U.S. And French Take On British

The British have a tax for cars that drive into the congested part of London, and until now, the U.S. Embassy was the only to say they wouldn't pay. Much in the way the U.N. countries stick it to New York with parking tickets and such. Well the British recently pushed the charge zone further from the center, and in the process swallowed up other embassies. And now,

(IHT) But, when the city elders almost doubled the size of the charge zone this past week, casting their cash-hungry net over an area housing many more embassies, the Americans suddenly acquired new allies in their resistance — including from unusual quarters like France, which has not always been so supportive of U.S. diplomacy.

It's always nice when we can rekindle those Revolutionary War rivalries over taxes. And the next time a Brit opens his yap about Americans and SUV's, I would ask him if he drives a Chelsea Tractor.

One quirk about the extension of the charging zone is that about 60,000 residents of the newly extended zone received a 90 percent residents' discount, meaning that people living, for instance, in Chelsea — whose legions of SUV drivers inspired the generic term Chelsea Tractor for their Range Rovers and BMW X5s — may now cruise the entire zone for a mere $1.50 a day.