Smoke and figures

Back on the smoke and mirrors emissions and vision angle, Matthew Elliot of the Taxpayers Alliance has produced a challenging piece of research entitled “Ending the Green Rip-off”. (Full report).

The thrust of his findings is that UK citizens coughed up £24.6 billion in “green taxes” in 2008 when the ‘social cost’ of emissions and other activities affecting the environment was actually £4.6 billion.

Unsurprisingly, the TPA conclusion is that these figures demonstrate a fundamentally flawed agenda on climate change which places an unfair and unnecessary burden on each resident by forcing them to pay what amounts to additional taxation through rising energy prices, car tax and fuel duty.

The report published today by the campaign group includes calculations for every local authority in the UK. It is an entirely plausible read; if the only criteria to be applied is monetary. It also lists a series of solutions which read a lot like a manifesto – but what doesn’t these days.

No doubt we can expect similarly subjective reaction from a number of quarters claiming that the TPA have only succeeded in confirming that they know the price of everything but cannot assign a value.

Hey-ho.