The Grumpy Old Blog

Great to know the country's premium automated stealth-tax collection site doesn't do what it says on the front page. Oh sorry, the recently new DVLA farce. If you have a vehicle to shell out for, don't make any changes on-line, as you are then locked out for 5 working days (yep, weekends not included) while the system automatically (yep, " automatically " - you can tell its a civil service 'service', as it apparently realises when it's the weekend and doesn't work then) updates. The DVLA themselves can't do anything for you, so you have to drag out to a Post Office (preferably one than hasn't been closed by this or the previous Government). Why the organ grinders have to send you to the moneys is beyond me! Oh, and the highwaymen at DVLA will also charge you £2.50 to use a credit card. And I love the message on the TOTALLY AUTOMATED PAYMENT phone system " all calls will be recorded for training and monitoring purposes " - I wo...

Why should the motorist, who already pays more indirect taxation on driving for a smaller re-investment in transport than anyone else in Europe (not to forget the other indirect taxes such as council tax, water rates, TV licence, housing stamp duty, licences for functions, driving tests and licences, passports, licences for scaffolding, licences to operate a cherry-picker, licences to drive a taxi, business rates, planning permission, corporation tax, licences to sell alcohol/cigarettes, death duty [on already-taxed income], birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licences] etc etc etc), have to fork out further for the privilege of parking outside their own home ( reminder : a home they already pay council tax on)? It will come to the stage where shopkeepers and store managers will lose so many customers that they will either retreat to the relative safety of their local out-of- town shopping centre or retire to the relatively tax-free haven that is the car boot sale, and ...