Bonkers?

In the good old days, the Liberal Party was renowned for coming up with wacky ideas. LibDem Tavish Scott is reviving the tradition. Scotland on Sunday reports:

SCOTTISH ministers are planning to scrap car tax and cut fuel duty to sweeten the pill of a new road toll scheme.
In a radical bid to cut congestion on Scottish roads, ministers want the Treasury to hand over control of all motoring taxes to Holyrood.
They would then abolish the £210-a-year cost of vehicle excise duty and also cut fuel tax to lessen the blow of road pricing.
Motorists would pay up to £1.28 a mile to drive on the country's most congested roads.
The plan mirrors outline proposals already being considered in Whitehall, under which a UK-wide road pricing scheme could be in place as early as 2014.
However, the Government is in no doubt as to public feeling on the scheme after last week's extraordinary internet protest, which saw 1.5 million people signing a motion calling for the plans to be scrapped.
Scottish Transport Minister Tavish Scott said last week he wanted things to happen "more quickly" in Scotland, criticising the "glacial" progress of the plans in the UK.
Scott now says that, if in power after the next election, he wants to enter negotiations with Westminster to hand over responsibility for motoring tax to enable the plan to go ahead.
His proposals were received with astonishment in Whitehall last night with one official describing the plan as "bonkers".

So the Scottish Executive would administer motoring taxes, including road tax and fuel duties? How exactly would that work? Well, the Executive would need to set up its own equivalent of the DVLC (assuming that vehicles would still need to be licensed, even if they did not pay road tax) and would need to establish arrangements to collect the duty on petrol, as well as setting and collecting the congestion charge. How many additional civil servants would be required? Ask Mr Scott. How would the taxation systems distinguish between Scottish cars and lorries and those from England? Ask Mr Scott. How would smuggling to England of cheaper Scottish petrol be prevented? Ask Mr Scott. How to prevent English-based car and lorry drivers seeking to register as Scottish to take advantage of cheaper petrol and road tax? Ask Mr Scott.

I am actually in favour of congestion-charging but this kind of half-baked proposition made weeks before an election is indeed bonkers. Thankfully, the UK Department of Transport and the Treasury will not give it the time of day.