Veering slightly off the topic ...
Isn't it amazing how long the "road fund" idea persisted. I've even known people in recent years say things like "I pay my road tax, so why don't I get proper roads?".
The tax was introduced as a way of funding road development, but was later moved to be treated as general taxation income. What's surprising is quite when that happened: the Chancellor of the Exchequer who introduced the change was Winston Churchill (!) and the year was ... 1937!
