Double Cab U-Turn

No, not taxi cabs - although the rules say that in London at least, they have to be able to do a U-Turn within a 25 foot turning circle.

This story, though, is about double-cab pickup trucks like this one...

...and the rules concerning the tax on them.

I saw this story at lunchtime on the Auto Express website but that appears to be broken right now so here's a link to the local newspaper of the small Hampshire town of Fleet - Fleet News.

On Monday last week, the HMRC announced that vehicles like that yellow one above would be treated as cars rather than commercial vehicles and would therefore no longer be getting the tax breaks afforded to commercial vehicles.

This upset quite a few people - business people and farmers and people who sell double-cab pick-up trucks.

On Thursday, the Government got thrashed in a by-election.  Not really relevant  to this but it pleased me and it's further proof that The Conservatives don't want to be upsetting people - especially business people and farmers and people who sell double-cab pick-up trucks. 

So yesterday the Government did a U-Turn. Nigel Huddleston, financial secretary to the Treasury, said: “We will change the law at the next available Finance Bill in order to avoid tax outcomes that could inadvertently harm farmers, van drivers and the UK’s economy.”

Then maybe they shouldn't have made a law that produced tax outcomes that could inadvertently harm farmers, van drivers and the UK’s economy.

But, let's be honest - they do have form.

Van Morrison River Dance

We are in middle of Storm Christophe.

Here in the North-West of England we have a lot of water - the BBC report it thusly.

They have a dramatic picture:

That is a Ford Ranger.

Unfortunately it is not a Ford Ranger Splash which I think were only available Stateside.

It is, however, a Ford Ranger splash.

If you have a Ford Ranger then you can confidently make a big splash.  More of a splash than was happening on my commute home this evening - but we still had to make a splash:

Apologies for the lack of sound, I guess I must have accidentally switched off the audio recording.

I was amazed that most of the other vehicle drivers didn't test their brakes after going through that.

They could have got into an accident - like the Morrisons van driver in this other story from BBC News today.

I always think that Morrisons vans look like UK ambulances:

So I tend to refer to them as Morrisons Ambulances.  The driver of the van in the story was taken to hospital although it sounds like it was precautionary rather than necessary.

He "had to be rescued from his overturned van after he careered off the road and ended up in a fast-flowing ford", police said.

The pictures are pretty dramatic so it looks like he was very lucky although how he ended up in there is a bit of a mystery - on the radio it said he was driving through the ford (in his Mercedes) but it was swollen and too deep.  The Web story talks about careering off the road and speculates about sat-navs.

In any case, I like Morrisons because they give me 10% off my shopping because I work for the NHS.

So I'll finish this post now without any of my usual comedic comments or puns despite the list of Van Morrison albums with very relevant titles.