@TeeCee Re: Back to the 70's?
is this an admission that the whole arrangement as it stands is a right, royal pig's ear
I did wonder that myself, I thought the whole point in the taxes were to encourage nations to use less energy or face paying a lot more. Rather than enforce that, a 'package' is instead being put together.
Not that I disagree with helping the industries, whilst the above may have sounded like a hardline green, my view is actually that the taxes are a ill thought out, knee jerk reaction to some heavy lobbying by a bunch of eco wack-jobs greens.
If they want to reduce energy usage across the country, they need to look more at what causes us to use so much. A holistic view is also needed, the car scrappage scheme a few years back was a complete failure when you consider the energy used in manufacturing the replacement cars and disposing of the old ones. Might have saved a few emissions, but it's almost certainly still a loss on the hug mother earth front.
I've no problem with trying to help the environment, and am more than willing to do my bit, but taxing everyone into the ground isn't going to work. There's a base-line of usage the average person cannot get below, and the taxes mean that using the minimum is costing more and more and more.
Not to mention, from a cynics point of view, we'll now be paying those taxes twice. Once on our energy bills, but a second time through other tax streams to help fund the package they are proposing. Why not just call a turd a turd and drop the taxes?