More happy fun surveilance from the Labour government

[spudtater]

Apparently the new scheme to cut emissions and ease congestion involves charging users per mile they drive. Which entails fitting a device to each car so that it can be tracked by satelite and charged accordingly.

Yes, the government wants to implement a scheme which will allow them to know where you've been, where you're going, and how long you stay there, for every car journey you make.

I am constantly astounded by the cheek of this government.

Now, let's go back to the problems that this scheme is supposed to solve: emissions, and congestion. And contrast our existing system, which is based on taxing fuel heavily:

1. With fuel taxing, not only are people charged for going on long journeys, they're also charged for using energy-inefficient cars. Woo! Green!
2. The more congested a road is, the longer a car stays idling in traffic, using up fuel. So the more congested the road, the more you pay in fuel taxes. Woo! Magic!

So the supposed benefits are completely bogus. And what about the negatives? Well, first of all there's cost. How much is it going to cost to manufacture and fit a tracking device for every single car in the UK? Especially as this is (*shudder*) a governmental IT project. And they certainly come in under budget and to specification, don't they?

And then there's privacy. With this and ID cards, the police will know who you are, what you do, where you live, where you came from, and where you are going. They won't need to ask for "your papers, please".

Government admits struggle to sell road pricing scheme — The Grauniad

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy. Over 200,000 signatures so far. Add yours!

Edit: while we're all signing petitions, I notice there's a new ID card petition on the 10 Downing Street site.

Comments

[zombywuf.livejournal.com]

http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10666.asp Given this response to a petition (freedom of thought is a limited right subject to restriction, who knew?) I think it's safe to say the government won't listen.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

I think the problem with that petition in particular is that it's overly vague; a petition has more chance of success if it makes one specific demand ("repeal law X", for example).

That said, the Labour government doesn't strike me as one that listens to people at all. It's possibly more likely that the Tories and/or Lib Dems will pick up on this petition. (Tories because of the cost aspects, LD because of civil liberties.) And then we might finally have some debate on the matter.

8^S