Taxes up again; emissions unaffected - feeling greener yet?

Car users are set, yet again, to be the victim of tax hikes dressed up as 'green' fervour in Alistair Darling's first budget as Chancellor, due tomorrow.

Darling is not just planning to press ahead with his 2p rise in fuel duty, despite fuel prices already reaching record levels, but cap it with punitive extra taxes on so-called 'gas guzzlers'.

As part of a further shake up of the road tax system, including the introduction of extra charging tiers, buyers of cars in Band G will reportedly be hit with a one-off first-year's road tax of "more than £1,000", before the tax reverts to the standard annual level of £400.

Band G is typically referred to as the bastion of Range Rovers and other (gasp) 4x4s. But in fact it also encompasses many ordinary mid-range family cars such as some models - mainly estate and automatic variants - of the Mercedes C-class, Saab 9-3 & 9-5, Volvo S60, Honda Accord, Audi A6, Volvo V70 and the Mondeo-sized Jaguar X-Type.

It also includes many everday people-carriers - even those with distinctly average engine sizes - like the Peugeot 807 2.0 MPV, Citroen C8 2.0i, Ford S-Max 2.3 Duratec, Chevrolet Tacuma 2.0CDX, Chrysler Voyager 2.4, Ford Galaxy 2.3 Duratec, Mitsubishi Grandis 2.4 Mivec, Volkswagen Sharan 2.0 S & SE and the Renault Grand Espace 2.0T.

In fact, the very cars the anti-4x4 brigade are encouraging 4x4 owners with a need for spacious family transport to buy instead!

These mid-range car buyers are the people this "showroom tax" plan will hit the hardest. For those who can afford the Range Rovers or a top end executive or sports car for £40k plus - likely twice the price of the mid-range cars - an extra grand is neither here nor there. They'll pay it anyway, as our Chancellor must well know, and the 'gas guzzling' will carry on regardless.

If Darling were serious about making a real difference to lowering CO2 emissions from cars, rather than just squeezing extra revenue from the car tax system, he would cut the government's huge tax take on the more efficient but more expensive 'premium' unleaded fuels.

Equalising the price with that of normal unleaded, through giving up just a few pence a litre of tax, would mean all car users could all afford to choose to lower their emissions.

The result would be a real and instant reduction in emissions that every car on the road could contribute towards.

Why will he ignore it? Because it will cost him money, not increase tax income. And as we know, only higher taxes are 'green'. Right?

With the timing that only his boss 'Bungler' Brown could be behind, Darling's 'putting climate change at the heart of economic policy' Budget comes as evidence is growing that the global warming theory is actually coming apart at the seams.

These people continue to take people for fools at their electoral peril.