I AM amazed by K Francis's 200-word riposte to my recent four-sentence letter. Should he care to re-read the latter, he will see that it comments solely that differing justifications were given by Tony Blair, Ruth Kelly, and Gordon Brown for maintaining the current level of tax on petrol, and suggests that a little consistency might be in order.
If K Francis read into my letter views on crude oil prices, price controls, and the relative benefits of UK and EU taxation policies, he must have a very fertile imagination.
May I assure him, however, that I did do my research prior to putting pen to paper. If he re-reads the Gordon Brown statement which he quoted, he will see that the commitment to ring fence petrol tax for transport purposes applies only to future, real-term (ie, in excess of inflation), increases in tax. It is the present, not the future, level and usage of taxation which is currently under discussion. He is, I am afraid, in the fish market, close to the red herring stall.
Geoffrey Breakell
Hatfield Road
Bolton, BL1 3BU
brkll@callnetuk.com
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