The green argument

By justifying the VED road tax changes as part of a green agenda, the Government hopes it will at least get some sympathy from the public, and possibly even some support from the anti-car lobbies.

However, according to HM Treasury's own figures, graduated VED revenues will raise 4.4bn for the Government by 2010-11, yet carbon emissions from motoring are expected to come down by less than 1%.

There are also concerns that the public transport infrastructure is not capable of coping with the increased demand on its resources, should there be a widespread switch from cars to buses, trains and trams.

As a footnote, Friends of the Earth has even been moved to describe the VED road tax increases on older cars as 'Giving green taxes a bad name' - which rather undermines the Government's stance.