E
Ell
Guest
Just heard on the radio that the Gov. is looking to charge all pleasure boat owners 100 snots a year towards the running costs of the bouy system, lighthouses and other bits and pieces. Apparently up until now only the commercial fleets have paid but that apparently is unfair. The total cost is a lot less than 100 mill a year. So they must have cast their eyes around (Blunkett excepted) came to their senses and thought, let\'s go without a few of those lovely shiney missiles, or let\'s close a few tax loopholes (loophole my effing loophole) that allow the Murdoch\'s of this planet to pay no taxes in this country. Oh no, we\'ll ask pleasure boat owners, all of them to shell out. Some clever wee tosser knows that the country is not going to rally around a bunch of \"Snotty Yachties\" so it looks like the non-commercial boat owner is going to get stitched right up. I listened to some London type tosspot interviewing some people in a marina down South and was absolutely fuming. A few samples of his objective art.
\"If you\'ve got enough money to afford a boat, you can afford the extra ton\"
LMFAO at that one. If you\'ve shelled out the extra on a boat no matter how much then surely the normal boat owners budget is going to be a bit pushed for starters.
\"Car owners have to pay road tax\"
As far as I know the main beneficiaries of this safety system are the commercial fleet, bouys to pinpoint shipping channels, where pleasure boaters anglers etc. are meant to stay out of. As one of the respondents said it\'s like asking an old lady that uses a zebra crossing to pay road tax.
Commercial shipping makes money
It cost non-commercials to run their boats
The gross generalisation made about boat owners was disgusting (Radio 4 man me favourite)
What do yous think?
I\'ll be firing off a tirade to the beeb if I can find the complaint e-mail address, has anyone tried before? They bury it under so many links all but the most White Lightninged of concerned citizens give up.
after all that the only edit I had to make was to remove an extra \"eff\" off the last of
[Edited on 27/4/2004 by Ell]
\"If you\'ve got enough money to afford a boat, you can afford the extra ton\"
LMFAO at that one. If you\'ve shelled out the extra on a boat no matter how much then surely the normal boat owners budget is going to be a bit pushed for starters.
\"Car owners have to pay road tax\"
As far as I know the main beneficiaries of this safety system are the commercial fleet, bouys to pinpoint shipping channels, where pleasure boaters anglers etc. are meant to stay out of. As one of the respondents said it\'s like asking an old lady that uses a zebra crossing to pay road tax.
Commercial shipping makes money
It cost non-commercials to run their boats
The gross generalisation made about boat owners was disgusting (Radio 4 man me favourite)
What do yous think?
I\'ll be firing off a tirade to the beeb if I can find the complaint e-mail address, has anyone tried before? They bury it under so many links all but the most White Lightninged of concerned citizens give up.
after all that the only edit I had to make was to remove an extra \"eff\" off the last of

[Edited on 27/4/2004 by Ell]