7th July 2008
Fuel Tax Robbery
Last Wednesday I argued along with my SNP colleagues for a fuel tax regulator to dampen down the huge fluctuations in fuel prices on the international oil market by cutting (or increasing) duty in response to fuel price surges (or falls). The Lib Dems attacked us and the Tories were conspicuous in not supporting us in the lobbies later. So imagine my surpise when I read over the weekend that George Osborne was to announce Tory plans for a “fuel price stabiliser” that would iron out volatility in fuelprices by cutting duty in response to movements in the oil market price. Hmm. Is this the same Tory Party whose Leader and Shadow Chancellor have often sent up the Prime Minister for stealing their ideas. It seems that they are not averse to a bit of intellectual plagiarism themselves. And is the same party that has attacked the Government for sidelining Parliament and making their announcements direct to the media. If the Tories didn’t want to support outr amendment, they could have put down their own: but no they decided that not breaking their media embargo was more important……
At this time of world crisis in energy, food and the economy, it’s comforting to know that both Government and Opposition are as vacuous as each other.
We’re sending George an invoice anyway for this bit of policy development work on behalf of the intellectual power-house that is the modern Conservative Party. No doubt, he could recycle some of his income from his recent IoD appearance in Jersey. As a goodwill gesture we’ve thrown in some other policies for free: on a referendum on a Parliament for Wales and the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
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