Blairy Poppins To Use Oldest Con In The Book To Steal From The Productive

The people of the UK are heading down a big brother road like no-one else, it seems, if this latest infringement is anything to go by.

We used to cringe at the idea of having to carry around papers to present to any authority figure upon request, as was the case in the USSR. But Britain and their National ID Card have now made that ok - with the US to follow with a National ID Card shortly (although they won't call it that, it will effectively be the same, regardless of what they call it).

Well, Britain will soon be tracking WHERE its citizens go, constantly.

In moves I can only describe as the greatest infringement yet, on privacy and freedom of movement, Britain will soon have tracking devices in all cars. Their reasoning is simply this: There is too much congestion on the road, and some people drive more than others, so it is only fair they pay for the roads more than other people, so let's have a "driver pays" system in place.

I am all for user pays systems. However, what this Brit govt is about to do is use the idea as a leverage tool to gain something else, and/or take extortion-level amounts of money from people.

With the device in your car, you will be charged varying amounts of money per mile, depending on which road you drive and what time of day you drive - though why the time of day should matter is not explained.

Some roads would charge you 2 cents a mile while others would charge you $1.30 per mile! With the high-priced roads being the motorways and highways.

As those main roads are designed to move a lot of traffic fast, I can see a lot of people using the cheaper side roads - effectively negating the high road fee and negating the effectiveness of the motorways in the first place, bringing congestion to side roads.

Imagine, for a moment, you need to drive from one side of London to another side. Some of the roads you travel on are the cheap 2 cent roads and others are the $1.30 roads, with some other roads being somewhere between those prices. A simple trip like this, as Sky News in England showed, would cost the driver $157! And that's just one way!!!

Oh they [the govt] say they would get rid of registration (or greatly reduce it) and the same with fuel tax (removed or reduced). But look at the numbers...

Even if you only have to pay an average of $0.30 per mile you drive, someone that drives 20,000 miles a year will pay $6,000. Which is more than the cost of their fuel and car registration combined, at the current prices, let alone that amount being how much tax they pay in registration and fuel tax.

And while everyone is in shock at this proposal, and up in arms as well, they are about to have the oldest trick in the book used upon them. As Maxwell Smart would say, it's the old "don't ask if, ask which" trick.

Everyone will jump up and down about this. And so the govt can then give "better" options to placate the people. Either reduce the per mile fee, or introduce a Public Transport Levy to improve Public Transport so more people will use it. And as the British govt is a leftist socialist one, then this seems more like their end goal.

Once presented with this option, the people will welcome the public transport levy. And their con will have been pulled off.

If the govt had announced an introduction of a public transport levy, the people would have jumped up and down about it. But by proposing this stupid idea, the people will welcome any alternative that is less severe.

It's the very same trick our local govt used. Previously, it was free for buses and mini-buses to drop off people at the local airport. The local govt announced at the beginning of April that ALL such businesses now had to pay an annual permit fee to drop people off at the airport. And this fee was going to be $2,500 for the small operators and as much as $6,000 for the larger operators who drive larger buses. And all operators had less than one month to ante up.

Well, as you can imagine, there was an outcry from the business owners. Where were they supposed to come up with that much money on such a short notice. It would be the smaller guys out of business. And yadda yadda yadda.

So, the local govt in their graces, reduced the fee to $2 per trip onto the airport grounds. And they all lapped it up.

If the govt had announced a new $2 per drop-off, where it had previously been free, there would have been outcry. But by announcing a huge and stupid fee, the outcry stopped being one of "why do we now have to pay" to one of "please, we will pay anything but that."

The people are presented with the appearance of a choice. You can have this stupid tax, or this greatly reduced tax. But either choice still represent a tax being paid where once there was none. They haven't been asked IF they want to pay a tax, they have been asked WHICH tax they want to pay.

Here is how this gambit is used in negotiating...

Let's say I am looking for investors to buy a small block of units. And let's say I want each investor to put in $15,000. I would approach someone with the idea and let them sleep on it overnight. When I visit them the next day, or a few days later, they are in the mind of negotiating DOWN the investment required. So to head that off I say, "Bob, I told my partners what I had offered you and they were furious. They said the number should have been $25,000 and not $15,000. So we really should be asking you for $25,000 instead."

Bob's immediate reaction will be to forget trying to get me down in price from the $15,000 and all he will now want to do is hold onto that price. And he will then argue to let me let him be in it for $15,000. To which I can play along and pretend to go outside and make a call to my partners who reluctantly agree. And Bob will then be thankful I let him pay full price.

My prediction for Britain is this: This usury-rate pay as you drive tax will give way to a public transport levy, and then the pay as you drive tax will be phased in at greatly reduced amounts over the coming years. The registration and fuel taxes will be reduced initially, but will not be removed, and will slowly increase over time as well.

I also see a blackmarket in turning the devices off. And more money being needed to add extra police and other such people to "inspect" cars to make sure the devices are being used. Which means more govt bloat.

Time will tell if I am right.