Green Policies

luke warm Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 03:45:06 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

I still think it is all codswallop and just another excuse to tax us.



I sometimes wonder at the honesty of politicians who trumpet their “Green” aspirations.

I’m afraid I still think it is all codswallop and just another excuse to tax us.

Recently I was forced to buy a new heating boiler and was delighted to see an offer from British Gas which allowed me a discount for being over 60 years old.

This was obviously designed to encourage people down the “Green” path thus helping to save the planet.  Something which is shoved down our throat every waking minute.

I was then interested to find that I was charged £500 for VAT, a figure that doubled the discount I was offered and supplied a great little earner for our Government.

So much for looking after the elderly and encouraging us to go Green.

If the Government are so keen on saving the planet, shouldn’t initiatives like installing eco friendly, energy saving boilers be VAT free?  As I say it’s all a con.

And while on the subject.  If the Government are so concerned about climate change, CO2 emissions and all the rest of the Green nonsense, wouldn’t you think they would encourage us to recycle by paying us a small amount per item, as they do in Canada, instead of threatening to charge us, which will only lead to fly tipping and more contamination?

To the Minister in charge - Please try to think ahead and come up with some reason for taxing us that doesn’t treat us like idiots.



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Green Policies | 11 comments (11 topical)

Re: Green Policies (#1)

by SocialistAC on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 06:37:41 PM GMT

Ah, the typical bar-room bigot view of Green politics... Try watching something on television less juvenile than Top Gear.


Re: Green Policies (#2)

by laurencemarshall on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 07:44:06 PM GMT

Would you care to engage with the author? As opposed to trying to take the piss.


[ Parent ]

Re: Green Policies (#3)

by NorthernMonkey on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 08:35:25 PM GMT

Well it certainly isn't a con - it is deadly serious.


But I agree with you that VAT should be lowered or abolished on 'green' options.


Re: Green Policies (#4)

by JoeRoberts on Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 09:29:27 PM GMT

Lukewarm, I really can't see the logic in the argument that just because the government hasn't abolished VAT on green products, it isn't interested in doing anything about the environment. You did get a discount after all!


The reason that "green politics is being pushed down our throats" is because climate change is here, and it is a massive threat to the future of our World, and to our children and grandchildren.

It's incumbent on all of us to do our bit, and yes, it will involve making sacrifices and changing our way of life. The Government will have to brandish the stick, not just wave the carrot.

'Climate change denial' is the modern day equivalent of believing that the Earth is flat. Other than a few dodgy 'scientists' hooked up to the American Republican Party or the oil industry, Jeremy Clarkson and Daily Mail journalists, is there anyone out there who honestly, seriously believes that this is all just some big conspiracy by evil politicians to fleece the taxpayer?

Lukewarm, I cannot help thinking that you have some very right-wing views for someone who is supposedly a died-in-the-wool Labour man.


[ Parent ]

Green Policies (#5)

by luke warm on Wed Nov 28, 2007 at 12:25:31 AM GMT

Yes Joe I did get a discount, but my point was that this discount was wiped out and I still paid double that amount in VAT. A nice little earner for the Treasury.

Can  I also point out that our Government made, and is still making,  £millions in VAT for building repairs caused by inadequate flood defences. One has to wonder why they did not improve those flood defences to avoid the devastation that was caused.

And no, I am not a right winger, I am just an ordinary citizen who refuses to be sheepishly taken in by political spin - even if it is coming from our own party.

There are many experts who believe Climate Change is exactly that - climate change. Something which has happened to our planet since it’s birth.  Climate change is driven by the wind, the oceans and the sun and until we can control those elements, then climate change will continue to happen.

Man’s contribution to this effect is so infinitesimal as to be totally irrelevant.

And please don’t start waffling about CO2 emmissions. The true scientific facts are that volcanoes alone produce more CO2 emissions than all man’s factories, cars and planes put together.

Animals and bacteria produce even more.  An even larger amount is created by dying vegetation, but the biggest by far is the ocean. In fact 95%  of the gasses in the atmosphere are water vapour.

But by far the greatest effect on global warming is the sun, which many "experts" somehow conveniently forget! The study of variations in solar activity exactly matches fluctuations in the earth’s temperature.  It is the sun driving temperature and climate change. CO2 is irrelevant.

Global Warming, however, has become a self-perpetuating bureaucratic bandwagon. Vast amounts of money are now poured into this new minor scientific field. It has become an enormous industry and if it collapsed many thousands would be out of work.



[ Parent ]

Re: Green Policies (#6)

by jkitleft on Wed Nov 28, 2007 at 02:38:18 PM GMT

I agree VAT should be decreased, especially for green options.


You say that climate change has happened since the birth of our planet. You are correct. Many say that a rise in CO2 emissons has happened before, and that we've had an Ice age etc. before. That's a perfectly valid opinion.

But the composition of our air in terms of percentages of hydrogen and nitrogen and oxygen and CO2 is constanly evolving. Right now there is great evidence to suggest that the rise this time in CO2 emissions is due to pollution.


[ Parent ]

Re: Green Policies (#7)

by Group51 on Wed Nov 28, 2007 at 08:01:43 PM GMT

What green policies would you like to see?  Here's my list:

1. Modifying stamp duty to provide a real incentive to insulate you house before you sell it, or if already insulated, to invest in micro-generation.

2. An Integrated Transport Policy - regulated buses, more trams, longer trains and electrification.  Maybe road-pricing.  Big push on cycle-commuting.

3. Big push on renewables, wind, tidal, enough to make Nuclear Power look like part of a balanced energy strategy.

4. Invest in finding an alternative to petrol and diesel - some sort of bio fuel that won't kill the planet or poor people.

5. Save the fish!  A national park in the sea (permanent fishing exclusion zone around fish nurseries)


Re: Green Policies (#8)

by luke warm on Wed Nov 28, 2007 at 11:06:07 PM GMT

Group 51 - you are absolutely right in all your suggestions and if politicians and big business were serious about climate change, these would be happening.

Unfortunately that is not the case and I could list many examples showing how Governments are taking us for a ride on the back of this new religion called “Climate Change”.

I will just mention the most recent piece of hypocrisy.  

That is, after trumpeting the need for us all to dump our cars and use public transport, the railways raise their prices by three times the rate of inflation with the sole purpose of pricing us off the trains, which were becoming too popular. Brilliant strategy!


[ Parent ]

Re: Green Policies (#10)

by swatantra on Tue Dec 04, 2007 at 09:14:16 AM GMT

You're right the latest round of rail price increases make you just want to give up in dispair. The incentives should be LOW fares and comfortable trains and buses. Instead they do the opposite. Its absolutely crazy. Obviously they want to deter people using public transport.


[ Parent ]

Re: Green Policies (#9)

by HOWLERMONKEY on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 08:55:38 AM GMT

Only a peasants could believe that stones fall from the sky,because there are no stones in the sky!
Antione Levoisier asressing the French academy of science in 1769.

Metiorites accepted 1803.

Global warming sciance is only as good as  the currant "perseved" wisdom.


Re: Green Policies (#11)

by Group51 on Sun Dec 09, 2007 at 11:40:24 PM GMT

34x increase in renewables by 2020 - every home with green power (in theory).

Come on Labour!  Now for that Severn barrier thing.


Green Policies | 11 comments (11 topical)