From Dr Carole Caldwell Sir: Your leading article states that
the public instinctively recognises that the tax on fuel is a 'bad' one which has failed in its purpose to make people use their cars less. I am pleased that you acknowledge this taxation has a reg- ulatory as well as a revenue-raising function, but it is, therefore, obvious that the tax is still not high enough to get drivers out of their cars and onto buses, trains or other modes of transport. The events of the past week have demonstrated only too well the extraordinar- ily feeble dependence of the average British citizen on his car. I do not think I have ever seen anything quite so ridiculous as the panic buying of petrol by the car-driving masses, or heard anything quite so histrionic as the media coverage of the 'crisis'.
Carole Caldwell
London SE5
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