There's an idea...

Let's stitch up the motorist. A quick recap...

• People are finding it difficult to pay for the fuel they need to get to work
• People are about to find their annual road tax doubled on cars bought sine 2001 (despite initial promises they wouldn't)
• People can't boorow money to buy cheaper cars because of the credit crunch
• The second hand value of their existing cars has plummeted because of the road tax price hike

Now we learn from the The Telegraph "Spy-in-the-sky" paves way for road pricing".

Theresa Villiers, the shadow Transport Secretary, said: "It seems that Labour's unpopular plans for a national road pricing scheme are alive and well.

"They are determined to press ahead with their untried and untested spy-in-the-sky national project even though it looks like an IT disaster waiting to happen. Ruth Kelly should start listening to drivers and scrap these pilots for a national road pricing scheme that is unnecessary and unwanted."

It should come as no surprise that

British motorists already pay some of the highest taxes in the world and with Government finances under severe pressure the pay-as-you-drive scheme could prove a valuable source of extra revenue for the Treasury.

And in case you were in any doubt as to the reason for all this:

It is understood that there is greater enthusiasm in the Treasury than the Department for Transport for road pricing.

When the scheme was first floated by the Blair administration 1.8 million people signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling on the Government to abandon the scheme. But since when has the population had any say in our Parliamentary Democracy.

The Gorse Fox wonders who in their right minds would drive in the most congested areas at the most congested times out of choice. People do it because they have little or no choice and therefore this proposed taxation is just punitive with little hope of changing the degree of congestion