The government over the weekend has hinted that "green taxes" will rise substantially, to change the way we the consumer operates. Tax is an incredibly powerful weapon when it comes to moving society along. The window tax introduced in 1696 had a double whammy effect it cut the production of glass a scarce commodity in the UK and raised revenue according to wealth. (At the time income tax did not exist and the family wealth was not known, the number of windows one had in ones house tended to be correlated to wealth.) Although a crude instrument it did tend to work and hence the reason why some old houses have bricked up holes in walls.

The principles of a green tax tend to suggest that we are moving towards a modern day window tax. The government will ask the nation to cut its CO2 emissions by taxing us when we emit. Taken to its logical conclusion this means that the price of milk will increase dramatically (to pay for cow emissions). Power prices will be taxed twice, once at source and once by the user, (it may seem unfair but inheritance tax fits into the same category). Transport a big emitter will also change with the nation moving towards hydrogen cars, push bikes, smaller engines etc. Air travel will change radically, in fact cheap flights will no longer exist.

This economic theory works for an island or trading hub, but when economies need the help of outside parties to trade, then governments have to be careful that taxes do not make their industries uncompetitive. The UK economy is mainly serviced by tertiary industry (banking, insurance services) but as a nation we can not become dependent upon other countries providing our power, or our milk whilst we do not pollute and they do, the world as whole has gained nothing.

The green cost code, must apply to all in a globalised economy.