I was playing Smoky and the Bandit with a Capri 2.8i at 22, it's a wonder I'm still alive!
Good times..
You weren't the bloke who crashed into my dad and changed his life forever (all for a bit of sideways fun) are you? Only he drove a 2.8 Capri and drove like a hero.
Its the stupidly High amounts us sensible people have a problem with!
... on luxury items.
The public transport system is, largely, pretty poor currently. But if more people used it, it would be more useful; chicken and egg. Look at London, people are forced to use public transport, therefore you can pretty much get from anywhere in London to anywhere else in London in a short amount of time at any point in the day or night.
I wanted to get from East Lancashire to Leeds for a meal a couple of months ago. I would've preferred the train, but the last train home is around 9pm, so I had to drive. It's a very silly state of affairs.
Its the stupidly High amounts us sensible people have a problem with!
I love it when folk say sensible people though its not as good as right minded people for suggesting only non sensible or wrong thinking folk disagree with you 🙄
Personally I have no objection too paying tax and pooling our collective resources to achieve social goals like say a decent public transport system cheap enough and often enough to use.
Only selfish folk think only about their own personal tax burden rather than the collective needs and goals of the wider society.
So cougar you have trains in East lancs, I am happy the 19 th Century has reached there has the 20 th yet 😉
Its the stupidly High amounts us sensible people have a problem with!
I'll bet the govt love people like you who just pay pay pay and love it.
Aren't you a student? Teh ironing of someone paying virtually no tax, whilst talking about "being ripped off by the man" is just delightful.
Your ignorance about "how much of your car tax pays for roads", just makes you look like a pillock though sadly.
What is your solution? If you cut every tax by 10%, where does that shortfall come from?
We'll ... Latest update is that we have the car back,...... But £700 (which he doesn't have ) lighter. He was interviewed under caution by two HMRC officials .... As you may expect a good cop / bad cop ...... The questioning and statement process was about 30 minutes and questions obviously designed to trick and get more info. But after the questioning and fine / release charge paid they issued documentation . He has 24 hours to drain and remove the red from the tank.... If any further is found on spot check then he's really in big trouble and they are unlikely to release car .
After the grilling I spoke privately to the officials ..... They were happy it was his first offence and something he was unlikely to repeat. Sometimes they were saying that after questioning they hold car for further investigations if they feel they could get to source or there is a commercial gain. They seized an Audi A8 last week !
He was driving home and within 15 miles was pulled by Police again to investigate his fuel so the car is obviously on database and picked up by the number plate recognition cameras. In a way I was quite happy with that as it confirms to him that he is a marked man and he must be totally clean on anything at all to do with his car.
I thank you for the comments ...... But whilst he isn't a bad lad he is just frustratingly stupid..... He seems to have this streak of whatever that places him above the law...... He has e need up working to pay charges for unpaid parking fees, e bay charges, going overdrawn etc..... He just can't seem to get himself sorted financially .... Hence why he was during red diesel!
No... He's not thieving or doing really bad stuff, but I worry that he drifts down that road to get cash when he is short...... It's hard when he has been surrounded by a work ethic all his life and we work hard for the things we have and plan and work towards what we want over time. Whilst he works hard the point I was trying to make to him this morning was that basically he has now worked a whole month for nothing just to pay this fine.... He worked for half a week to pay an unpaid car parking ticket last month £112.50 ..... All because he couldn't be bothered to put £4 in a machine ! Then thought that Mr Teflon could ignore the letters and tickets.....
So what stresses and worries is that will he actually learn from this latest and biggest.... Or will it actually continue the cycle as he will be short of cash for a few months now..... Short at Christmas etc etc etc.....
I could cheerfully beat him with a stick.
Sell the car to pay the debts - either use a bike or get a cheaper car.
Tough lesson, but sounds like a necessary one
Hells teeth, no im not a student and as far as i know our stupidly high taxed does Not pay for public transport (thats a self funded business iirc)
Lets all agree that all the high taxes are really working to keep the country working exactly as it should do .... But wait a minute????
Do we all believe this country is runing properly and most of all Fairly?
Kids are just people who haven't yet learnt enough lessons, age is pretty irrelevant (Dad to 3 sons, 15, 18 and 19).
Luckily for me my ex is so crap with money that the eldest two have learnt their (money) lessons already. They still cost me money even though the eldest two are working, but it's all for good reasons and I'd rather they asked me than went for credit elsewhere.
our stupidly high taxed does Not pay for public transport (thats a self funded business iirc)
Public transport is subsidised - quite substantially in London.
Well, to be fair if they were parking tickets from a private parking company he doesn't need to pay them, if he appeals properly they will be overturned..
However he's been daft with the red, doubt it's a mistake he'll make again!!
You can screw with most parts of the legal system, customs though, it really isn't worth it!
I used to work for a customs clearance company and asked the boss about the powers of HMC&E. "Son" he replied "they can look up your arse without asking"
Perhaps not technically correct but in some regards they have greater powers than the police.
Hells teeth, no im not a student and as far as i know our stupidly high taxed does Not pay for public transport (thats a self funded business iirc)
may i suggest you read this.
[url= http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/10854585.Fresh_plea_over_bus_cuts_in_Worcestershire/ ]http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/10854585.Fresh_plea_over_bus_cuts_in_Worcestershire/[/url]
just one case, and there are plenty more, most councils subsidise routes, and this is before we get to free bus passes for OAPs, which aren't actually free but paid for by everyone just not at the point of use.
I suggest you do a bit of reading and not the daily mail, the tax burden in the UK is actually quite low, part of the reason why so many services are crap! We could go down the US route and let the poor die in the streets because they have no health insurance if you want.
crankboy - Member
local shops? local work? local school??? cheap petrol kills the rural economy . There is a 2010 report by the council "Rural Wiltshire an Overview."Basically a prosperous area with lots of urban incommers pricing out locals and changing local comunities, [b]If more people were using the local busses for local needs then more busses would run[/b] .
But people don't use the buses [i]because[/i] there are very few that go to where people need to get, from places they live!
Do you actually [i]know[/i] anything about the county of Wiltshire? It very big, with lots of small villages spread over a large area, along small, narrow roads, where buses don't go. A friend of mine has a hotel/restaurant/tea-room business not far from Castle Combe, on the Fosse Way. In order to catch a bus, there is a walk of a mile along a narrow road, with no verges, which drops into a steep valley with bends and back up again, to get to a main A-road, to catch a bus to Chippenham, in order to then catch a bus to get to Bath, Bristol, or anywhere else. In the other direction, which goes to the A420 Bristol Road, it's a two mile walk, with steep, very narrow sections and no verges. A close friend used to live in Colerne, which has a large military base. There is one bus at 7.15am, and one in the afternoon, out of the village, to Bath. The communities are spread out, people who need to work can't use public transport because there can [i]never[/i] be enough buses to take people to a huge variety of destinations. Quite a few people at work start at 6am, they come from Corsham, Bristol, Swindon, Cirencester...
Do you seriously think that there would be buses running at 4am, to get one or two people to jobs in Chippenham?
And retired people might well live spread out around a particular village, and have to walk quite some distance in foul weather, just to get to a bus-stop, and a bus that may well take two hours to do a fifteen minute car drive.
A work collegue lives in Biddestone, where my local pub is. He starts at 6am, finishes at 1.30pm, and there are no buses that go into the village. He'd have to walk the five miles into Chippenham, because there are no bus stops on the A420, which is three quarters of a mile from his cottage.
And no, as a very large bloke close to retiring age, a bike is not an option.
Some people have a hopelessly unrealistic notion of how people manage in spread-out rural communities.
And the small village schools have all closed, because there weren't enough children going to them to keep them going.
And the post offices all closed, because all the services that people used were taken away, or put on-line; really useful in areas that barely have an Internet connection to speak of, let-alone mobile coverage.
I'll happily dump you in Nettleton, without a bike or car, and see how you manage to get around on a day-to-day basis.
crankboy - Member
Basically a prosperous area with lots of urban incommers pricing out locals and changing local comunities, If more people were using the local busses for local needs then more busses would run .
Public transport! 😆 Yes, they do transport people from A to B but by no means should they replace our freedom to drive.
If you can afford a car then get a car.
Public transport is just another mode of transport and not there to dictate how people travel/live. 🙄
Beeching has a lot to answer for.
I think about now would be the suitable moment to re-deploy this
as far as i know our stupidly high taxed does Not pay for public transport (thats a self funded business iirc)
You recall incorrectly. Have you not put down that Daily Mail you were whittering on about yet?
Lets all agree that all the high taxes are really working to keep the country working exactly as it should do .... But wait a minute????
Do we all believe this country is runing properly and most of all Fairly?
No, the poorest and most vulnerable in our society get screwed, whilst the rich collect bonuses, evade tax, and then have the temerity to moan about paying too much tax.
You know those who complain the most about high taxes probably pay the least.
Considering there are scores of cars that will get over 60mpg fuel is still fairly cheap.
Yes Mike that makes loads of sense, and £1.40+ Cheap? I remember paying Half of that for a Gallon mate!
And on that note, im outta here!
£1.40+ Cheap?
Given that it's a non-renewable resource, that has far better uses than pushing cars around, and causes untold damage to the planet, it seems pretty damn cheap, yes.
I remember paying Half of that for a Gallon mate!
In which case you should be clever enough to be aware of:
1) Inflation
2) Supply and demand
3) If you don't pay tax through a levy on something that pollutes, you'll pay it as extra VAT, or income tax, or something.
And on that note, im outta here!
Don;t let the door hit you on the arse, enjoy your flounce, etc.
Given how single occupancy cars , traffic jams and levels of journeys of less than 5 miles being undertaken by car yep ill agree fuels too expensive.
The price of fuel still doesnt make people think twice about using the car to nip to the shop. There are guys in our office who drive from one end of dyce to the other- just because its cold outside.....
Count Zero makes some very good points and the local bus services are due to be cut. Got to love this government.
Zokes you are feisty this morning, the Ashes are gone, you just have to accept it 😆
Having lived in rural areas for most of my life I'm well aware of the awful state of rural transport but I'm also aware of what cheap fuel means, here in Oz it's relatively half the price as it is in the UK and there is still an obsession with 25mpg trucks that are nothing more than penis extensions. It's well proven that taxation can be a motivation for change, business doesn't change because it's right they do it to save money etc.
Yes Mike that makes loads of sense, and £1.40+ Cheap? I remember paying Half of that for a Gallon mate!
And on that note, im outta here!
Well done point missed, you are obviously old enough to remember a time before we understood that oil was limited and that the pollution caused was not an acceptable outcome.
Spot on, Mike
Aaaahhh the peak oil myth.... And if this world was really bothered about polution it wouldn't have surpressed air and water powered vehicles
Rather than just taking the piss - do you have any links to credible sources for your claims about peak oil, and air and water-powered engines?
Lawmanmx - Member
I thought you'd gone?
Aaaahhh the peak oil myth....
Please astound us with this ground breaking new science that you've developed that has turned a very finite resource into an infinite one
And if this world was really bothered about polution it wouldn't have surpressed air and water powered vehicles
Yeah, I heard that they snuffed out the flying pig industry in its infancy also. Damn them.
http://anticorruptionsociety.com/five-myths-of-the-peak-oil-theory/
there you go not explains its a myth but explains why they are not really fossils too!!!
What next....something credible 😉
And on that note, im outta here!
As reliable and accurate as everything else you have said on this thread
Lawmanmx - Member
Aaaahhh the peak oil myth.... And if this world was really bothered about polution it wouldn't have surpressed air and water powered vehicles
Sounds like we could power the world on your hot air and BS, you are George W Bush and I claim my $5bn
To be fair aside from reading the report about rural Wiltshire I know very little about rural Wiltshire but the transport issues there are not exactly unique. The privatisation of the busses has led to only the profitable routes being run by the bus companies with the less profitable dying off or being funded by subsidies so drastically reduced. An example of private sector inefficiency . Local councils running all services can spread the costs over all routes for the benefit of all.
Wiltshire also has the common problem of a shifting rural demographic which was what my repeated local point was about. The rural areas were where people who worked in the rural economy lived . Increasingly they are occupied by affluent incomers who drive up prices tend not to use the local schools and tend not to work locally. The low cost of petrol is one of the factors that makes this lifestyle choice affordable for them . To be rude some mirror the dinner party guests in maccrusekeens link.
I have no problem with people who chose to live in rural areas driving but my original post simply made the point that given the costs attached to our car culture fuel duty is set too low. The changing nature of rural life is one of those costs
Yes Mike that makes loads of sense, and £1.40+ Cheap? I remember paying Half of that for a Gallon mate!
And on that note, im outta here!
Wow.
70p a Gallon in 1974.
[b]Adjusted for inflation[/b] would be £7.17 today.
So yes, petrol is actually pretty cheap now at £6.36 a gallon.
(That was the point you were making wasn't it ???)
🙄
And if this world was really bothered about polution it wouldn't have surpressed air and water powered vehicles
I think you will find that it was basic Physics and the Laws of Thermodynamics that "suppressed" both those ideas.
But. You know. Whatever 😉
"Where there's a nut there's a conspiracy"
What next....something credible
I thank you for the link you provided. At last I have found my brothers in the quest for REAL TRUTH!
As some sort of payment, I offer you this - possibly the greatest collection of thinking I've ever read:
[url= http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ ]http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/[/url]
I have witnessed heads exploding upon reading this 😀
Back to the OP. It doesn't matter how much you tell him, he will only learn for himself. There's no substitute for experience and there's only one way to get it (unfortunately). You can try and persuade him but if he's determined to behave like a Wally, there's little you can do to stop him . You could refuse to have anything to do with him whilst he's being a berk, but that may not be the most constructive help...
$3.25 per gallon here in the US including taxes! 8)
Edit - the $3.25 above is for gasoline. Diesel is about $3.55...
$3.25 per gallon here in the US including taxes!
Smaller gallon, offensively poor fuel economy from most vehicles on the road. The US needs another couple of $ on the gallon to change behaviour of both manufacturers and consumers for the good.
The rural areas were where people who worked in the rural economy lived . Increasingly they are occupied by affluent incomers who drive up prices tend not to use the local schools and tend not to work locally.
I think it's slightly more complex. The rural jobs have largely gone. Farms round where I am just don't need the man power that they used to. As a consequence most of the rural people end up driving to get to non rural jobs - just like wealthy incomers. Though of course there are considerable differences across the country.
offensively poor fuel economy from most vehicles on the road
Hmm not as bad as you think. My wife's old 2l Ford Escort got about 35mpg on long trips which is about 42mpg. When you consider it was automatic, that's comparable with late 90s engine technology here.
Mid to high 30s is common for sensible cars there which would be around 45 here, which many people consider respectable from petrol cars. The reason diesel is not popular is because they couldn't be sold between 1997 or so and the late 2000s due to smog regulations. When hybrids were released giving diesel level economy with petrol level NOx emissions they sold like hot cakes.
Of course, lots of people choose to drive huge trucks, which is another issue. It's amazing how environmental concerns are completely off most people's mental radar. It just doesn't occur to them that they are doing anything bad at all.
Hmm not as bad as you think.
Yes it is. I said 'most vehicles on the road' and not 'the smaller and more efficient vehicles'. Of course a lot of it comes down to personal choice of vehicle and not gallon size - the biggest selling vehicle on the road in the US is the F-150. The cheap fuel prices in the US allow people to make the choice and have huge monster trucks etc. newer cars also have a relatively high price compared to used, so more people hang on to gas guzzlers for longer. Current average for all passenger vehicles is just over 17mpg (just over 20 UK mpg).
Average new cars mpg in UK is 54mpg (UK) which is 46mpg (US). Average new passenger vehicle mpg in the US is 23.6mpg (US).
The cheap fuel prices in the US allow people to make the choice and have huge monster trucks etc.
Ever been to the middle east? Petrol is cheaper than drinking water.
Make of that what you will. 😉
Did the OP's son ever get his car back? I've scanned the arguments but struggling to see anything.
[edit] rescanned and spotted it.
Lets all agree that all the high taxes are really working to keep the country working exactly as it should do .... But wait a minute????
Do we all believe this country is runing properly and most of all Fairly?
Go and live in Sweden, where taxes are substantially higher. Oddly enough, because a lot of everyday stuff we worry about is picked up by the government (pensions, childcare etc. etc.) people are in fact happier.
Don't just take my word for it either.
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/nov/16/sweden-tax-burden-welfare
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/10345235/Happiest-country-to-be-old-is-Sweden-survey-finds.html
Maybe it's because they think more about 'us' and less about 'Me! Me! Me!'
Ever been to the middle east? Petrol is cheaper than drinking water.
[b]Make of that what you will.[/b]
Drinking water is a more scarce resource than petrol, in the middle of a desert full of oil ?
OP - it sounds like a decent resolution. Glad it's sorted. Hopefully it's a lesson learned.
Drinking water is a more scarce resource than petrol, in the middle of a desert full of oil ?
It's not as full as it used to be...
It's not as full as it used to be...
Obviously not.
That's because they took some out, and sold it.
