A classic car advert—”nothing wrong with that, ey Kevin?” one might wonder. Take a slightly closer look; in fullscreen Steinhardt-vision:
What’s this ‘road tax’ of which the ad typesets?; why, … that was abolished near seventy years ago. Roads are either paid for by a local authority or the Highways Agency; the revenue from vehicle excise duty goes straight to the government’s big pot o’ money. The money one pays for one’s tax disc (which is a perfectly acceptable term, unlike ‘road tax’ or the even more skewed ‘road fund licence’) (and I’m skipping over the fact that a significant number of motor vehicles have VED discs reading “£0.00”) pays for hospitals, the guided busway, Cameron’s personal photographer, etc.
I wouldn’t make such a big deal about this (I wouldn’t need to) if it wasn’t for arsehole drivers thinking they own the road they throw juice bottles onto. I wouldn’t be making such a big deal if drivers just comprehended that I’m subsiding every single one of them with little personal gain. I’m also putting physical effort into my transport: a premise which is lost on 50% of people, with the other half saying something along the lines of “just get a car then, and stop complaining [if we fuck your momentum up by doing something pathetically dangerous because we have small penises]”. Now let’s look at the small print:
The small print shows that Citroen do actually know the difference between ‘road tax’ and VED … but it also shows that they’re being ignorant (or a word like that that I can’t be bothered to think of). The excuse of “Well… everyone calls it road tax” just isn’t valid—a lot of people call travellers gypsies; doesn’t mean reputable companies like Citroen should.
By the way, Citroen make very good cars and this post is nothing against the car manufacturing division of Citroen … just their department de relations publique.
K Steinhardt 