Road pricing a blank cheque which no chancellor could resist

ON THE face of it, I should "win" through road charging because I never have to travel at peak times and I live rurally, so most of the roads I use are low-density and uncongested. However, I distrust road charging for three main reasons. It will have a huge setting-up cost, and the government says that it will be revenue neutral, that is, the same income to government, rather than cost neutral - the same cost to drivers as a group.

I don't trust the government to maintain the initial level of tax - it is a blank cheque and what Chancellor could resist that?

Thirdly, the system is capable of determining the position of all vehicles at any time, so it could automatically identify any excess over the posted speed limit or any stop on double yellow lines.

The government says that it will not use the system for this purpose, but I do not trust it to honor that, or any, undertaking.

I realise that road charging has an irresistible attraction to a failing government, that the more they fail to deliver an efficient road system, the more they can charge us for using it.

If only they could extend this principle to all of government then we would see the rise of even more efficiency as local government recognized the value of the used car industry which they are trying to kill off by subsidizing the car manufactures.