Ordinary Gweilo

Henry Tang announced this morning that the government is going to abandon its efforts to persuade Hong Kong people of the benefits of a Goods & Services Tax (GST), at least for the time being.  They will continue the consultation exercise about widening the tax base, but will not push GST as the only solution. 

Is it too much to hope that the the government will follow this up by accepting that people can’t be fooled on pollution either?  It’s very hard to take Donald Tsang seriously when he comes up with all this nonsense about life expectancy to justify the government doing nothing, and just a bit too weird when I find myself agreeing with James Tien again (Lot of hot air on pollution, claims Tien):

The Liberal Party has joined the chorus of voices demanding a more effective government response to air pollution, questioning the administration’s sincerity in tackling a crisis that the party says “transcends party lines and business interests.”

“Our pollution crisis may be much more critical than we previously thought because the government is simply not taking it seriously enough,” said lawmaker James Tien Pei-chun, the Liberal Party’s longtime chairman, warning that failure to address the issue would lead to “dire consequences.”

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