Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Labour MPs call for the formalisation of "tourist tax"

Everything is all oh so British today, and it's not coming from the Right but the Left. We've had Brown telling us all about "British jobs for British people", then we had calls for a "British Day" like Australia Day, now Labour MPs have called for what appears to be the formalisation of what we all call "tourist tax".

You know the sort of thing, when you go abroad you know that because you're foreign you're going to get fleeced. The same happens in reverse. It's the way of the world. However, there is also the accepted reality that tourist tax applies to everyone when you're at a departure point for your summer holiday, be it a port, airport or railway station.

It appears though that a number of Labour MPs think this wrong. Not tourist tax per se, but the fact that British people have to pay it when they're in their own country. In a motion tabled by Labour MP, Jim Sheridan and backed by 11 other Labour MPs it states,
"That this House expresses its concern that the British travelling public are treated as captive audiences at Britain's ports, airports and railway stations in terms of charging for goods and services; and calls on the Office of Fair Trading to investigate the pricing policies at these departure points on behalf of British consumers."
Pull the ladder up Jack (assuming it's not dodgy), we want British prices for British people don't you know! Frankly I'm happy to pay through the nose for a coffee at an airport, it's part of the whole traveling experience. I guess though for these Labour MPs we'll all be able to show our ID Cards and get a discount - how long before we hear that argument used to support them I wonder?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many would sigh a EDM that said "we the undersigned will refrain from busy body activities for this week"

Anonymous said...

Cut it out: those expensive coffees help keep the airport charges (and hence fares) "down".

Richard Havers said...

The BAA don't run airports they run out of town shopping malls!