of engine size.

The tax changes only apply to cars registered in 2001 and onwards.

Mm. I really don't understand all the fucking about with taxes for cars. I guess it's an attempt to be 'green'. However, the only sensible thing is to charge those who pollute more, via petrol taxation. I suspect we cause less 'damage' than most, because our car is barely used, and yet my car tax will be way more than someone driving a Skoda about every day. Stupid, really, but then I imagine the government doesn't have the guts to remove all car taxation and then add more duty to petrol, especially with an election in the not-too-distant. Also, that network of road charges is another lovely Big Brother thing that Labour seems to excited by.

Other than environmental issues, the other purpose of road tax is to fund the maintainence of the network. A system of toll roads, like we used to have in them good old-fashioned times, would be a way to cut the tax and make the user pay. But it's too simple and doesn't involve funky government databases so Labour aren't interested.

If they want to put up petrol tax when it's going up a penny a week as it is then they're asking to be voted out and are going to drive inflation through the roof into the bargain.

I can't use public transport to get to work. I'd love to, but there aren't any trains going from Stoud to Bristol. So I have to use my car and it already costs £45 in petrol and £19 in parking per week. And I bet there are a lot of other people in my situation. An increase in fuel duty wouldn't encourage people to use trains, as (a) if someone does have the option of using a train they're already full, not to mention over-priced and (b) a large number of commuters have no choice but to use their car (not least if they have to drop the kids off first, for instance, seeing as we aren't allowed to have stay at home parents any more).

With the added bonus of course that this would mean tourists and rent a car drivers pay their fair share too.

I think I read somewhere at some point that pertol mowers are almost getting to the same level of polution as cars. Not to mention cows... I think I'd rather stop eating beef than stop driving.

It's just stupid.

If however they say that that the extra money raised would be used only on improving transport for everyone then I would understand but as it stands a massive chunk of car tax is used on anything but FOOKING roads or transport.

I'm going to start shitting on the roads*! To get my moneys worth! Arses!

EDIT

* I don't really know why I would do such a thing but hey I'm paying more tax might as well get some enjoyment# out of it.

# Possibly least enjoyable thing ever.

There's little public transport going from my home to here either. There are some buses, but I'd have to make 3 different connections, and spend about 2.5 hours (each way) doing it. I've done the whole 5-hours-of-travel-a-day life, and it can fuck off.

I'm currently spending about £30 a week on petrol to do the 250 miles, and it really, really hurts when you're only on about £14k.

I wouldn't use public transport again, unless it was cheaper and about as quick as making my own way there. It's slower and more expensive. How is that an incentive?

You bought the wrong Skoda... 1.9TDI 110bhp, Band E.

I am rather amused that this car is only one band more polluting than a 1.1 Kia Picanto (which I once had as a courtesy car - it had NO TORQUE and I cannot believe it pollutes as it's not producing any power)

I used to do 500 miles a week while on £15k so I sympathise entirely, even if prices were 80p/l then.

Next, Broon will alter the way property taxes work.

"It's disgusting," said the typical middle-aged old hag who thinks everything is 'disgusting', "My house has been in my family for over 150 years. It's sickening that this fat Scots twunt is retrospectively extorting more money from us for a house my great great grandfather purchased."

Brian Scissors, who recently moved to a giant mansion, was dismayed by the news. "I don't see how they can expect to get away with it. When I bought this giant house, I expected it to have exactly the same costs as the tiny bolthole I moved out of."

Ministers are expected to go to some foreign countries and urge them to reduce the cost of the sand used to made house bricks, or something.

As long as it's still £0 for electrics, I don't care

OK, I see the point, but honestly, what a fuss about nothing. Nobody seriously expected car tax to get cheaper, the whole media angle seems to be aimed at bashing Brown over a single slightly vague statement he made yonks ago.
Which is fair enough in itself, but the whole "oppressed motorist" thing is getting a bit wearing to be honest. Sky news is covering nothing else!

I used to do 500 miles commuting into North Wales when I first started with this company a couple of years ago. That was about £200 a month on train fairs, and 5 hours of my own time spent, every day, getting to and from work.

I eventually got my own transport and cut the travelling down to 2 hours a day, but still 500 miles. Though petrol was in the low 90s then.

And then I managed to get transferred to the new Nantwich office which, due to the slow roads, made my commute the same time but half the distance. It still sucks, but it's better than it was, and I do enjoy the ride in every morning.

So I feel your pain feeling my pain.

I hope those of you doing mega commutes in cars to work everyday, carpool.

PS - I'm not having a go, far from it, I understand many people have no other option than to drive, but being a cyclist, it does really piss me off seeing 9/10 cars I wizz past in the morning with only one person in.

Out of a 600 employee firm in Bristol, you'd have thought at least one of them would have the decency to live in the same town as me 30 miles away. Sadly not.

Carpooling only really works for short commutes, as you're far more likely to have more employees living in proximity to each other near to the office. And they should be walking, cycling or taking the bus anyway.

I ride a motorbike, so it's all good for me. Carpools aren't always feasible though, especially in small companies where employees live spread out all over the place.

Everyone should ride motorbikes.

I am working on this. Mrs C isn't massively keen on me having one though, as I apparently I'll die.

Plenty of internet sites where you can meet people who work for a different company which will be just down the road form where you work. Takes an extra minute to drop em off on your way to work and then they pay half your petrol costs each day. Winnner!

More people should work from home like what I do. In fact anyone who can do their job with a computer and a phone should be offered the option.

Yes please.

Just buy her one too. She'll love it.

It does seem a bit daft to drive around in a tonne of metal on your own though. Especially when the box is about four times as wide and long as you are. Congestion is very annoying.

I can see the benefits there but on the downside I have to share my car with a smelly stranger who may be an axe murderer.

It's not like I take my axe with me to work though.

Really? How do you dispense RAGE FUELED justice whilst at the office?