A reader writes...
Hi Iain,
I know Tim Yeo hales from somewhere near your neck of the woods, so I am hoping that you could ask him if he could help me with my dilemma;
I am a Conservative voting pensioner living off a very small income, topped up with the state pension.
I bought a 1.8 Zaphira in 2001. Should I;
A) Pay a penalty (=fine) of around £250/350 or more per year VED for the next ten-odd years, to be used towards propping up our country's collapsing economy, because I now own a gas guzzler, or
B) Spend £13,000 plus from my rapidly diminishing pension pot to order a new greener car, manufactured from the world's remaining resources, in order to only pay another £100 plus VED ??
I am relying on you to ask him, as I read somewhere that he is a very busy man, as I believe that apart from being an MP, he also travels all over Europe reviewing golf courses for the Telegraph.
Many thanks
D B
.
P.S. Please also give him our best wishes from the real world.
47 comments:
Iain, it would help if you linked to what Tim Yeo has actually said, 'cos I for one have no idea. Nothing on the Beeb, which is interesting as you'd think they'd be happy to report any gaffe by a Tory shadow spokesman!
Sell the car - Buy a small bicycle - that way you can peddle to the nearest bus stop and use your free bus pass.
You also have enough cash to blow on a world cruise!
Catty
Time yeo is the sort of Tory politician who should be kept off the airwaves. He is hopelessly woolly, and represents all that could be a problem for the Tories over the next eighteen months - inadequately thought-out positions and a complete lack of rigour and toughness. If Cameron's idea is to go policy light, as Tony Blair appeared to into the 1997 election, he will find a sceptical electorate that will have suffered significantly over the previous twoe years and not in the mood for waffle. They get that from the current lot.
Looks like Mike has upset Norm!
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1041612/Senior-Tory-defends-gays-single-mothers-keynote-speech-supporting-families.html
I face the same dilemma. Every one of my fast fading brain cells tells me that running the car I now know to be the motoring equivalent of mass murder into the ground (100,000 miles so far, increasing at a rate of 7,000pa) is far more "green" than commissioning a new hunk of machinery.
I don't relish £400+ VED each year. But sadly, since the value of my car has more than halved since Darling's small print was published, I can't afford to replace it at the moment.
Even if I could, we need a family car and an automatic (dodgy knees). Automatic cars large enough to accomodate families (pushchairs, travel cots etc) are all at least in the upper reaches of Darling's new bands. So what are the chances that in 3 years, I won't be in exactly the same position again, being hounded out of a car that no longer fits the bill.
Good question DB.Could Yeo not travel with "Permatan" and perhaps save a few bob as regular flyers.
As a man of the people and gifted with a loving nature one can only hope that he will understand DB's problem.
Yeo is a nauseatingly-smug, Heathite, patrician, conservative: his dubious personal morality contributed to the mire that swamped the Major government and Cameron would do well to keep his distance from him.
In point of fact, he doesn't just travel round Europe's golf courses, his Financial Times column prattles on about his visits worldwide. All the while the fat hypocrite prescribes a strict "green" travel agenda for the rest of countrymen.
Keep the car and use the interest from your savings to pay the extra £200/250.
Also reduce your speed whenever possible and save on petrol.
None of this reduces the fact that Tim Yeo always sounds like like he has a plum in his mouth and looses the Tories votes every time he speaks
Why didn't this tw*t just write to Tim Yeo? I am sure he would have responded. It's not fair to try to make a public point like this without even giving him the chance to do wrong.
Tim Yeo obviously lost the best part of his brains whilst enjoying the pleasures of his mistress!
The man is a complete joke and should be deselected. He is a loose cannon and needs to be placed, like all old empty cannons, in a museum.
May I suggest The Chinese Museum of the Environment.
This policy is electoral suicide.
Brown criticised Cameron for abandoning his green credentials and not making the “tough decision on climate change”, but Cameron is absolutely right to back away from this in the current economic climate and the polling shows why.
The latest ipsos/mori polling showed that the environment was the biggest concern for just 9% of people polled. This compared to 30% for Immigration, 38% Crime, 32% Economy and importantly 16% for fuel price and 22% inflation.
Er - shouldn't this letter be addressed to the Right Honourable Alistair Darling? He, after all, is in a position to do something about it.
:) good blog
I once had the opportunity to observe Yeo at close quarters. He's NBG.
I have a different silly dilemma. If I replaced my current car with a hybrid, I would pay less tax. I live in a village, though, so I don't do the city driving where a hybrid's regenerative braking would save fuel.
The tax incentive, therefore, is completely the wrong way round for me. If I bought a hybrid I would actually be harming the environment, because batteries are polluting to make and use up scarce resources such as lithium.
Buy a second hand Prius.
£4,500 for an 01 model. No C Charge, avoid VED hikes.
Going slightly off topic here, but a few days ago I was reading an article in a motor magazine regarding fuel consumption and emissions for small passenger vehicles. Apparently, the so-called "Urban Cycle" figures (town/country/combined)which have been published for all new vehicles for the last X number of years, are actually provided from manufacturers own tests and there is no independent body responsible for these tests. The emissions test is the same, which is why some motor magazines are publishing their own test results that are strikingly different from the manufacturers. I own a Honda CRV Diesel which we use on trips to the mountains and its consumption is less than our new Audi A4 diesel that we use locally and for longer summer trips, despite published consumption figures being the opposite of what we are achieving. It seems rather odd to me that figures supplied by manufacturers are used as a basis to levy a tax!
Do neither. One of the greatest costs of running a car, assuming you're one of the odd people who always buy new cars... is depreciation.
The Zafira has already depreciated heavily, so it will cost a significant amount to 'upgrade' to a new car costing £13k - probably at least £10,000 extra.
Three points:
1. £250-350 extra VED per year, for ten years, is (obviously) no more than £3500 - so why spend £10,000 to avoid it?
2. The interest on that £10000, invested on the high street, would be ~£600 PA gross - more than enough to pay for the VED.
3. If you must change your car, get something second hand that's already done lots of depreciating.
Does anybody know how MP deselection works?
Sell the car and buy a lower VED one - either just one year older or of lower emissions. Or a bicycle. Or a season ticket. Or a car share.
But (bloody obvious) do not spend £14,000 on a car that'll be worth £7,000 one year later. To avoid a couple hundred of pounds that'll probably never happen anyway.
Yeo is a moron. He's our Harriet Harman.
OT - News from Watford.
July 20, 2008 1:29 PM , Matthew Hewitt said...
As someone who has known Ian since we were both at University, all I can say is that he will not have been guilty of this. I just hope the true perpetrators are identified and prosecuted before what would otherwise be a promising career is ruined forever.
WATFORD OBSERVER
10:59am Tuesday 5th August 2008
Ian Oakley pleads guilty
Former Conservative parliamentary candidate for Watford, Ian Oakley, has pleaded guilty to seven charges of harassment and criminal damage and asked for a further 68 similar offences to be taken into consideration.
Appearing at St Albans' Magistrates Court today, Mr Oakley, pleaded guilty to two counts of harassment and five counts of criminal damage.
The offences included harassment of Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Sal Brinton, the slashing of tyres, smashing of headlights and spray painting of walls.
It must be really, really tough for pensioners who will only consider a new, rather than used, car.
Anonymous said...
"Iain, it would help if you linked to what Tim Yeo has actually said, 'cos I for one have no idea. Nothing on the Beeb, which is interesting as you'd think they'd be happy to report any gaffe by a Tory shadow spokesman!"
It was on the BBC radio news all day yesterday and is still on the BBC Politics website.
The link (if it works)is HERE
I am DB, the original poster and tw*t alluded to by anon at 9.37AM.
There is actually little point in writing to Tim (frequent flyer) Yeo as;
1)He has made it quite clear yesterday that all of us should pay a lot more VED in order to force us to buy newer cars and therefore help to save the planet.
2)Given the current massive scale of MP's expenses, he is clearly completely detached from the everyday costs of buying and running a car.
DB.
I take it this letter is a windup?
Anyone thinking of spending £13k on anew car should reconsider the real world.
Anyone who bought a 1.8 litre car and complains about the running costs can always buy soemthing like a secondhand 1.0 Toyota Yaris or a 1.4 diesel Yaris (VED £35 and 60mpg) for under £5k. - Ihave the latter.
Cheap and reliable and esy to drive.
Don't write to a politician: they are useless..
It's a wind up. We all Tim Yeo is a hypocrite: he has the essential qualifiication for one: he's a politician.
Spot on DB!
Bit much having Gove & Yeo on the same day.Is boy Dave trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?
I am utterey amazed that you have no mention of the cowardly 'pact' this bloody government had with our enemies in Iraq, holding our soldiers back from supporing the Iragi army and the Americans in fighting in Basra.
Such a bloody disgrace, whereby the Secretary of State for Defence should be sacked (even the coward Brown) BUT no mention on the top tory blog!!
I ask you, just what do you want when a gold plated opportunity to slate this bloody government is before you.
And Gove took £2K from NUTS.You just couldn't make it up.
This is a disgraceful slur. Tim Yeo did not travel around Europe playing golf at the Telegraph's expense. He travelled the world playing golf at the expense of the FT, which for some inexplicable reason has sacked him.
This VED stuff is all a blind. Let price signals from oil do all the greenery stuff. VED is an envy based ownership tax. It is highly discriminatory and regressive, hitting the least well off worst.
The cheapest to run car I have ever owned is my current LR Defender 110 1996. This is because it is slow to depreciate having lost about 6k in just under 10 years of my ownership. Plus it is a meccano set and I just keep getting the bits that break bolted back on. I reckon I'll get 250k miles and 20 years plus out of it. It's tyres last a long time and I don't realy mind if it gets the occasional dent. It does about 26 to the gallon of diesel - slightly more on Shell V Power, and it has 12 seats so that I can carry my wife, four children their mates and my dogs, hence of course saving taking a second or third car. If I keep it 20 years I will not have bought about 6 other cars. And as about 10 to 12 % of car pollution comes from manufacture I will have saved about 60% of my allegdged carbon pollution. And as it is slow I don't speed because I can't. It'll tow a trailer at 60 all day. I've used it to rescue other people from their daft attempts to cross a local ford and as I live in the countryside I use if for my favourite sort of gardening - gardening by LR - pulling out bushes etc.
But crucially keeping it for a long time is exactly the sort of thrift that promotes low use of resources.
And lastly it is mechanically involving and an absoute hoot to drive.
I am a liberal Tory (that means I'm a bit of a 'greenie'), but Yeo makes me sick! It's time for him and Bercow to sod off to Labour.
a) do nothing and wait for the Labour u-Turn
or
b) buy a nearly new zafira for around £7500.
Invest in a one way ticket to Poland. Buy a second hand Polish VW (very cheap, well made and reliable), drive it back to the UK and use indefinitely here with its Polish plates, without ever having to pay VED as thousands of Poles already do.
Get used to driving LHD on British roads or engage a Polish plumber to convert said vehicle, cheaply to RHD.
Repeat exercise every 10 years or as necessary.
Anon 1245, if you must troll, at least write something that isn't deeply partial and inaccurate. Gove's office received money from a production company which, among other things, works on Nuts tv. I agree with you that he was asking for trouble with the speech, but this link is a little too tangential to stick. In any event, you can hardly say that their contributions have brought them or their clients favourable treatment now can you? Those peerages are much more durable, and you get them up front.
Note to trolls, must try harder.
Is it DB who is incapable of spelling, or Iain who is unable to transcribe accurately, the word Zafira?
I'm in much the same quandary. I bought my car in 2001, serviced it prudently such that it's now on 130,000 miles and would be worth 10% of 3/8ths of the square root of eff all as a trade-in. Still, it goes fine, is rock-solid, comfortable and clean. I don't have the vanity to 'need' a new [or even second-hand] car.
ZanuLabour's buttock-brained reforms will, however, be result in an annual charge of £400 on my car. The Prime Minister can whistle for my vote when the time comes, 'cos I won't be listening.
Is Tim Yeo still trying to persuade people to go out and borrow money just to spend on buying a slightly-less-CO2emission-in-the-big-scheme-of-things car, at a time of rising domestic debt, let alone gas bills?
What a misguided chap (Toss*r)
Anonymous said...
"it would help if you linked to what Tim Yeo has actually said"
Trust me, it wouldn't. Nothing that man says is relevant or helpful.
Anon 2.25 You mean a bit like the Abrahams "filter"?
Is Tim Yeo a Tory?
It is all bollocks, and an excuse to screw more tax out of us.
1. All the CO2 produced by a car depends on the fuel (Carbon) put in. You can't put out more C than you put in.
2) So a car that does 40 mpg produces less CO2 per mile than a car that does 35 mpg.
3) Because the C in a gallon is constant, both cars produce the same CO2 per gallon.
4) But Brown darling charges the same penalty on cars doing 40 mpg as on cars doing 35, etc. That is clear green nonsense.
5) the only "Green tax" is tax on fuel duty only. Brown darling is too shit scared of his finances to switch, as he should.
I looked back at a 1993 magazine I used to write for and found Yeo and Gummer were pushing hard to bring in tolling on UK motorways and were threatening to start tendering for contracts.
These eco-dickheads helped sink Major even further. Why doesn't Team Dave spend a few weeks going through the back issues of newspapers between 93 and 95?
They might learn from their old mistakes....
Incidentally, Vienna Woods, the fuel figures quoted are officially sanctioned and carried out under strict EU simulation tests, they are not just made up by carmakers.
Matching them in real world is another matter...it's a lot to do with driving style and the ECU's willingness to let you hammer the engine.
The number of miles on diesel engine also matters. It may take 10k miles or more to get the best economy on a new car.
Use your free bus pass you whingeing pillock !!
I hear that 200 year old naval log books are being studied for their weather/atmospheric information/observations...and guess what? Much the same as now, odd weird patterns etc.
Global warming? A bandwagon for a political fundraiser worldwide. I don't disagree with trying to make the world cleaner/better/save species from being hunted to extinction, but am sick to death of being taxed to death by this morally-impoverished non-elected government. We seem to pay for the world's ills - if China can clean up it's act in time for the Olympics - quite literally - then why can't they do it all the time?
As for Yeo, he has all the buffoonery of Boris but with none of the humour or charm - he's a complete twit, who should have been put out to pasture when he played away from home years ago.
The whole car tax issue is pure money raising to bail out McBroon's disasterous handling of the economy. He has beggared this once proud country for another generation. But he'll be OK on his perks of office pension etc., unlike the rest of us! MP's and ministers have no grasp of reality whatsoever - they all think we have money to burn on the idiocy they dream up.
Our costs are escalating, but our incomes remains static; our pensions have been raided to the point we wonder whether to give up work and move abroad. I would like to see my local MP (one of TB's little bag-carriers) survive on our income, do our jobs, and live our lifestyle for 6 months or so...and look forward to trying to run the valueless car he and his chums are pricing off the road.
We live too far away from work (and on a mountain) to make cycling an option, public transport is only 2 buses - out mid-morning and back at 2pm- and there are no connecting buses anywhere near where we work. We rely on our aged car which we were hoping to run to extinction. So, sorry, I agree with the writer of this post!
Sorry to rabbit on, but life is really, really tough, and ZanuLiebour just make it worse...
Utterey amazed said ...
"you have no mention of the cowardly 'pact' this bloody government had with our enemies in Iraq, holding our soldiers back from supporing the Iragi army and the Americans in fighting in Basra."
The report you are responding to gives only part of the picture. The Iraqi PM vetoed British Army involvement in the fighting.
Anonymous 5.44pm wrote
….the fuel figures quoted are officially sanctioned and carried out under strict EU simulation tests; they are not just made up by carmakers.
Actually, I wrote, “…there is no independent body responsible for these tests” and I stand by that statement. As we all know, the EU monster has introduced all sorts of regulations (Euronorms) which in theory at least, are supposed to normalise many safety, security and other important regulations so that we are all singing from the same hymn sheet. In practice this is certainly not the case.
A few years ago I was closely involved with several of the committees that make these regulations and was utterly shocked in the composition and how they were organised. Manufacturers can walk onto these committees and influence regulations without invitation - that is a fact! Even US companies bully their way into EU committees via UK subsidiaries and some of our EU partners pay scant regard to the norms by using their internal institutions to deliberately bend the rules to suit themselves. In one of the committees I was involved with, the flame retardency of materials was a vital safety factor and everyone assumed that each member country would use a thermocouple directly referenced to the European Reference Standard, one of which is held in the UK. Not so! Many of them bought standard thermocouples from the local DIY store, making the tests meaningless.
The UK is perhaps one of the most naïve of the EU partners and, while they play the game, the rest do as they want.
The car makers should never be allowed to test their own vehicles for fuel consumption, emissions, safety, or anything else. This is a highly competitive industry and believe me, there are enough sharks in there to cause mayhem, given enough rope.
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