Just as the government - and Blair, personally - sets about going on a charm offensive to soothe the growing dissent over "road-pricing", the true costs of the scheme are revealed by The Telegraph based on the DTI's own feasibility study.
The set up costs alone are estimated - by the DTI - at a staggering £62 BILLION!!!
Yearly running costs are estimated at £6.8 BILLION!
It will cost each motorist an estimated £300 a year, just to collect the charge.
Motorists will be expected to pay up to £600 to have the surveillance equipment installed in their cars.
When you consider that just about every time this government estimates the cost of one of their grandiose projects they are way, way under you can rest assured that the true costs will be considerably more.
Even if you accept the government claims that this is not about tracking us and monitoring our movements - which I do not - then you still need to ask yourself if there aren't better things we could be spending this money on? I know I can think of many, but instead of listening to the people, learning the lessons of their past mistakes (NHS super computer) and recognising the priority needs of this nation they are determined to press ahead with such a frivolous scheme that will do nothing to ease congestion, cut car use or pollution.
Remember, they will have to recoup that £62 billion somehow - plus all the interest it accrues - and that means more and more tax. Tax on our cars, tax on our homes, tax on our earnings, tax on our savings, tax on our spending, tax on our pensions, tax on our holidays, tax on our travel, tax on our work, tax on our play, tax on our living and tax on our dying. As Central News points out - they are even planning to tax our peace and quiet.
Tax and spend, tax and spend, tax and spend. Sound familiar, yet?
This government is either totally mad, completely bad or both. Either way, the longer they remain in power the greater the danger to the British people.
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