0ZBN0 wrote:

In Britain, drivers Tuesday held a mass traffic stoppage over a new
surtax, introduced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a way to encourage
people to buy more fuel-efficient cars, that would have raised the
average family's vehicle taxes by $80, with higher-polluting vehicles
paying more and very efficient ones being exempt.

One of the biggest objections was that these taxes would have beeen RETROSPECTIVE, so that cars
bought many years back would suddenly attract new high taxation, despite previous assurances that
this would not happen when they had made their purchase.

Even modest 2.0 litre cars would suddenly have been put in the 'gas guzzler' category and some
owners of larger cars could be facing annual tax (licensing) increases of as much as $500
(converted to USD).

Some commentators have criticised this not just for plain unfairness, but that it would lead to the
premature scrapping of perfectly servicable cars with a far worse total environmental impact than
allowing them to be run until their natural lives expired.

Graham