Danger Money My own favourite tax reform, which the Chancellor
unaccountably overlooked on Tues- day, would be to impose a tax on dangerous driving and motor accidents. This would have the admirable result of making the good citizen pay less than the bad one, and would also very prob- ably help to reduce the number of accidents. First, abolish the present Road Fund licence entirely. In its place, substitute a straight percentage duty on motor insurance premiums. The tearaway driver who fills insurance companies (and other road-users) with dread would find that his heavily loaded insurance premiums bore a fierce extra burden of taxation. The safe motorist would be better off than at present. The rich would pay more than the poor. Who could complain?
Since Mr Callaghan is in the habit of introduc- ing a new budget every few months, perhaps he will bear this in mind in the autumn. I suppose public opinion may not be quite ready for the change yet. If so, 1 predict that it soon will be. There has been a profound shift in American public opinion regarding road safety in recent months, and it is generally safe to assume that such changes of attitude will cross the Atlantic within a year or two. Americans are at last look- ing at the prime causes of road deaths and de- manding action to deal with them. The book by Ralph Nader, Unsafe At Any Speed, strongly criticising a number of the cars on American roads, has been an important influence. But I suspect it could only be so influential because it
coincided with a switch in the public mood.
A spectacular drop in the sales of one car Which Nader found fault with was one straw in the wind: but even more significant was the news, this week, that the Detroit manufacturers had made a complete volte-face and abandoned their long and determined opposition to the imposition of Federal safety standards for cars. They fore- saw defeat, and decided to anticipate it grace- fully. Regulatory legislation will follow. This is a long step forward from the dictum. 'What's good for General Motors is good for the USA.'
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