London mayor: US ambassador 'a chiseling little crook'

[DesertFox]

London's rambunctious mayor, already fighting suspension for comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard, landed in fresh hot water on Tuesday for likening the U.S. ambassador to a "chiseling little crook."

Mayor Ken Livingstone has been quarrelling with the U.S. embassy since last year, when it announced it would not pay the "congestion charge" fee imposed on cars entering the city center.

The embassy says the charge is a tax and that diplomats are immune under treaty. Livingstone says the charge, one of his flagship policies, is a road toll which diplomats have to pay.

"It would actually be quite nice if the American ambassador in Britain could pay the charge like everybody else and not skive out of it like some chiseling little crook," the mayor told a television reporter.

More (http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-03-28T140739Z_01_L28691879_RTRUKOC_0_US-BRITAIN-USA-MAYOR.xml&rpc=22)

[cerberus]

Man's got a point. It's the same issue Rudy had with all those diplomatic cars in NYC from the UN delegations not paying their tickets.

[ANI]

This guy us the U.K. version of Howard Dean...or Al Gore...he is a nut.

[DeclinetoState]

Man's got a point. It's the same issue Rudy had with all those diplomatic cars in NYC from the UN delegations not paying their tickets.

I didn't know a parking ticket was the same thing as a tax.

[DesertFox]

It ain't. Man ain't got no point.

[2nd_Amendment]

Taxes, tickets, all means of generating revenue, nothing more.

Livingstone is a nut but when the subject is diplomatic immunity I can't disagree with him. We get sick of these diplomatic freaks here, we shouldn't be surprised they get equally sick of them(including ours) elsewhere...

[DesertFox]

A ticket you pay for breaking a law. A tax you pay no matter what. There are agreements among govts on these things.

[2nd_Amendment]

All just means of generating revenue. Like the small town cop writing your out-of-town ass a speeding ticket...whether you were speeding or not. Just revenue intake.

Governments have and have had a lot of agreements and arrangements, a great many of them stupid...

[DesertFox]

Actually, the point of a ticket isn't to generate revenue, but to change behavior. The point of a tax, or a toll, is specifically to generate revenue.

[2nd_Amendment]

I know for a fact the Indiana State Police and the New Hampshire State Police, not to mention every local PD in my area, operate on quotas of various strictness. That's not about changing behavior, it's about revenue. In the end that's 95% of what government is about at all levels, generating more income for itself.

Anyway, we're getting off-topic so I'll shaddup about it...

[PaulRevere]

A road toll is just aother name for a tax. Red Ken and his cabal of commies don't care if the "congestion toll" reduces traffic or not - they just want the money.

Taxes are reimbursable to diplomatic and military staff if not avoided completely. In Germany we get gas coupons to avoid paying $5 a gallon in taxes on the German economy. If we buy stuff on the local economy, we fill out forms to get the tax rebated. We are subject to American taxes, not host country.

[DeclinetoState]

Actually, the point of a ticket isn't to generate revenue, but to change behavior. The point of a tax, or a toll, is specifically to generate revenue.

I agree with DF here. In theory, at least, a ticket is supposed to motivate you to change your behavior. In practice, in some cases and in some places, it's just a means to raise revenue for some local political jurisdiction. Sometimes, it's hard to tell what the point of a toll or other tax is (e.g., are cigarette taxes out there to punish you for smoking, to encourage you to quit, or simply to raise money?). Sometimes even the jurisdiction that passes a tax (or imposes a fine) seems to not know what it's really for.

:(

[Jesse_Lackman]

2nd check your PMs, I stirred the phlogpot and got the same putrid schmell as always.