Green Gesture Politics

The increase in air taxes that Gordon Brown announced in his pre-budget report last November came into effect last Thursday - and are probably the worst form of gesture politics that I've seen recently.

In trying to address the impact that aviation makes upon the environment, the new tax increases - which are expected to produce up to 1b in tax revenue - have ended up in a political no man's land between genuine sustainability and environmental dismissiveness. Research from Oxford university researchers have suggested, as have numerous surveys over the past few years, that the new taxes are far too low to make a significant effect upon deterring customers from flying. And the hoo-haa created by the airlines is likely to be repeated as and when these taxes are increased in the future, increasing the political costs of doing so.

I would say that if you're going to raise taxes as a measure to better reflect its environmental costs, you do straightaway up to a point that will genuinely make a difference. There will be criticism from the airlines, but that will die down after a while as passengers get used to the taxes. The Chancellor has been trying to portray a greener shade of Brown - but the manner in which these taxes have been raised (including the relatively short lead-in period) has been half-hearted at best.