Tories plot spy in the sky

Cameron's Torys in actual policy shocker!

According to today's Sunday Torygraph the latest wheeze being considered by the Conservatives to burnish their fading green credentials is to increase the tax on air passengers. Nothing particularly controversial about that. However to get around the charge that they will be denying poor people their two weeks in the sun in Majorca they are proposing a staircase whereby you will pay more tax the more and longer you fly.

So somewhere, the Department for Transport (or more likely Capita god help us) are going to have a big database with a list of everyone in the country and details of where and when they are planning to fly, from which an individual tax demand will be generated. You can be sure a fair slice of the extra revenue generated will go to servicing this bureaucracy rather than on useful things like income tax cuts. So much for a Conservative party committed to a small state and protecting Civil Liberties!

For once I think the Lib Dems have got this bang on. Tax the aeroplane not the passengers. Thereby giving an incentive for airlines to use cleaner planes and use them more efficiently, and actually cutting emissions rather than just putting up ticket prices.