On 10/03/2018 17:19, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
As the evidence on health risks rises, there may come a time when the
govt. decides to price them off the road by hiking the road tax or
taxing diesel fuel.


The evidence on health ri9sks hasnt chamged in 20 years.

But the emphasis the government puts on things has. Only a few years ago
they were urging people to change to diesels because of allegedly lower
CO2 output. Even when it was known the harmful to humans pollutants from
the average diesel were much higher than from the same power petrol
engine. And that ignored that diesels tend to pollute even more as they
age, due to emissions control equipment fitted having little effect on the
running when faulty. And having an MOT which simply doesn't check them
properly.


And corrupting the London 'congestion' tax by waving it for
so-called low emission vehicles.

If a vehicle occupies space on the roads and it enters the
charging zone then the owner should pay. Slap an extra
charge for high-polluting vehicles, but don't reward owners
of Prius's or the streets will just be clogged with Prius's.