I was away this weekend in my 'green' caravan and could not help wondering why my tow cars fuel is taxed to the hilt and my road tax has gone up, plus i pay vat on my storage fees for my van and vat applies to my site fees, and even worse - beer is more expensive here than in Europe . Our government demands a very low tax on airplane flights, then once you are out of the country they gain no tax at all from you. A caravan or camping break is just about the only type of British holiday that is cheaper than going abroad.
This is when the penny dropped for me - our government are insane Instead of reducing tax on UK based holidays to make them cheap they watch millions of families jet all around Europe and the rest of the world so that they can get a cheap family break. This way the great British public spend their hard earned cash in other countries instead of here in the UK. Those few of us left enjoying holidays in the UK are the only ones they can target to raise revenue. Make UK holidays cheaper to encourage us all to spend our money in our own country?? Naaaaa - that is ridiculous!! Encourage us all to jet off abroad and spend fortunes away from our shores. We can always fall behind the 'green issue' and raise plenty of £££ to top up our government spending short-falls from our motorists!! It would be mad to increas tax on foreign holidays to encourage us all to spend our money here in the UK........ wouldn't it??
Every year I watch the ferry loading up with cars and curryvans, mobile homes and trailer tents plus Peugeot estates loaded with cases upon cases on their roof racks and I wonder at just how much money leaves the UK bound for Spain, France, etc. every day!
We sat there this July past in Lane 179 at Dover and I said to my far better half, what is 1500 multiplied by ..... oh loads and loads and she replied that it was quite a lot really. The 1500 is in pounds roughly what we spend for our 3 week escape to the sun, so £1500 times loads is indeed quite a lot of money.
Trouble is that even if there were tax incentives to remain in the UK we would still go to Spain 'cos the weather is much nicer and everything is far more chilled.
I only pray that some Frobisher-Smythe in some faceless government office doesn't read this and suggest a sun tax on all non UK holidays .......... don't laugh ..........!
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Funny, Iv`e just been reading on these pages campers bragging about the size of their tents and the small number of people camping in them and the greater the ratio the better, and now some poor sod in a caravan says something similar and gets his nuts chewed. Please don`t let`s squabble amongst ourselves, we are after all CAMPERS a small minority group, lets not try and split up into smaller groups where we may be more vulnerable to interfering governments.
Anyone who owns a gas guzzler (notice I didnt say a 4x4, it could be a bentley or rolls or a Motorhome,or an older car) automatically pays more tax everytime they flll up at the pump. thats their choice. Arguably we live in a free country and we have choices.
Lets stop shouting and enjoy what we ourselves decide we want
I have a land rover freelander,a so called 4x4 gas guzzler.
I broke my back 3 years ago and found driving painfull ,in my then ford focus.It was too low for me to get out off and the seating postion caused me great pain.Since having the freelander i can now drive much further and pain free.
And as far as being a gas guzzler,it is not true at all.I drove to dorset with the caravan and used under 1/2 a tank of fuel.Our friends who's car was ramed with camping stuff had to stop half way to refuel.They was driving a normal estate car.
And yes we have a 4 berth fixed bed caravan for just the 2 of us but again the fixed bed matterace is like being at home and my back is fine after sleeping on it.
So what i am trying to say is people should not judge a book by it cover,their are many reasons why people have 4 berth caravans for 2 people and not all 4x4s are gas guzzlers.
A 4x4 uses a fair bit less fuel than a jet or a train or a bus or a truck or a large house or the local library or the council offices or your local bank branch or a medium sized restaraunt or a shopping mall or a supermarket etc etc etc. Why worry about the fuel your car uses when we all use the above examples (and others too) that eat fossil fuel for breakfast. If we are really going to cut global emmissions we should think alot further than the car we drive......
Camping and Caravaning has grown so popular over the last couple of years the government is probably looking at more was to tax us not give us some back.How about a tax on cows they give out more pollution than any car.