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New Labour means tax Tax TAX.
66p per litre duty and tax is utterly shamefull and points to a sick mind in the leadership of this sinking government.
i've just returned from Dubai, over there I can get £70 worth of Petrol for £10.
Which again points to Rip off taxes and rip off brittain.

In these dire economic times, the last thing the country needs is an increase in fuel duty. They must realise that as it affects all road freight, agricultural vehicles and fishing vessels, it is the single most iflationary means of raising revenue they could have considered. Not that I feel there is much to choose between the parties, the electorate have already been reflecting their displeasure at a local level and if Labour continue to alienate voters in this manner I believe this will bring about a change of government.

Hi,

At a time when the average person is feeling the squeeze, the goverment should be coming up with measures to put money back in the pockets. Clearly this is yet another example of the "prudence" policy this goverment is infamous for.

Maybe Darling and Brown are working on moving from recession to depression???????

re 55
This peak oil topic has been exhausted before on this site.
Who knows when it will "peak" or if it has already. Some "experts" suggest it was in the seventies, others say now and some say in 50 or 100 years. Some even question the peak oil theory altogether.
As for the car share or use a bus or train. Ideal if someone goes your way. Ideal if you have a bus route in your area. Ideal if you have a train service at times to suit your working hours.
Sorry, but we do not live in an ideal world.

Oh, another stealth tax eh...yet another one slipped in thinly covered by other policies in the hope noone notices.

Problem about no-one voting for them next time is, do we think whichever puppet replaces him will reverse the tax - nope.

It's a slap in the face for motorists.
An underhand gesture by a man who is not in control of events.
For too long the driving public have endured these rises stoically , but these are uncertain times , no more so than for the present PM , roll on the next election when we can remove this bunch of brigands and mealy mouthed , self serving , greedy , corrupt individuals.

Brown going back on a promise? Now there's a suprise. Another disgraceful move from a disgraceful PM and a disgraceful party. The VAT cut is now widely acknowledged as a complete waste of money - the 12.5 billion would've been better spent elsewhere - reducing fuel duty perhaps that would give money back to businesses across the country. Typical Brown and Labour - lies, deceit, broken promises. CALL AN ELECTION

This government have no idea when i comes to the working class, they sit pretty with no threat to their jobs earning huge salaries.
An increase in fuel duty at this point is scandalous.

Once again Brown has lied. Nothing new there, then. This government say one thing, one minute and do another the next. I read that oil prices have gone down - so the oil companies will make even more money - why can't he take it from them. The people of this country are being ripped off by unfair taxes, yet again.

I'd just like to point out to those promoting increased taxes as a way of discouraging 'wasteful' driving that I don't know anyone who doesn't think twice these days about cost before taking the car anywhere. The point is that we're ALREADY paying among the highest taxes in the world on fuel. When are we going to see that great, gas-guzzling United States putting up tax on fuel?!? I'd like to see something happening there before we're asked to put our hands ever-deeper into our own pockets to 'solve' a fuel crisis that's not of our making. (And tax increases on income would be much fairer than increased fuel taxes, because income taxes are based on people's ability to pay. Fuel taxes are not!)

I'm shocked the government has the bare face cheek to put fuel duty up AGAIN. Gordon Brown is a liar pure and simple and it's time he went. People are struggling right now so lets put more tax on things people have to pay and can't afford. I understand we should all be greener and use less fuel but theres only so much you can cut back on. If Gordon Brown was doing ANY other job in England he would have been fired months ago with his track record which we can now add liar to.

While it may be ecologically sound to increase the price of petrol, public transport has not become correspondingly cheper or more efficient.

Modern society dictates that people need to travel for a variety of reasons. Increasing duty on petrol hits poorer people hardest.

My circumstances mean that I prefer (if I have a choice) a rise in fuel duty to the previously signalled huge rise in Road Tax for larger petrol cars. The money has to come from somewhere and, as no government wants to tax the rich as they should be taxed, this is it!

Diesel >10% more expensive than petrol is just plain theft.
A 'fuel duty' cut is required, not a rise.
Just more tax money down the drain to bail out banks that were just too greedy.

The government believed a 2.5% reduction in VAT would help stimulate the economy! Is adding a broadly similar amount to the cost of fuel an admission that yet another government policy was frail?

Im not at all surprised at this price hike! TAX TAX TAX!

The sad thing is that we are managed by untruthful idiots. Gordon and Alastair are regularly stating that many billions of our money will be put into every problem the Gordon himself has created. People like me have been saying for some time, "where is all this money coming from?" Of course we all know -US!!!! The sooner this band of imcompetents are got rid of the better!!!

The problem is that the Government have spent so many of our billions in bailing out our beloved banks and honouring pension agreements that you and I can see should never have been made that sooner or later they have to start screw, erm sorry I mean "recouping" some extra taxes to pay for the fatcat bonuses and pensions and this is, as usual, an easy option for them. But then what do they care, they're going to lose the next election anyway and then it will be somebody else's problem.

Along with the letter telling me of a Council Tax increase that came today, and the Rent increase letter from last week, Gordon Brown agains piles on the misery that almost everyone n the country is feeling right now with another increase on petrol.

All THe Lot Guverment Post Office All A Bunch CROOKS.,

John Lancaster Burnley

Hello,

I work within the fuel card industry (cue hauliers groan) so I have an inside look on the fuel market every day. Don't worry, I'm not plugging but we are currently offering around 6 pence per litre LESS that what pump prices are offering at the moment. Every haulier or fuel card using business knows that discounts like that against the pumps are usually unheard of (Usually 3 pence MAX.). Now what does this tell us?

Well, in the past 4-5 weeks the oil market has come down quite smoothly, but have the pumps moved in price over that period, the answer is no. When the duty comes on in 2 weeks it is highly unlikely that the pumps will move unless the market balloons before that time meaning the garages themselves having been mugging us for 4-5 weeks already so that they look good when the duty goes on but unless you looked at the fuel market you wouldn't have known! My friends, you are already paying the duty unless you are a fuel consuming business. So really, the leisure consumer is unlikely to be affected. No worries there.

On the other hand SMOOTH MOVE GORDON BROWN, you dribble on all day about how we need to help the banks etc to pay back YOUR mistakes. They're not going to get jack diddly squat if you screw the industry that is part of the backbone of the country. First you take their VAT and then you take more duty? Why target people that keep the food at your table at number 10 or the paper you write on at your desk, not in a warehouse or half way across Europe. Target the people that ACTUALLY steal the taxes, doll runners, prisoners, 'asylum' seekers. Because to be honest those people seem to be treated like royalty compared to Mr.I'm trying to run a business over here. I speak to Hauliers, Couriers and other small business' every day and every day I hear 'hard times', 'work slow' and 'having to sell up'. I feel so sorry for these people. We lose business as a result too, so it's having a knock on effect for people even selling the stuff! Plus the foreign competition is hammering the industry too. YOU SHOULD BE HELPING THEM!!

You seem to think that killing the industry is a way to put the 'Great' back in to Great Britain.

Clearly sir, you are wrong. I just said what everyone knows in one sentence and I'm only 23 years old.

Get the cloth out of your ears and make me proud to be English not desperate to emigrate.

LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE THAT MATTER, THE PEOPLE THAT PUT YOU WHERE YOU ARE, THE PEOPLE THAT PUT FAITH IN YOU. THE TRUE LEADERS OF THE COUNTRY. US.

I think that the PM is double dealing the public with this price hike at this time. With this recession it must be hurting industry as well. I am disabled and rely on my car for getting about and I have to be careful about how much I can afford to put in my tank. Why should anybody have to worry about prices in this day and age!

Dopoliticians realise that every time fuel duty goes up so does everything else? The cost of moving food and other goods increases so we have to pay for that on top of everything else. Are we in recession? Isn't the government supposed to help us keep costs down?
71% of the cost is TOO big a proportion of the cost to give to a government which is so profligate with OUR money!

Crude oil price is significantly down. Pound is a bit up on the dollar. So how come fuel at the pumps has gone up?
Our Government is inept. Our regulators are only in their jobs for what they can get out of them in the way of fat salaries. We are being fleeced, as usual, by a seemingly corrupt institutional government who have failed miserably in achieving any success whatsoever for the British public.

It's another stealth tax and another broken promise - or was it orginally a lie? Another way to make up for the deficit in the public purse created by poor budgeting and management. Is this just the first in a series of price hikes which will bring fuel costs back to where the Government tried to put them last time? They'll do it despite public protest - as they do with everything. You see, the public has a short memory and Governments rely on that.

The Prime minister states he is "listening" to the Electorate. How can this be when his hearing aid battery is permanately flat just like his promises!

It is so gratifying to see that Mr Brown is doing all he can to help the ailing car industry, and other industries for that matter. Safe in his hands?

It's outrageous - fuel tax going up again! I know we do not 'ring fence' our taxes but how can Brown continue to increase fuel tax and penalise motorists and we have nothing to show for it. Our roads are in such a disgraceful state. There are potholes everywhere - not only on minor roads - I really don't know when something will be done about this - it's no good just patching them!

unleaded will soon be above a £1 / litre again
when will they learn, fuel is like beer - doesn't matter how much they increase the cost, the public will still buy it
need to focus on improved efficiency+productivty within govt depts instead of constantly increasing indirect taxes

We can never believe what McBrown tells us. The increase is disgusting and fuel should be DEcreased, not increased. We don't even get a return on the roads, instead we are giving big bonuses to bankers and the like. Time this 'government' went.

Why is anyone surprised? All Brown/Blair etc have ever done is lie through their teeth to the gullible electors, try to tax the air we breathe, as well as bins, cars, fuel, biscuits and everything else, then expect applause for dropping 2.5% off VAT...!
Hmmmm, when will those daft northeners see that the Blair/Brown combo are ruining our country - and in fact have already done so, as we have allowed sooo many people in, it is no longer recognizably England.
So yes I am sure that they will be using this extra money to line their own pockets and hiding behind their new secrecy laws which are only for them.
We now live in a Russian state in all but name.

I really really despair,when will it ever stop.Brown says he wants to 'help' people in this country through these incredibly difficult times and this is what happens and it's not just fuel prices.Vote them out and maybe, just maybe things may get better but I wouldn't hold your breath.I love dear old Britain but we are being squeezed to the hilt.There are more cameras in this country apparently than any country in the world,freedom is being eroded away in many ways,I could go on and on but I won't.

In light of the government bail out of the mainstream banking system it still doesnt justify them taking more money off the average family via increace in tax on fuel to help pay for the bail out, you need to rethink this latest course of action Mr Brown & co

It's time to punish Labour for what they are doing to us in so many different ways.

I propose "black-balling" all Labour MP's and voluntarily banning them from using our businesses where possible.

If a Labour MP enters your establishment or attempts to contract your services, tell them that they are "persona non-grata", explaining why and refuse to deal with them. Blacklist them.

If they choose to ignore us and serve their own interests, let's ignore them and cut them out of society. Our lives are being made ever more uncomfortable, let them see how they like it.

If enough of this with the power to enforce this unite to punish them then we may see a reversal to the erosion of our democratic voice and our freedoms.

How about it? Anyone have an idea on the legal aspects of such a "denial of service"?

Being disabled and on a very limited budget, every time the cost of fuel increases, for whatever reason, I get less fuel for the money I have available and therefore become more housebound.

it is with out doubt, a sorry state of affairs we are in, and yet, the government seems to still take from us, despite the hard times we are all facing.

Once again the motorist is being 'Fleeced' by the government, a car is an essential tool to people like myself as I live in a country area. To visit my son or my elderly mother using public transport would take forever and I'm sure put an unwanted stain on my health. Also has an MP ever tried to get on a bus with a weeks shopping ?, I think not.
Shame on the government.