Source: Joe Gill, Director of Research, Bloxham

Yes dear, you me and the two kids are off to Spain this summer and it is only, eh, £48 in air taxes. Far better if I dig out the caravan and we head to Bognor Regis or we could wait until we retire for all those trains promised to whisk us around the country in jig time.

Yes, one of the great world trading nations continues to treat aviation like something at the bottom of its shoe. No more runways in the Capital and giant size taxes to discourage air travel because its does what? Harm the environment? Not half as much as those GR4s and Typhoons bombing Libya currently (do those pilots pay APD of the way over?) but, hey, the environmentalists wrapped up the politically correct in Britain some years ago and now the average taxpayer gets it in the neck every time they even look at a plane. The UK Treasury collects over £2bn from air travelers each year while it forks out over £4bn in subsidies to those great environmental protectors - rail and bus.

It is against conventional wisdom to defend aviation at present but the facts are that an island nation in a globalised economy needs aviation more than ever to support and stimulate trade and tourism. Moreover, despite repeated attempts in prior decades to destroy it, British aviation still retains a leading edge in this huge industry. Just check out the wing design and manufacturing prowess that exists in Wales to understand why the UK is front and centre in commercial air transport. Yet, policymakers persist in systematically targeting airports and air passengers to either gouge them for tax receipts or stop infrastructural development.

Today's news that APD is frozen for a year is no great shakes. It, and the ban on new runways in London, should be abolished to drive tourism and trade. A family of four are levied just £15 to leave tax loving France by air, £10 from Ireland after April 1st and zero from many countries including the Netherlands. Since 1994 the APD tax take in Britain has risen 26-fold yet the political system thinks that's just fine.

Even better, from 2012 onwards thanks to a convoluted makey up emission trading scheme European air passengers will be asked to fork out more money to fund an Investment Bank driven "marketplace". This wheeze proposes that airlines are given allowances based on prior emissions, and charged for incremental expansion. In other words, tax growth at a time when the world needs it most.

Why are planes being singled out? We reckon cows are an even bigger "market". Give Daisy an allowance for all her Co2 emissions last year, and tax her for any incremental output forthwith. Now, there's a gas idea.