Motor Sport, April 1975

Sir,
After reading your February Editorial and readers’ comments, I agree that the Government’s anti-motorists campaign is becoming out of hand. It is time for concerned members of the motoring public to stand up and be counted.

However, it has been shown that previous organised petitions and public comment has been less than 100% effective in changing Government policy.

I have a suggestion of perhaps a better way of striking back at the Government where it hurts: if a large section of the motoring public were not to buy any new cars or even secondhand cars from dealers during say the month of May, then the loss of revenue through VAT and car tax would be quite considerable. Of course I realise that this idea has many disadvantages—the major one being that it may cause unemployment in some regions. However, this in itself would bring pressure on the Government from the Unions, manufacturers and others whose livelihood depends upon the motor trade. It could also be argued that the response to the scheme would be minimal. For example, the fleet and company car buyers would probably ignore it and Mr. Average who is awaiting the delivery of his new Cortina would probably not have heard of it. However, this scheme could be a viable way of applying sanctions against the Government.

I would be interested in seeing some statistical evidence and reading other readers’ comments.

Trowbridge, H.J. Lawrence