I must agree with Giok, I run a ceilidh band and we play at least once every weekend somewhere in Yorkshire or Lincolnshire. I carry a pair of speakers, mixer amp, speaker and mic stands, monitor amp and speakers, case of cables, lighting equipment and occasionaly an extra pair of speakers for large venues. Add to this a few instruments. Some of our venues are village or church halls or hotels, others are stately homes with mile long drives and still others are farm marquees in the middle of fields.
If the government can get me a bus who will pick me up at home with all of the gear then drive over and pick up Sam Pirt, our accordeon player, then drive to Northampton to collect our fiddler and then deliver us to our venue in time to do sound checks and play for the evening and last of all pick us all up after midnight and take us all back home again. I will gladly give up my car.
It seems to me that this government thinks we all work in an office, shop, or school and don't have to carry large ammounts of luggage, even car tax is cheeper for small cars with the capacity to carry a brief case or pile of books, but what about the self employed people who carry the tools of their trade like carpenters, plumbers, electricians and musicians, are we expected to pass this extra tax on to our customers. In the case of our band it would increase the cost of a ceilidh by at least £300.
And of course when this tax is introduced I will predict that within a year the bastards will change our miles into kilometers and so be able to double the tax.