Yes, like the article below says, there are indeed a number of reasons why the revenue from vehicle excise duty is down but I'm still shaking my head nearly two years later at the decision to remove the visual tax disk from vehicles.
I have around 10 vehicles I need to make sure are all legal and road worthy and the visual windscreen tax disk expiry date was a simple but efficient way of ensuring this but the more crucial fight against un-taxed vehicles I believe is much harder to monitor now that the visual disks are gone. With police budgets stretched over the past two years the number of police vehicles with built in license plate recognition cameras can't be as much as predicted so I'm not surprised revenue is down and I would bet that any new survey figures would show the number of un-taxed vehicles would now be greater than before the tax disk was culled. It was my intention to write a follow up after my initial post on Friday to give update thoughts on Brexit but I'm sure you will all agree if I were to try and digest all what's happened since Friday then it would probably drive me to 'resign' from this blog.
Resign or Not to Resign is certainly the theme of the week and as predicted Labour imploding is taking centre stage before the Tory leadership battle begins in earnest. I just don't know where to focus this post - should it be on Westminster and its many characters all battling it out, should it be on the European reaction or should it focus on the many scenarios that could affect Scotland. Lots more fun and games, twists and turns and appointments and resignations will I'm sure continue over the next few days so lets see how the situation lies at the weekend. Plus, If I'm not sure what direction to blog about then I could always turn my attention to the other great exit from Europe this week - 'England at Football': no lets not go there either as laughing is beginning to hurt. What Have You All Done!!! - I leave for 36 hours to a quiet West of Scotland Island and return to mainland UK only to find political and economic turmoil in Scotland, UK, Europe and possibly the whole World.......jeeesh!!! I was only gone for less than two days.
At 7am on Thursday morning before travelling to Isle of Bute in the West Coast of Scotland like 62% of Scotland I voted for UK to Remain a member of the European Union. Less than 24 hours after casting my vote I was on the losing side in this referendum and the UK and Scotland were officially heading out of the EU for the first time in my lifetime. Prime Minister David Cameron is resigning, one from Conservatives Theresa May, Michael Gove, George Osbourne, Boris Johnson could be our new unelected leader, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is facing a vote of no confidence from within his own party and from the outside UKIP's Nigel Farage and David Coburn continue to stir up the right-wing vote which started all of this off. Will this all lead to a new Autumn or Spring UK General Election. While here in Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says a 2nd Independence Referendum is "highly likely" after Scotland voted to remain in EU but faces the prospect of being removed due to most of England and Wales voting Leave. I yearn for Scottish Independence and there is now a huge decision to be made by the SNP to whether they should and if so when they should start the process of gaining a mandate for a new Scottish Independence Referendum, but is the time right, is it too soon, is this a new chance thats too tempting not to try again, is there the support for a Yes win this time, will we see No but EU supporting voters change to Yes, a new referendum may not even be granted by UK Government so a decision to have a 2nd Yes/No vote may even end up in the courts. Financial markets around the world have reacted badly to the Leave win and many businesses, families and workers in the UK just don't know whats going to happen next and are rightly concerned. Developments over the past few hours have been fast and furious and just where and when will it all end, who will be the personal casualties and who will be the winners, which country will benefit most, will we see a break up of the UK or even Europe. The next chapter in all our histories is about to be written and a big question is will the people living and working in Scotland have a say on what will be written in this new chapter. |
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