Stealth Taxes on Motorists

Blair and Brown have added yet another stealth tax to the motorist's burden. Not content with the revenue provided by speed cameras, and as widely reported in most newspapers including the Daily Mail (see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=441094&in_page_id=1770), motorists are to be charged a £15 surcharge in addition to their fines to compensate victims of crime.

The surcharge is to be added to all court fines but, because the UK's judical IT systems are incapable of a task as complex as sliding costs attached to severity of crime, someone caught going 5mph on an empty motorway at 1am is going to pay the same £15 surcharge as someone found guilty of assault or corporate manslaughter.

A spokesman for Victim support is quoted as saying "There is no such thing as a victimless crime" and this seems to be Labour's way of making sure of it: speeding motorists are about to find themselves being regularly mugged by the system.