PLASTIC BAG TAX ON THE WAY.

So now we're to have a "Plastic Bag Tax".

 

On the excuse that the use of plastic bags is bad for the environment, Nick Clegg is going to announce that there will be a new levy of 5p for every plastic bag used by the customers of supermarkets and other large store, to be introduced after the next general election in 2015. That this is simply another tax on an already overtaxed populace is obvious.

 

All stores already charge for plastic bags: the cost of their acquisition is included in their overall costs and their selling prices reflect these total costs, including the bags. The cost per bag is tiny and the effect on prices equally so, meaning that everyone is happy except, of course, the Environment Police, led by the Greens, Liberal Democrats and other left-leaning loonies of assorted labels.

 

Quite possibly in common with many other people, I use a mixture of my own bags and shop bags. Any shop bags that I need are recycled as bin liners, thus I avoid buying the much more substantial and environmentally unfriendly bags that  are offered for this purpose. This seems to me to be a perfectly sensible approach, but I would stop it if this charge is brought in.

 

The proposal for a 5p per bag charge is outrageous, the indication that the proceeds will go to charities simply a smokescreen. Part of the charge will actually be allocated to the stores as compensation for the administration costs that they will incur, which really means they'll make a further profit as they're unlikely to incur any real additional costs. As for the rest of the proceeds going to charity, what this really means is that government will be able to reduce what it currently allocates to charities through various channels, exactly as they did when the National Lottery was introduced.

 

While claims that the "Spare room subsidy" is really a "Bedroom tax" are simply unfounded and untrue, this proposed plastic bag charge is nothing but a tax. At 5p per bag and assuming that 2 billion of the current 7 billion bags continue to be used, the government will steal another £100 million pounds from us. This is just politicians seeing an opportunity and taking it.

 

The real problem is not plastic bags, however many we use, it is the vast amount of plastic packaging with which we are confronted. Our milk and much of our fruit, vegetables and meat is presented in plastic coverings. Sauces, cheeses, salads, shampoo and other bath products, bleach and a huge range of cleaning products, are all packaged in plastic. Compared with the weight of the claimed 7 billion plastic bags, I wonder what is the tonnage of all of these other elements of packaging.

 

I've already heard someone from the taxpayers' alliance speaking out against this new tax and I can only hope that many more people of influence and common sense make sufficient noise to prevent this ridiculous impost from being implemented.