At least, that’s what they’re proposing, with a high end rate of £2000 a year for the most polluting vehicles. They also plan to change the way airlines are taxed, transferring the burden from a per-passenger to per-flight basis.

The party’s environmental spokesman Chris Huhne said it was vital “to use green taxes as a lever in order to make our behaviour sustainable”.

He said he wanted to “change the cars that we buy rather than the cars that we’re using at the moment”.

The money raised will supposdly be returned as tax cuts, but I’d rather see it used as rebates and incentives for people buying bikes and low pollution vehicles. I’ve just finished contracting and, whilst charging through an umbrella company, could claim back a mileage allowance of 20p a mile for cycling to work. Admittedly there was also a, much higher, allowance for driving to work, but let’s ignore that and see all workers who commit to cycling or using public transport get an allowance. It could be regulated by their employers removing access to free car parking onsite and fines or points for anyone caught defrauding the system.

Technorati tag: Road Tax, Mileage Allowance

Modec builds light commercial vehicles that are zero emission, need no road tax and pay no congestion fee. The vehicles use regenerative braking to make the charge go further as well. Obviously the electricity bill will go up as the fuel bill drops but I can imagine them as part of a policy to cut pollution by councils and businesses, particularly if tied to getting their power from windmills and solar.

via EcoStreet

Technorati tag: Transport, Electricity

Last year I bought a couple of 1:32nd car models and started looking for figures to go with them. Finally, I’ve found some 54mm gangsters. El Viejo Dragon make two pairs of “Untouchables” figures, hard men with shotguns and a pair with distinctly Costner and Connery – ish looks.

In a very different, er, vein- Nosferastew (via Buc Wheat’s modelling world)

Technorati tag: Scale Models, Figure Models, Gangsters

If you’re only going to see one complex, wordy thriller this week make it Brick. I’m so glad we went to see this on Saturday night rather than joining the Da Vinci crowd.

It’s a given that teenagers speak a different language but the conceit of having it all noirish rather than endless “innits” and “whatevers” is a clever one. Made for what the DVC paid for doughnuts, it’s far better value for money.

Technorati tag: Brick, Movie

Did you hear about this case? This guy was born out of wedlock, see, and his biological dad was some kind of lunatic cult leader who years before had ordered his followers to slaughter all their neighbors, right down to the babies in their cribs. The poor kid would never admit or deny that this insaniac was his dad, but his friends all knew it was true, and they thought it was pretty cool. One day when the illegitimate son was in his early 30s, the loony dad suddenly started taking an interest in him, but not in a good way… he had the poor kid tortured and killed just to satisfy his weird insatiable bloodlust. After the murder he started pretending to be nice to people and made a habit of inviting his dead son’s friends over for dinner every Sunday. He’d feed them meat from his own son’s corpse and fill their wineglasses with the kid’s blood! The police still haven’t caught up with him, and it’s been years and years now. Brrrr, gives me the shivers!

Caption to this picture, part of a collection from a walk around “Disgraceland”.

via BoingBoing

Technorati tag: Amusement Park, China, Christianity

This could be the last day of my current contract. But I have to sit around with nothing to do until the decision is made.
Boring. Frustrating. Stressfull.
And is it ever going to stop raining? The few things I’ve planted in the allotment have probably drowned by now.

MEN- Motorists ‘ignoring phone ban’

Technorati tag: Motorists, Phone Ban

Manchester council have spent £100,000 converting two terraced houses into an energy saving showcase. The changes have managed to more than halve the fuel bill for the property. I’m not so happy with the costs though. In real life I don’t believe these savings would cost £100k. The figure reinforces the prejudice that energy saving is so much more expensive than the benefits merit, whne most of the costs would have been from renovating the empty shells in the first place, fixtures and fittings and tarting the building up because it’s a show home.

Still, it’s nice to see them showing what’s possible.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse, Manchester

Sadly the Mad show, originally scheduled for June 3rd, has been postponed. There’s no news on when it might be rescheduled to, or whether the Green Blogger forum would still be on, but I’ll keep my eyes open for news.

I’ve already bought train tickets for the day. A wander around London would be quite pleasant, but I’d probably end up spending money I can’t afford to waste. However, there is an option- the Campaign against Climate Change is having a conference on June 3rd. I could probably make it for the afternoon session.

Technorati tag: Mad Show, Campaign against Climate Change