Letter: Green means

Geoffrey Lean is wrong about green taxes (30 April). A tax is just a revenue raiser unless the revenue is devoted to reducing environmental degradation. There are no promises to do this, just a hint of an insignificant sum being used for conservation.

The yields from resource taxes, if they work, must diminish over time: they cannot therefore be used to replace income tax.

The only real green legislation to come out of 18 years of Conservative government has been the Home Energy Conservation Bill and the Road Traffic Reduction Bill. Both were passed as Liberal Democrat private members bills but resulted from joint efforts by the Green Party, Friends of the Earth and Plaid Cymru.

Barrie Weller

Mid Sussex Green Party