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12 October 2000
Comment and Opinion

Just cut the tax

News: Pressure on Brown for all-round tax cut

SUDDENLY we learn that Gordon Brown is in secret talks with the hauliers over fuel tax, and is also considering special concessions for farmers and rural motorists. He hopes, it seems, to avert the risk of another fuel blockade, while maintaining the current extortionate level of motoring taxation on everyone else.
 

  •  So much for the Iron Chancellor: not only would blockading be shown to have worked, but the vast majority of voters who do not receive one of his little douceurs will also be furious. The message of the fuel protests was that the tax on petrol and diesel is too high for everybody, not that certain groups should be granted special privileges. If Mr Brown really cannot grasp this simple point, then we have all been overestimating his political abilities
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