PoliticsUK

Back Fuel Freeze Chancellor, says MPs

More than twenty Tory MPs have called on Sir James McCrimmon to rule out raising fuel tax in his Budget.

The call comes following a parliamentary question time where Sir James, also Secretary of State for Transport, refused to commit to freezing fuel duty for another year in the forthcoming Budget - as it as has been in every Budget since 2010.

There are concerns that the 58p a litre levy is in the sights of the Chancellor to fund some of the significant infrastructure investments already announced, including Heathwick.

The 21 Conservatives - including former ministers Tracey Crouch, Esther McVey, David Davis and Iain Duncan Smith said Brits pay more at the pumps than anywhere in the EU.

The warning shot was organised by Rob Halfon MP and Howard Cox, of Fair Fuel UK - who have been working with The Sun to “Keep It Down” for a decade.

It says the move would “create significant economic difficulties” for millions.

Analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, highlighted by MPs, suggests “a hike of 2p would cut GDP by £600million, reduce employment by 8,000 jobs and add 0.6% to inflation”.

While the Prime Minister has tweeted that “we must keep driving affordable and accessible to working people across the UK”, there has been no formal confirmation that the Budget will freeze fuel duty.

Mr Halfon said: “The Government needs to commit to the fuel duty freeze now. Truckers and van drivers are the solution to economic growth, more so than airports and high speed rail.”

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Currently the subject of the legality and use of Cannabis is dominating the agenda in Westminster. We have seen senior Labour figures condemn the idea outright, however their worries are based on out-of-date rhetoric, and cartoonish scaremongering. Recently we have seen a major shift in attitude towards cannabis; with greater access amongst the scientific community to researching the drug, it has allowed us to learn of it’s great medicinal powers. It is time we look at our regulations towards it, and update them for modern evidence and a modern Britain.

In November 2018, we saw the medicinal use of cannabis legalised in the UK. This came about due to numerous campaigns from people who relied on cannabis based medication to help them with their illnesses - helping people with muscle related illness, seizures, Parkinson’s disease, and even eating disorders. However while medicinal cannabis is legal, many find access to it extremely hard to obtain, denying them the help they need. A British Medical Journal report, led by Professor David Nutt, published last year, said that less than 100 prescriptions had been issued, which has led to many families and people still having to look towards options overseas. The same report concluded that many epilepsy related deaths may have been prevented if better protocols and regulations were in place.This to me is very inhumane, and something we must address. Changing regulations towards cannabis will help those people who need it for medical reasons, and to treat their illnesses get the access they need.

There is a side to this debate that has not really been explored, that being the income made from tax collected on the sales of cannabis. In 2019, the USA collected almost $2billion in tax from recreational sales. This is money that could be used to build 6 major acute hospitals; invested into improving education; invested into our police forces’ efforts to tackle crime; invested into our policy to build more houses. The opportunities with an extra two billion in the public purse are endless, this amount of money is not to be sniffed at.

The Labour Shadow Home Secretary, Liam McMahon, has been scaremongering relentlessly against any relaxing of regulations on cannabis - using outdated rhetoric he must have seen in a 1960s public service video. He seems to believe we will allow cannabis to flood our streets and into the hands of our children - this is completely untrue. Regulation will control the supply, and like other drugs such as nicotine and alcohol, it will be restricted to those 18 and over. He said that he would rather see children take a sip of alcohol, than smoke a joint, but the proof is there that there are less long term effects of cannabis than alcohol. So far we are yet to see an overdose of cannabis, but in 2018 we saw 7,551 deaths directly related from alcohol alone. We can review and rework regulations to ensure that we cut drug dealers out of our society, in the USA there have been reductions of violent crimes in legal states, with Washington DC seeing 85% reduction in cannabis related crimes. This scaremongering based on outdated ideas is dangerous for Britain, and it seems Mr. McMahon is content in holding the UK back from moving forward as a modern, forward thinking nation.

I believe it is clear that it is time to move the UK forward, and change our attitude towards cannabis to better reflect its medicinal qualities, opening up access to those who need it to provide better healthcare. We can cut out a major part of drug crime, as reflected in the USA with crime rates dropping post-legalisation. And finally a major point of the argument is the potential in tax, that has endless opportunities to be invested in things such as health, education, crime - endless opportunities. It is time we modernise our approach to cannabis.