Yesterday I needed to refill my car. That meant paying ??40 to Mr Brown and ??20 to an oil company.
The cheapest filling station was offering diesel at 3p a litre less than some others. As that represented a saving of ??1.80 and I had to pass it anyway it was the obvious place to go. Most other local people in need of fuel decided the same thing, driven there by the enormous cost of the tax on petrol after the recent tax hike and by the upwards move in oil prices.
It took me more than one quarter of an hour to queue to fill, fill, pay, then queue to check the tyres and to check the tyres.
It gave me plenty of time to get angry with this tax greedy government . No doubt they need the money to pay for all the fuel in Ministerial limos and airplanes as they jet around the world lecturing the rest of us on what to do.
November 19, 2007
JR:
November 19, 2007
I will be interesting to see how expensive petrol will have to become before you see less cars on the road. Most people do not have a choice. I work shifts, so apart from a taxi there is no other way. Even if petrol went to
November 19, 2007
The Conservatives introduced the fuel duty price escalator, only when there was a huge fuel protest did Labour stop it. Actually I think fuel should be expensive, its a limited resource, the quicker we use it the less there is. The world price has been very high, so this is reflected at the pump.
Actually between 1997 and 2006 the cost of travelling by car decreased in real terms by 10%. The corresponding costs of travelling by train increased by 6%, and by bus by 13%. Source: Hansard Debates (17th July 2007) To get people away from the car we need to reverse the trend, but its a brave politician that will stand up to car drivers.
How fuel stations set their price is capitalism, is JR having second thoughts about this?
Reply: No – I just think the last tax increase was unreasonable.
November 20, 2007
John, a good observation of the recent price hikes, but I urge you not to get angry, but to get even. Harness the national anger to +
January 31, 2008
I agree that this government is the greedy party as far as petrol prices. The oil companies are after all in business to make money & the tax is twice the fuel cost!
I was recently in thailand when the last big increase in oil occured & their government actually cut tax on fuel to help business & the people! Can you imagine out greedy incompetents ever doing that?
Also Thailand has no oil of its own. A litre of petrol is less than 50p there!
as for the "global warming" theory, there is no way we can revert out society back to victorian times the car & plane are here to stay! If there really is a problem with the human cause of global warming, perhaps some brave politician should stand up & ask about the only real way to fix it— less poulation!
Instead of encouraging teens to get pregnant perhaps there should be financial penalties for (too many children -ed)
food for thought— the population of the planet has DOUBLED between 1960 and 2000!— scarey huh?