Asia faces big hit from “green” air miles
LONDON: Long-haul destination are likely to be hardest hit by a radical plan to levy huge air taxes on anyone in the UK who takes more than one foreign holiday a year.
The “pay as you burn” move is planned by the Opposition Tory party as part of a new campaign to save the planet from global warming.
It is being proposed that every family in Britain would be given a “green air miles” allowance, enabling them to take the equivalent of one return trip to Spain.
After that, they would be forced to pay a new levy if they go abroad a second time. And they would pay the new tax penalty every subsequent time they flew overseas.
The plans have the UK newspapers frothing at the mouth. Says The Times, “Rarely can there have been a policy so patronising, ignorant and statist … Only Notting Hill Man could believe that “normal people” take one annual short-haul trip, probably to the likes of Benidorm or Magaluf, from where they return with skin burnt bright red and a straw donkey under the arm before resuming their humble existence while saving up for next July’s outing to the Med.”
The proposals are part of a discussion paper but are an indication of official attitudes to the challenges of global warming.
Frequent flyers would be hit hard and also long haul destinations like Asia which would be off limits to those trying to conserve their “green air miles”.
A Tory party spokesman said, “Aviation tax needs to go up because it is an increasing contributor to climate change. It is estimated that by 2050 one-quarter of greenhouse gases will come from aviation fuel, so we have to do something to curb them.”
Janet Daley of the Daily Telegraph remarks, “Before I can feel comfortable asking people in emerging economies such as India to forgo the benefits of economic growth and mass prosperity, before I can sentence some of the poorest people in the world to living indefinitely without modern technology, before I am even prepared to ask the lower-paid of this country to give up the improvements in their quality of life to which they have only just become accustomed – I want to hear any and every argument that is to be had about this (global warming) theory.”
Ian Jarrett
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