Your Comments

Hi,

On 16 July 2008, just days after hauliers had demonstrated against rising fuel prices and following questions from Birmingham Northfield MP Richard Burden, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Parliament: "In recognition of the problems that people face with petrol, we are freezing petrol duty for a full year."

Exactly as reported by Adrian John Bell on 8 March in the last blog pages (No; 38)

And still people defend the PM and pretend he did not say what he said or mean what he meant. Its in black and white.

As expected. Prices seem to be going up anyway! Watched the vid and the PM says "the" full year so I suppose he's wriggled off the hook about it being for a whole year from when he said it. Sorry, Steve M I read a bit of the barney you had on that one! Agree with the sentiment though. Really ought to do something about lowering the duty on derv so that hauliers can be more competitive and keep down shop prices.

With little sign of any cuts in bloated government I suppose the money has to come from somewhere and, sadly, we're as good a source as any.
Brian

Once more, despite this double talking government's promises to help business get through 'difficult times' they find another way to use them as a personal source of funds to help fill their coffers and cover the many blunders of the last 12 years. It's businesses that have to bear a major burden of stealth taxation, and unlike VAT, duty is not reclaimable, so its yet another increase in overhead that eventually gets passed onto the end user. Like business rates, it's a non value added element that reduces efficiency, and just continues to help the steady decline in competitiveness

It's a disgrace ! The government are doing nothing to help the middle class working family, and despite the current economic climate, they are increasing costs. How much extra have the government had from extra council tax from new build properties, an increase in speed camera, victim surcharge fines, and so on?

Noticed petrol prices going up on a daily basis. With this extra fuel duty it means they will go up even further. Why is it that motorists always seem to pay for just having a car, not even for luxury reasons but necessity reasons?

Fuel duty is due to go up, once again proving that the Government does not adhere to the promises it makes to those who elect them.

The duty will go up by 2p, and the VAT will therefore also rise, so the cost of fuel will not go up byu only 2p - more likely 3p, rounding up to the next .99p. this will hit everyone, including those who do not own or use a vehicle, because all services will be affected - public transport and deliveries alike.

It will not be long until the next election. Is the govrnment pushing the duty up, so that they can 'magically' find a reduction in duty as a sweetener before the election? This would not surprise me. What would surprise me is if the electorate fell for such a ploy!

Time to get down to the chippy and recycle the old cooking oil.

Oh dear, well I suppose someone has to fund the bank rescue programme, so let's summerise -

The banks screw us with the cost of borrowing (if indeed you can borrow)

The fuel companies screw us by sneaking the cost of fuel up everytime our backs are turned

The rail companies insist on above inflation fare increases

Council tax up

Stealth taxes up

The only way to beat the system is to bring a once profitable bank to it's knees 9well done Sir Fred!!!)


The Government screw us every which way

I think it is a disgrace that it is going up again as haven't we enough to cope with at present with the cost of everything rising and the recession. The motorists are targeted so much and as such the car industry is going to wrack and ruin. We have the highest prices of petrol in the whole of Europe -even Switzerland isn't as high as here in the UK. The government should try and keep the prices down.

Yet another rip off tax from this goverment who uses the road users as an easy target. The most taxed country again - what a surprise.

Well, somebody has to pay for all the bank (retirement fund) bailouts. Looks like it will be the motorist, no big surprise there!

Some of live in remote rural communities where use of a vehicle is essential - it is just insulting to go on taxing us out of existence.

Car firms are working short time and making workers redundant. Train companies are increasing prices AND cutting services. Unemployment is at a record level and the money in our pockets is getting less and less. What a good time for the Government to increase fuel duty. This will not only make it more costly for the average mororist but it will put up the price of everything else as haulage firms simply can't absorb the increase and will have to pass it on. Result - everyone has even less money!

I cannot believe the Governement is going to do this again, well I can. At this rate, I won't be able to afford to leave my house.

When the fuel was at it's highest last year it was costing me £75 to fill up my Golf. I have to drive quite a long way to work so it was costing me around £280 just to get to work. It got to the point where I was forced to take annual leave because I could afford to put fuel in my car to get to work!! This country is a joke politically and I for one have had enough. Time to re-train and move abroad I feel. I do not want my child to struggle like I have to because of a greedy Government that saves Banks that can't run their businesses properly but not it's people. Enough is enough.

Time to vote these clowns out... No fan of the other parties but any one of them couldn't do a worse job then these people who take us for fools.

Why can't this government get simple things right?
Increasing fuel duty will help 'them' in the short term but also help to close many more smaller businesses as they struggle to pay increasing haulage costs but having decreasing clients to sell on to.
The knock-on effect will encase us all in one way or another.
I was attending a court matter today and the huge amount of businesses with winding up orders against them or voluntary liquidations and house repossessions was staggering. In fact it was overwhelming.
It scared the b'jeez out of me.

I think it is dispicable, a political leader should not be able to break their promise like that

Gordon Brown might well wish to change his name to Richard Turpin (blog seems to think his real forename is a "bad" word and won't let me use it!!) - highway robbery seems to be a mutual attribute.

Still, how else can this government preserve the ranks of bloated plutocrats who pretend to govern us. They have ballsed up the banking system so now we all have to pay. PS Oil prices have gone down by 60%+ from their peak, why haven't pump prices??

I suppose it's too late to point out that things have got worse not better since this pathetic government froze the last rise in order to fend off the threatened revolt by haulage firms that would have had the support of the whole country.

We are not bothered about Brown saying sorry for the mess that he has caused, just go for an election SOON.

Hi, You can not trust polititions what so ever anymore, I just wonder why people still vote for these people. What they say is just a lot of hot air and not more.

I wouldn't trust Gordon Brown to keep his word on anything. It's a good job he wont be there after the next election.
It's a public scandal that so much tax is taken off us for something that is essential. If the government didn't waste so much of OUR money abroad then we wouldn't have to pay so much tax.

This basically amounts to daylight robbery in my opinion. Tell me please, how does this country remove our current Prime Minister from his seat of office?

Why is it that our government cannot manage their books without keep putting petrol up. This not only affects the everyday motorist, it affects every business and these additional prices are then passed on to the customer.

Surely a promise is a promise and if they say prices are not going up, they should not go up. How can anyone believe a word we are told by government.

Why does the government insist on bailing out failing banks with our money and tax us again through things like fuel tax? Why can't the banks be left to sort their own mess out and let the poor motorist alone it's insane with prices as they are to be taxed more is just unbelievable!!!!!!!!! I'M NOT sure the Tories will be any better because their leader is naive

The UK government are really after the working person aren't they.. we have to work & therefore travel to work (me persoanlly 50 mile round trip with no public transport option viable) & they are determined to keep on emptying our pockets..
is it just me or are we simply working to pay taxes!! just not on.. they need to be reducing it not upping or freezing it..

I am a partner in two companies which are totally diverse, but both rely heavily on transport.

One is a firm of financial advisers where we use our cars regularly to travel to appointments to see clients, at a time to suit them.

The other is a textile recycling company where the vans and lorries are always on the road either collecting or delivering goods.

Another increase in fuel duty will only raise our costs further and ultimatly the cost to the customer of our services.

Surely it is time for this unelected prime minister to go. He could not manage the economy as chancellor when times were good, and has proved even more inept as prime minister now that times are bad.

In the past ive seen emails to boycott any one of the big boys at the pumps where it will really hurts them, unfortunately email distribution alone is not the ideal way to get this across. Surely at petrolprices.com we have enough members to make a considerable dent by picking one of the bigger suppliers for a week, then maybe in a months time hit one of the other major suppliers. Surely this would get them thinking and hopfully also get them on our side to put pressure on the government? With the amount of unemploment and jobs becoming few and far between people are having to travel further and with the price of fuel its not exactly encouraging people to do this.

Any one actually thought why increased fuel prices are a good idea ?

We all know the fuel supply is finite and that the more it cots the less we will use (or be able to afford to use). I remember reading a national geographic article about 5 years ago about the point we reach peek oil supply. That is when we are able to produce enough to for fill demand, and that was predicted at 10 years. So five years from now. Thats when things will get very expensive. So what ever happens its only a short term issue. The pound a liter we are moaning about now will be five pounds a liter in the coming years and eventually will be rationed only to the emergency services and armed forces and then banned as a fuel source. Only for manufacture of necessities. Providing lubrication for mechanical things etc. I know no one likes to plan for the long term future, i can hardly plan tomorrow.. But shouldn't we be hearing a little more about this in the media and from scientists...

If you actually think about what that means, if these time scales are to be believed and you ignore the people in saudi etc saying they have 60 years supply or whatever then the reality is: we are buying new cars now that we will not be able to economically drive in 10-20 years... So the cars your looking at buying will never complete their life cycle of 150,000 miles over 13 years etc.. Its a bit of a worry..

And finally, before I sound to weird. hows this for an idea.
The solution to people that drive cars with un economical engines, drive when they could cycle and pay £200 road tax when they only use a car once a week for the shopping run:
Put fuel up to £5 a liter. Drop road tax, drop insurance and make mot's free. Sounds mad ?? Sounds fair to me... I would think twice about getting a job in another city than my own, i would think twice about driving the 5 miles to work and loose some weight cycling. If i was an old person or a young driver and i did low millage in a car with a small engine then i would pay an absolutely proportionate amount of money for my millage (time on the road) and thus risk to other drivers and the environment. And if i drove a land rover sport 50 miles to work each way i would take the train.. I may even give my house mate a lift to work... It may sound Idealist but its actually just taking action now and being fair when we have a choice rather than in a few years when we don't have the choice.. (oh and you dont even have to install a black box in my car to work this one out)

Any one think this is a silly idea ?
I know If i drove a truck for a living then this wouldn't be a good idea. I actually work behind a computer and if the government were about to put a tax on how long my computer is switched on I may also want to get up and protest..
But i don't drive a truck.. People didn't drive trucks 100 years ago and they wont be able to drive trucks in another 100 years... So its all temporary and relative to our in-just standard of living...

I'm interested to know what other people think.. Although its a little off topic !

As a small business I find petrol/diesel prices have a significant and detrimental effect on my activities and feel that the government take more than enough already.
I am sick to death of them wasting MY money.

We have been paying 99.9 per ltr for quite some time so this will push the cost of my derv up over the £1 again ! But it's not cost the tax that the problem , I'am I wrong thinking that the fuel price's went up when crude oil price's went but they have not come back down the oil barons must be laughing there socks off at us.

Completely agree Shaun (post number 55)

The level of taxation on fuel in this country is an absolute disgrace. I live in an area where public transport is poor to non-existant and people rely on their cars to get to and from work. Cars are not a luxury where I live!!

Gordon Brown needs to take a reality check. Pricing people out of jobs will not help him to generate income for the treasury.

It's absurd how they can get away with this. As a few people have stated, it's not going to effect every day life but the haulage companies are really going to struggle. Have they given any reason for the rise?

What's the point lowering VAT one month and raising fuel costs another week? Jokers.

Our unelected prime minister is only interested in helping the minority, ie his core voters and not the majority who are hard working people who pay their taxes, work long hours, pay council tax and do not abuse the benefits system. When is he going to do something for us who work hard and provide jobs, help us the small businesses and we in turn help the economy. Higher taxes=higher unemployment

This Government lies to suit whichever audience it is addressing at the time. There should be a massive fuel protest as has happened in the past.

Once again with perfect timing we are being clobbered and once again it makes the Brown Government to be a liar.

This plus the fact that fuel companies have neglected to reduce the price of fuel despite the lower price of oil, has put us all in a worse situation.

Malcolm McKenzie

The fuel Duty rise is as a direct resut of all the tax payers money being injected into FAILED Banks which are run by FAILED businessmen. If we the Bristish taxpayer were to FAIL we would see a large reduction in fuel duty. However the British Tax Payer is left to pick up the pieces of these FAILED and INCOMPETENT Bankers who are the only proffession in the UNIVERSE that get hugely rewarded for complete and total FAILURE. Maybe we are the ones who have got it wrong, possibly we should all stop paying our Taxes as if we had FAILED and let see what happens then. I bet this LYING and INCOMPETENT so called Goverment and all the LYING and INCOMPETENT MP's within would suddenly wake up to what the world is all about TODAY and stop living on thier LARGE expenses account and inflated fiddles that we the Tax Payer have also to pay. Lets face it, ALL politicians are FAILED businessmen/women who can not get a proper job but we expect them to RUN a country with thier limited brain power, which is proved on a daily basis. It is no wonder that FAILED Bankers and FAILED Politicians get on so well and more importantly get Billions of our POUNDS to keep lining thier pockets on both sides of the fence. They are both of the same mindset.
You only have to listen to the news each day to see what new and mind boggling incompetence the goverment have got invloved in that day. This happens most days and beggers belive that anyone with Half a brian could have avioded.

When will the government realise that every time that increase the cost of fuel they increase the cost of EVERYTHING! Everything has to be transported to the point of sale...
Or is it just another ploy to get us paying more hidden taxes?