According to The Sunday Times Whitehall officials are investigating changes to the UK road tax system.
Under the new proposal the tax could be split into two tiers – all drivers would pay the first charge. This would allow them to use local roads and A-roads but then motorists wanting to travel on motorways and major A-roads would fork out for a second charge.
I can see how this might swell the governments coffers but ultimately this will be an unfair tax. Forcing those who cannot afford the additional taxation onto the minor roads. This in turn will increase congestion and cause delays and lengthen journey times.
My understanding is that road taxes do not currently pay for the UK road system, rather it is paid for by our general taxation. If that is true then we have all contributed to our road systems and should have the right to use any part of it.
If the government wants to introduce a taxation scheme that is variable but fair then they should scrap the road tax system and collect their taxes purely through the levy on fuel. In that way the heaviest road users would pay the most taxes.
Saturday and we had blue skies and sunshine following several days of mist and murk. We paid the price of course with a chill wind blowing strongly.
I have my grandson over from Australia for a few weeks and he has a new camera to play with for the trip so we took the opportunity to get out and visited Staunton Park situated between Leigh Park and Rowlands Castle, near Havant.
We were hoping that the trees would be showing their autumn colours but we were somewhat disappointed. I think we were too early. However, we did enjoy the walk and took some photo’s.
A selection of snaps follows for your delectation, the first of which is a view over Leigh Lake.
Leigh Lake viewed from the site of William Henry Stone’s house.
The following photo shows part of the countryside that will over the next few years, planning consents permitting, become a fairly large reservoir
Although Stones house has long since been demolished there are many signs remaining of the old buildings. Not the least of which are the arches below.
Underneath The Arches
Of course the main reason we were there was to partake of the natural beauty. One aspect of the natural world which offers so much variety is that of the fungi.
FungusGrey Fungus
These cattle make for a quite peaceful scene even though the wind was blowing quite hard.
Longhorn Cattle
The following photo is of part of land which will eventually end up under water as part of a proposed new reservoir.
Site Of Future Reservoir
In the woodlands there are a number of items which are I believe intended as both art and education for children. There is no description near this but I believe that it is intended to let children hear magnified sounds of the woodland. It can be rotated through 360 degrees. I, for want of an alternative christened it “The Mukkinese Battle Horn” after the famous short film featuring Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. Nearby there was another item which is a concave / convex mirror. We had much fun with it which I am sure the children would too.
Mukkinese Battle Horn ?On Reflection
And to finish our walk, as we returned to the car park, this chap came to see us off. It was a shame that he was disappointed by the fact that we had no food to offer him. This is probably why he didn’t display his tail feathers.
Apparently Brighton and Hove City Council is proposing to ban formal titles such as Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms from their official letters and documents.
Why ?
In case they offend the transgender community !!!
It seems that the Brighton councillors are actually going to waste time and have a vote on this proposal. It is said that there have been complaints that the use of traditional titles on council paperwork “forces people to ‘choose between genders'”.
I wonder what percentage of the Brighton and Hove population is made up of “transgender” folks. I’m sure that the number doesn’t warrant such a change. Certainly I am in agreement with the opposition councillors who have branded this proposal as ‘political correctness gone too far’ and that the idea is ‘ludicrous’.
They, the council, already have the ability to differentiate between male and female to determine Mr, Mrs, Miss and Ms. Surely it isn’t beyond the wit of their staff to also determine how transgender residents wish to be addressed. They could do this by asking their resident population to let them know how they would like to be addressed.
Then it would be down to the individual and there would be no reason for anyone to get bent out of shape.
WrAnTz 