---

AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

As in all cases, there are winners and losers. For the Chancellor to suggest that everyone will win in the Budget, and to dress up the 2p reduction as an additional bonus, is a somewhat dishonest portrayal of what the Budget is all about. There was one win-win situation—the landfill tax and the increase in the aggregates levy mean that the Chancellor will earn money when a hole is created, and then earn more money when the hole is filled up. That is one environmental measure that puts him in a win-win situation. My hon. Friend the Member for Braintree (Mr. Newmark) said that the wealthy could afford the tax on 4x4s, but in the main, 4x4s in the Ribble Valley are working farm vehicles. The hard-pressed dairy farmers on my patch earn small sums of money—some of them earn less than £13,000; if we counted up the hours that they work they would not even earn the minimum wage—while milk production costs have increased, and the money that they obtain for their products has been reduced for various reasons, including the strength of the supermarkets. It is not right that their working vehicles should be taxed even more, and I urge the Government, even at this late stage, to exclude from the tax increase 4x4s used as farming vehicles.