If it's green - tax it

Dear Lord protect us from holier-than-thou fanatics with a cause. With the anti-smoking war all but won we now see them manning the anti-drink barricades as a diversion to that mother-of-all crusades - saving the planet.

It is the po-faced arrogance and mixing facts with quasi-science and dubious statistics that does my head in, along with this idea that somehow we all have to suffer and be punished for sins against the planet - such as the latest wheeze of charging for carrier bags in shops. One national newspaper hailed this as a victory in ITS campaign, the same newspaper, by the way, that packs ITS Saturday edition in enough plastic bags to make a fairly large contribution to a modest landfill site all on its own.

The Green cause is seeing food prices rise because farmland is being used to grow crops for bio-fuels and, best of all, we are seeing tropical and rain forests - which are remarkably good and efficient in filtering the atmosphere - being slashed and burned to grow even more crops for bio-fuels which add to pollution. That is in addition to the destruction of forests just for old fashioned greed.

The next idea is to have higher VAT on products deemed as not being green or using unnecessary energy - deemed by the disciples of doom and Government tax collectors that is. Governments love green because it offers a whole new raft of taxes - all in the name of mother Earth.

We have been despoiling and polluting the earth for years so it is about time we did something but let's stop using it as an excuse for new taxes and price hikes on the long suffering consumers.