The government will win over critics of its road-toll scheme before plans go through parliament, Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman has insisted.

He told the BBC's Newsnight that as well as Tony Blair's e-mail to those who signed a petition opposing the scheme, there will be local debates.

The petition, which closes at midnight, has been backed by 1.7m people on the Downing Street website.

Why will they win the debate you may ask? , well, it appears the EU is controlling the whole affair and this government cannot do a thing about it.

Blair’s political masters in Europe have already set in motion the introduction of road pricing for the whole of Europe and the UK signed up to  DIRECTIVE 2004/52/EC which says there must be interoperability of electronic road toll systems in the Community.

Tony Blair has revealed that he intends to send an e-mail to the people who have signed the online petition, telling them that charges for using the roads are "surely part of the answer" to solving the growing problems of congestion.

Speaking during a debate on Newsnight, the transport secretary said the government would "engage" with those who backed the petition.

He added that the government would have a debate "based on the facts", rather than "myths" that he said had been "propagated alongside the petition".

The Popular Alliance says this is hot air, they have no intention of taking our concerns seriously, how can there be a debate on something that has already been decided and a directive already implemented within the EU? 

This government is taking us for fools, and this document proves it DIRECTIVE 2004/52/EC

Mr Ladyman said there would have to be a period of consultation and debates and a bill through parliament even before a local pilot scheme could go ahead.

"Between now and a national scheme there would be two general elections so there will be plenty of opportunities to engage people and win them over. And if we can't win them over, it can't go ahead," he said.

Mr Ladyman even claims if the government cannot win the public over it cannot go ahead. We would suggest that he has already bowed to his masters and put the Road Tolling (Interoperability of Electronic Road User Charging and Road Tolling Systems) Regulations 2007 into place WITHOUT engaging with the public and he even did this after the e-petition made it past the 600,000 mark

We also think we may have a very good idea as to who the mysterious minister was who quoted that the petition developer was “a prat” . Mr ladyman cannot have been too pleased when this petition started to make news just as he sneaked his EU undebated regulation through.

We can only suggest that when Blair emails his spin about this whole sordid affair, you email him back and ask him, how will he explain to his masters in Europe that the UK want nothing to do with this EU road charging nasty.