London's Taxing Traffic

Commentary by Political Commentator Ed Boyle

I very nearly didn't get here today. Terrible traffic. It takes longer now to travel a few miles in London than it did in the days of the horse and cart. But according to London's new Mayor, everything is going to change. This time next year there'll be a tax on congestion -seven dollars a day -just for the privilege of driving your automobile into an eight mile central zone of this sprawling city. And a pretty mixed eight miles it is. At one end, down the road - Harrods, top people's store, but outside the zone. The other way, same distance and you're in one of the poorest parts. ...but it’s INSIDE the zone. Crazy. So people will probably drive just as far as the boundary and cause much worse congestion and pollution there instead. And real estate will rocket inside the zone, and plummet outside.

If you do try and drive in without paying - no escape. One hundred-thirty clever cameras to photograph every car and scan every license plate. Smile please. Plus an army of wardens and tax collectors ready to chase you if you still won't pay. The fine is $110 incidentally, every time you dodge.

The only person they wont catch is our Queen. Buckingham Palace is right inside the zone, but Her Majesty, being Her Majesty doesn't have anything as common as a license plate on her Rolls Royce. So the cameras will never know. But there's worse news. A bunch of loopy scientists are now urging the British Government to fit satellite tracking equipment in every single motor vehicle to see where we're going and how much tax to charge. Maybe they ought to talk to the Pentagon. You've got the most sophisticated satellites on the planet. Any sign of Bin Laden yet?