Well, the story does seem to change according to what the government can use to try to justify higher taxes. Though the programme appears to have been far from accurate in one important respect, and by extension perhaps not to be relied on too much elsewhere, I also don't trust the pressure groups that push for extreme measures.
Since you raise the subject of cars, charging a different amount of road tax according to how much CO2 they emit per mile is nearly equivalent to adding a tiny bit more on the fuel tax - except that the former requires a bureaucracy, costs a lot to run, and there are more snouts in the trough. If you remember, the Labour gov in the 1970s was going to abolish the road tax and add the equivalent amount on to fuel tax, because it was more difficult to evade. They did increase fuel tax more and didn't actually increase road tax for at least one year, maybe two.
Then the Conservative gov said they weren't going to abolish the road tax, and that it had to be increased because it cost £50 per car per year to collect, and the tax was not enough higher than the costs. I doubt it is that cheap to collect now, particularly with added complexity.
I don't have the knowledge or time to form an opinion on human action causing more or less climate change that I would actually trust, if anything serious depended on it, but I trust some of the environmental pressure groups much less than that. If it is possible I trust the government less than all but the most extreme pressure groups.
no subject
Since you raise the subject of cars, charging a different amount of road tax according to how much CO2 they emit per mile is nearly equivalent to adding a tiny bit more on the fuel tax - except that the former requires a bureaucracy, costs a lot to run, and there are more snouts in the trough. If you remember, the Labour gov in the 1970s was going to abolish the road tax and add the equivalent amount on to fuel tax, because it was more difficult to evade. They did increase fuel tax more and didn't actually increase road tax for at least one year, maybe two.
Then the Conservative gov said they weren't going to abolish the road tax, and that it had to be increased because it cost £50 per car per year to collect, and the tax was not enough higher than the costs. I doubt it is that cheap to collect now, particularly with added complexity.
I don't have the knowledge or time to form an opinion on human action causing more or less climate change that I would actually trust, if anything serious depended on it, but I trust some of the environmental pressure groups much less than that. If it is possible I trust the government less than all but the most extreme pressure groups.