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Bill Carmichael: Seeing red over 'green' taxes
SO-CALLED "green" taxes are a con.
They have absolutely nothing to do with saving the planet, or changing people's behaviour. It is all about raising revenue.
Governments around the world have realised that environmentalism gives them an easy way of squeezing yet more tax out of hard-working people.
And if you object, you are supposed to feel guilty about drowning polar bears.
"Green" taxes also impact most heavily on the poor. This isn't an accident, it is a deliberate policy.
Take, for example, motoring. The only way of reducing the numbers of cars is by forcing the less-affluent off the roads. This is what increases in fuel duty and car tax are partly designed to achieve.
Of course, some people will simply give up driving, but for many, they have little choice – particularly those with large families, or who live in a rural area, or who need a car to get to work.
Tough, say the environmentalists, pay up and stop moaning. Think of the
polar bears.
Same with air travel. The green agenda is to stop the less-affluent from flying by making it so expensive that only the rich can afford it.
But it won't stop Al Gore jetting around the globe lecturing us lesser mortals about the evils of flying.
A perfect example of this "green" tax con is the 200 increase in car tax on so-called "gas guzzlers" due to be introduced next year. It will be imposed not just on high-performance cars and vast 4x4s, but on ordinary family vehicles, too. It is also retrospective, so if you bought a car seven years ago and can't afford to change it, you'll be hit by an enormous tax rise.
As I said, it is nothing to do with changing your behaviour. It is all about making you pay more tax.
Richer people won't be put off driving by a few extra pence on fuel duty. Prince Charles won't be giving up the Aston Martin any time soon, and don't expect to see well-heeled eco warriors such as Jonathon Porritt or Lord Melchett shivering at the bus stop at six on a winter's morning.
Last year, a study by the Taxpayers' Alliance found that "green" taxes raised 21.9bn in 2005 (the figure will be much higher today), but the social cost of carbon emissions was estimated at just 11.7bn.
The difference – a whopping 10bn a year – was simply pocketed by the Chancellor. Not a penny of it went to the polar bears.
Green issues are just an excuse to tax us more. They are not trying to save the planet – they just want to pick your pocket.
Gaza rip-off
Former US President Jimmy Carter was in the UK this week where he lambasted Europe over our treatment of the Palestinians.
It was a disgrace that Palestinian children were suffering from malnutrition, he said.
Are these the same Palestinians who receive more than $1bn in aid from European taxpayers every year?
In fact, the Palestinians are far and away the largest recipients of foreign aid world wide, dwarfing even the poverty-stricken countries of Africa and Asia.
Last year, the international community agreed to give the Palestinians $7.7bn over three years – or about $640 a year for every man, woman and child in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In contrast, Burkina Faso receives about $44 per head, per year; Angola $35; Bangladesh $8.6; Burundi $42 and Ethiopia $20.
If the vast riches given to the Palestinians were spent on feeding the poor, encouraging businesses and building new schools, hospitals and roads, it would lead to prosperity and perhaps peace.
Instead, much of the aid has been stolen by kleptocrats, such as Yasser Arafat, and the rest has been used to fund terrorism and in indoctrinating children with racist propaganda.
The fact that our money is so shamefully misused is the real disgrace.
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