‘Quality of Life’ turns off travellers
Comment by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com)
There’s nothing more likely to turn off millions of potential voters than telling them to ‘get a life’.
This government may be on its last legs, with people desperate for a viable alternative, but the Conservatives have breathed new life into the corpse with its ‘Quality of Life’ report.
I can see many potential Tory voters in the travel industry – and more importantly, travellers – having a sharp rethink after blancmange-face’s latest brainwave, which includes a tax on short-haul domestic flights. Doesn’t he realise that there are already taxes on these flights?
On the one hand we have Gordon Brown raising air passenger duty to supposedly protect the environment, although we haven’t seen any evidence of money being spent in that direction. On the other, we have David Cameron, who seems determined to burden ordinary people with ever more taxes and penalties.
Laughably, there is even talk of banning plasma televisions and tumble dryers. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? How on earth will they police that?
What about those old cathode-ray tube televisions? I’ll bet they’re not particularly efficient. Perhaps the Tories ought to go round to a few old peoples’ homes and take them out, or perhaps tax their pensions to pay for the obscene damage to the environment?
However, there is sense in some of the things proposed by Cameron’s right-hand man, Zac Goldsmith.
He says that airlines should be encouraged to build fuel-efficient aircraft. Absolutely right. You can’t un-invent flying and stop people from going on aircraft, or tax it so much that we have a return to the days when only the rich could travel. Instead, make it easy for airlines to be fuel efficient. If they have to pass on some costs to consumers then fine, but don’t automatically hit the poor tax-payer first.
Goldsmith also insists that companies should be forced to cut down on their packaging. Hooray. Firms are spending millions on marketing different products to us and then we get stung if we don’t put the cardboard or plastic into the right container.
It’s a shame some of these sensible ideas were overshadowed by ridiculous plans to impose ever more taxes on travellers, which are simply a way of bringing money into the Treasury, not saving the planet.
Jeremy Skidmore
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