Blair's government once again losing the plot...

[chequita guevara]

I have discovered a good reason to have a car. Running errands during storms.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by el freako


Err, unemployment has never been 5m in the UK - in fact it's never gone above the 3.4m it reached in 1984 (it's currently 1.4m)

Bullsh1t, those figures in the mid 80's were way out, the real figure was closer to 6 million.

I think at one point you could n't register as unemployed if you were left handed!

[CerberusIV]

I forsee a thriving market in stolen and reprogrammed little black boxes.

I wonder what they will do about foreign registered cars? I'm not keen on the thought of having to pay extortionate amounts of money just to drive through the UK on my way somewhere else.

[C0ckney]

Originally posted by Dauphin


Do you have a mobile phone? If you do then you can have your whereabouts traced just as easily as the proposed car scheme.

Incidently, many (and increasingly more) police cars are equipped with cameras to scan every licence plate they see and compare them to a DVLA database, in order to determine if they are 'wanted'.

maybe so, but no one is actually checking where my phone is 24/7, which would the case with my car is this was introduced.

and i see a bit of a difference between being checked if i happen to drive past a police car and people knowing exactly where my car is at any given time.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
I forsee a thriving market in stolen and reprogrammed little black boxes.

I wonder what they will do about foreign registered cars? I'm not keen on the thought of having to pay extortionate amounts of money just to drive through the UK on my way somewhere else.

Why would you drive through the UK on your way to somewhere else?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by C0ckney


maybe so, but no one is actually checking where my phone is 24/7, which would the case with my car is this was introduced.

Why would anyone be checking where your car is? Why on Earth would they really care? Now, they potentially could check where you are if they wanted to, but they won't. Well not anymore than they would want to check your phones records, or the internet sites you access or the way you use your credit cards etc.

The thing you have to remember is that system is automated and its going to trace over 30 million cars, why would they pay a particular interest in you? All you are really doing is leaving a trail that can be traced at a later date, which is no different to most other things in your life.

A benefit of the system would be that if anyone nicks your car you have a way of finding it very quickly.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Why would you drive through the UK on your way to somewhere else?

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by MikeH
"Now public transport in this country is pretty crap on the whole"

Not if you live in London (which you do) it isn't. It's absolutely excellent.

Yep but anywhere outside a major city and your struggling to get by if public transport is the way you get about. Most routes in devon for example only run buses once per hour, and they are late/early or sometimes dont turn up at all.

You can't run your economy on that set up. Now if they invest massivley in outer city public transport then maybe its a worth a shot to help bring pollution/congestion/climate change under control?

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Dauphin
edit...

A benefit of the system would be that if anyone nicks your car you have a way of finding it very quickly.

Which would be a godsend for the long suffering residents of Liverpool

[Mercator]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Why would you drive through the UK on your way to somewhere else?

You clearly don't live in Norway.

[Solly]

I think it's a bit odd for a government that is supposedly a believer in climate change to want to introduce an idea that reduces the incentive inherent in fuel tax to be more energy efficient.

I think they're worried about when cars will be powered by electricity...

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Only if it's on

The car scheme could easily be set up to only track movements when the engine is on.

[CerberusIV]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


Why would you drive through the UK on your way to somewhere else?

Because the UK is the disaster zone between where I live and anywhere else I might want to go (unless I go direct to France but the ferries are being blockaded at the moment).

Did American schools lose geography along with the theory of evolution to the god nuts?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Park Avenue
I think it's a bit odd for a government that is supposedly a believer in climate change to want to introduce an idea that reduces the incentive inherent in fuel tax to be more energy efficient.

I think they're worried about when cars will be powered by electricity...

Exactly. These moves will take years to implement, by which time we'll have far more energy-cell cars on the roads.

Electric cars means you either shift the pollution to where the power stations are (unpopular with the Greens), or build more nuclear power stations (unpopular with the Greens), or build more wind farms (unpopular with other groups). Therefore it's a forward-planning step to shift to new ways of reducing car use.

[MikeH]

Originally posted by child of Thor


Yep but anywhere outside a major city and your struggling to get by if public transport is the way you get about. Most routes in devon for example only run buses once per hour, and they are late/early or sometimes dont turn up at all.

You can't run your economy on that set up. Now if they invest massivley in outer city public transport then maybe its a worth a shot to help bring pollution/congestion/climate change under control?

Isn't the whole point of this scheme that you pay to use the busy roads and the ones in the countryside say are free. So it shifts the cost to city drivers who have less excuse and away from the people who need them.

Not that I buy this idea. I don't have a car so I get amused when drivers stress out about **** like this. Bad Mike.