What are your unpopular opinions? (Vol. 2)

[otolith]

Pitre said:

Seriously, there should be an 'off peak' road tax option for those of us who only use main routes in the evening or at weekends.

Road charging?

I think the motorways should be road charged, but it should be done with a GPS unit smart enough to tell which lane you are driving in. Lane 1, free of charge. Lane 2, charge per mile. Lane 3, charge per mile x 2. Lane 4, charge per mile x 4, and so on. Solves unnecessary lane hogging as well as congestion based charging.

[Pitre]

otolith said:

Pitre said:

Seriously, there should be an 'off peak' road tax option for those of us who only use main routes in the evening or at weekends.

Road charging?

I think the motorways should be road charged, but it should be done with a GPS unit smart enough to tell which lane you are driving in. Lane 1, free of charge. Lane 2, charge per mile. Lane 3, charge per mile x 2. Lane 4, charge per mile x 4, and so on. Solves unnecessary lane hogging as well as congestion based charging.

Both of those

[Onelastattempt]

otolith said:

Road charging?

I think the motorways should be road charged, but it should be done with a GPS unit smart enough to tell which lane you are driving in. Lane 1, free of charge. Lane 2, charge per mile. Lane 3, charge per mile x 2. Lane 4, charge per mile x 4, and so on. Solves unnecessary lane hogging as well as congestion based charging.

I can just imagine the carnage when everybody is trying to force their way back in to lane 1 after overtaking a truck before they hit the mile threshold. !

[captain_cynic]

Onelastattempt said:

otolith said:

Road charging?

I think the motorways should be road charged, but it should be done with a GPS unit smart enough to tell which lane you are driving in. Lane 1, free of charge. Lane 2, charge per mile. Lane 3, charge per mile x 2. Lane 4, charge per mile x 4, and so on. Solves unnecessary lane hogging as well as congestion based charging.

I can just imagine the carnage when everybody is trying to force their way back in to lane 1 after overtaking a truck before they hit the mile threshold. !

Yep,

After reading some of the last few posts I think my opinion that it's a good thing that it's hard to get into government is not such an unpopular opinion.

[Nethybridge]

captain_cynic said:

Yep,

After reading some of the last few posts I think my opinion that it's a good thing that it's hard to get into government is not such an unpopular opinion.

Indeed, an experiment in returning to the days when only
property owning penis possessors over 35 could vote would lead to
some interesting shifts in the political landscape.

[Strangely Brown]

Nethybridge said:

Indeed, an experiment in returning to the days when only
property owning penis possessors over 35 could vote would lead to
some interesting shifts in the political landscape.

And by 'property owing' I presume you mean owned outright, no mortgage?

[Simon Bags]

otolith said:

Road charging?

I think the motorways should be road charged, but it should be done with a GPS unit smart enough to tell which lane you are driving in. Lane 1, free of charge. Lane 2, charge per mile. Lane 3, charge per mile x 2. Lane 4, charge per mile x 4, and so on. Solves unnecessary lane hogging as well as congestion based charging.

Do away with road tax and put it all on fuel? The more you use, the more you pay?

[nickfrog]

Simon Bags said:

Do away with road tax and put it all on fuel? The more you use, the more you pay?

It seems so glaringly obvious, fair and cheap to implement. Probably won't happen

[Strangely Brown]

nickfrog said:

Simon Bags said:

Do away with road tax and put it all on fuel? The more you use, the more you pay?

It seems so glaringly obvious, fair and cheap to implement. Probably won't happen

... and what about electric vehicles? Don't they use the road too?

Yes, I know they don't pay VED... yet. But they will.

[cheesejunkie]

nickfrog said:

Simon Bags said:

Do away with road tax and put it all on fuel? The more you use, the more you pay?

It seems so glaringly obvious, fair and cheap to implement. Probably won't happen

I remember fulling in a government survey asking those sort of questions years ago. I'm assuming it was filed under do nothing but look like we're thinking about it.

[e-honda]

Government ministers should have some insight into what they are the minister for, rather than being career politicians.
How can you go from a housing minister to transport minister to energy minister to fking defence minister.
Stupid fking s

[nickfrog]

Strangely Brown said:

nickfrog said:

Simon Bags said:

Do away with road tax and put it all on fuel? The more you use, the more you pay?

It seems so glaringly obvious, fair and cheap to implement. Probably won't happen

... and what about electric vehicles? Don't they use the road too?

Yes, I know they don't pay VED... yet. But they will.

It's possible that the decision was never taken because it was deemed to be "too late" with EVs taking over.

[anonymoususer]

e-honda said:

Government ministers should have some insight into what they are the minister for, rather than being career politicians.
How can you go from a housing minister to transport minister to energy minister to fking defence minister.
Stupid fking s

Yes I can get this point.

[Forester1965]

The skill of being a minister is the same as any other senior management role in life. It isn't in the subject matter (you hire people to know about that), the skill is in managing progress and risk.

Once you start promoting people to manage progress and risk because they've been on the coalface, the Peter Principle kicks in pretty fast.

Our problem with ministers in recent times is that they're also crap managers in addition to knowing nothing about the subject matter.

[Cow Corner]

e-honda said:

Government ministers should have some insight into what they are the minister for, rather than being career politicians.
How can you go from a housing minister to transport minister to energy minister to fking defence minister.
Stupid fking s

I actually disagree.

I think there is a danger that a former Doctor running Health or an ex soldier running Defence would bring in their own prejudices or be too at risk of falling in with the traditional Public Sector 'but that's the way we've always done it' mentality.

What you want is someone who can listen to expert advice, but not be afraid to ask difficult questions and bring fresh ideas.

Personally, I think the issue is more the quality of our politicians, rather than their lack of a suitable professional background...

[Pitre]

WOOD ≠ TREES

[DodgyGeezer]

nickfrog said:

Strangely Brown said:

nickfrog said:

Simon Bags said:

Do away with road tax and put it all on fuel? The more you use, the more you pay?

It seems so glaringly obvious, fair and cheap to implement. Probably won't happen

... and what about electric vehicles? Don't they use the road too?

Yes, I know they don't pay VED... yet. But they will.

It's possible that the decision was never taken because it was deemed to be "too late" with EVs taking over.

the issue with all on dinojuice is that your transportation costs rise drastically which is then massively inflationary surely? That said if an argument can be made for that you could also lump a surcharge onto electric bills to 'tax' EV's for their usage... anything over 'X' is charged at a higher rate

e-honda said:

Government ministers should have some insight into what they are the minister for, rather than being career politicians.
How can you go from a housing minister to transport minister to energy minister to fking defence minister.
Stupid fking s

I kinda get that - how on earth you can have someone like Raynor as shadow education secretary is beyond me - actually to be fair to her (and that hurt to even think it, let alone type!) I can't see that m/any of the current front bench or shadow are worth a lick full stop (but that's a whole other issue).

[Forester1965]

Starmer did a very creditable job at the CPS. He's also done a good job with the loony left of the Labour party. Hopefully he'll bring that to his management of government.

[Nethybridge]

Forester1965 said:

Starmer did a very creditable job at the CPS. He's also done a good job with the loony left of the Labour party. Hopefully he'll bring that to his management of government.

Now that is an unpopular, and hilarious opinion. Top marks.

[Blib]

Nethybridge said:

Forester1965 said:

Starmer did a very creditable job at the CPS. He's also done a good job with the loony left of the Labour party. Hopefully he'll bring that to his management of government.

Now that is an unpopular, and hilarious opinion. Top marks.

Well, at least he did a proper job before entering politics. Unlike many of the wastrels currently in Parliament.

My unpopular opinion?

Passenger vehicles should be taxed on their footprint. The larger the square footage the higher the road tax.

Furthermore, congestion charge rates should also vary according to the size of the passenger vehicle.