OT New tax coming.

[Huge]

Quite so. The function of Government is to make more Government.

[Huge]

It *should* be, but the bureaucracy is utterly entrenched.

[Huge]

Politicians can't look at other people's money without thinking to themselves how much better it would be if *they* were spending that money.

[Huge]

I don't believe it is possible to have a tax that is "fair", anyway.

[AC]

Order online. Much cheaper than driving.

[Steve Firth]

Roland Perry wrote: [snip]

Or if there is a bus it will be run for the convenience of the bus company, not for the passengers. We have a bus service for a similar distance to the nearest city. It takes about 90 minutes to travel 16 miles. It also reduces the maximum shopping load to a couple if carrier bags. Not enough for a weekly shop.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Time to move somewhere more sensible, then, before not having a decent bus service becomes a problem.

[charles]

but you need a bus service to be able to use these.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If a decent bus service was viable, someone would provide it?

[Tim Lamb]

Tax the use seems close.

Fuel tax ticks most boxes except reducing the competitiveness of our industry.

>

[Steve Firth]

I already have a place somewhere more sensible - it's further away from a city and doesn't have a bus route.

[Frank Dibbs]

No we are not! Where in the article, which must be true as it is in the Daily Mail, does it mention a date when this will commence?

It is just one of many proposals which are under consideration!

The scheme would have to apply to all roads in one way or another as, otherwise, there would be no way to differentiate.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Stop moaning about not having noisy smelly buses, then. You don't want to disturb the foxes shagging.

[Nightjar]

As people often seem to define fair as meaning it suits their circumstances, it can seem fair to some people. However, as you say being fair to everybody is probably impossible.

Colin Bignell

[Nightjar]

And increasing inflation, not to mention being unfair to pensioners with lots of time on their hands to travel, although it would benefit me when driving abroad.

Colin Bignell

[Steve Firth]

[snip]

Perhaps you can show where I was "moaning" about the bus? I really don't GAS how crappy the bus is, I don't use it.

[Bill Wright]

That is far from being a complete solution. It's difficult to get an eye test, or a doctor's appointment, or chiropody, or a dental treatment, or a haircut on the internet. I have a friend, a widow in her thirties with three kids. She used to work full time, but was worse off because it reduced her benefits. She now works 20 hours a week but is no better off financially than if she didn't work at all. She works in order to 'put something back'. She lives in a rural village partly because that's where her elderly mother is. Mum doesn't want to move away from her church and other social things. The cost to my friend of getting the kids to school, paying for school dinners, etc, is £50 a week. The kids (for good reasons) are at different schools, and the journeys are a mix of car and bus. The fact is, the hard-up who live in rural areas are never considered in government transport policy.

Bill

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 17:19:58 on Sun, 11 Nov

2012, Bill Wright remarked:

But they make it back on the subsidies for everything else.

The phone, electricity, water and sewerage, mail delivery, refuse collection and a myriad of other things, are much more costly to provide in a rural area, but don't get charged extra.

[dennis]

8<

That will be difficult.. there is *no* pension fund. that is one of the big problems, they keep paying pensions without ever having saved anything from the contributions.

[Dave Liquorice]

I'm going to assume "nearest shop" implies groceries. 16 miles (one way?) is going some for the nearest grocery store, where do they live?

Even here where it's 20 to 30 miles (one way) to any of the "big 5" supermarkets you still only be just over 10 miles or so from the nearest grocery store as we have a Co-op 2 miles away.

That makes another assumption that the people live within the online grocery stores delivery area. Until about 6 months ago only Asda delivered to our area, Sainsburys, in theory, started 6 months ago but I've never seen the Sainsburys van. Tesco have delivered to the town 2 miles away for years but not to us. None of the other grocers deliver to here.