Your Comments

COMMENTS 71 TO 75 ARE SO REAL . why dont we do something about our moaning? we English sit back and pay these so called leaders to bankrupt the country. I would be willing to take time off and be there to demenstrate how we feel.
We need a leader of our own to get organised so we get off our laurels and put bodies were are mouths are.

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It seems the labour government will use global warming as an excuse to raise taxes.
Consider, they went after cars because they emit more Co2 into the atmosphere.
First by raising road tax depending on age and emissions. Most will pay more road tax due to owning an older car.
Most own an older car because they cannot afford a new one, resulting in almost double tax for poorer car owners.
Then they use the excuse of depleting oil supplies to raise petrol prices, again another tax.
When a barrel of oil was $149 we were paying the price.
Oil is now at the lowest for years and even allowing for inflation, the weak pound, and higher duty we are still paying the price.
The longer the fuel stays as high as possible the more the government make in stealth taxes.
Does anyone really believe the fuel suppliers are not controlled by government?
Now the general belief is there are too few refineries to supply the demand of diesel, hence, higher prices.
The sad reality is that politicians are thieves. They will lie.
Any issue, legitimate or not, is used by them to always justify an expansion of their powers and the revenue they take from the pockets of the public.
The basic rules seems to be: if they scare you to death, they can tax you to death.
Stealth tax was a term invented by Anne Robinson in 1996 to attack New Labour.
What should Labour call the hidden taxes that will be sneakily inserted by the Tories?
Its a merry-go-round in this country, moving tax from income to consumption is a cowardly way of generating funds to pay a deficit caused by this calamitous, inept ex-chancellor.

Fuel Tax is just one of many taxes this Government looking to increase in the near future, Fuel tax,road tax and the various ways in which we are picked on as motorists, should be looked at more fairly all round
As a nation most of us travel by car to work some lucky , a few miles others a couple of hours , why can a method not be worked out to promote local workers to travel on local public transport , and on proven mileage the more you do the less you pay for your litre of fuel.
Cigarettes were the focus at one time but because of the financial impact on our National Health service the Government is spending £millions to stop people smoking, now they appear to be going down the same road with the "car drivers"don't they realise without our taxes we would be in a bigger mess today , we all need our cars use the vehicle taxes to improve our enjoyment of driving and not to put plugs in all of their other messes

What has happened is a typical Labour trick associated with Gordon Brown. He berates the oil sheiks demanding that they cut the price of oil, but at the first opportunity whacks another 2 pence on the end user price. Typical!

I went Christmas shopping with my son. Its easy to see that money is tight with some stores very quiet but not for everyone. M&S were bustling! My son bought a box of chocs for his gran and we followed a well heeled lady through the checkout . She had a few Christmas delights from the food hall just a few treats ! Her bill £144 Many more were shopping in similar style. Nice to see that so many are doing so well . A little later at Poundland I watched as many less fortunate folks tried to spin out what little cash they had. When I got home I reflected on my day and concluded that we really do now live in a divided nation with a ever increasing stadard of living between the haves and the have nots. Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

An extract from todays Sun newspaper:-

HAVANT Hants,
"Vast oil reserves worth millions of pounds are believed to lie beneath one of Britains biggest housing estates".

Any bets that a British company won't exploit this and some foreign company
will clean up big time and sell our own oil back to us.
Or has Gordon Brown already sold it off without us knowing to extend the V.A.T reduction beyond the end of December 2009.

In answer to W P Broadhead (11051), the minute anyone protests in this country, they are arrested under the Anti-Terrorist Act and treated like one. This has been engineered by this government in conjunction with the police, who have become more Stasi every day.

Everyone knows why the truckers stopped protesting. First, they were bribed with discounts off their tax discs, and second, they were threatened with incarceration and confiscation of their rigs if they did. Only in Communist Russia and Burma is this tolerated. Guess what the French would do?

Lets face it, the country is broke, and any money we do have is given to others overseas, so this lousy bunch must persecute the motorist at every opportunity. If you think 2p on a litre is the last tax rise, you need your bumps felt!

Can you please explain why Comment 5101 on your blog,

'Why has the party that claimed it would sort out transport done absolutely nothing to help our situation. Regardless of the loss of jobs they should have done more to get freight back on to the railways and canals that once served this country very well. They should also consider restricting foriegn lorries from using our roads as though the UK was an extension of France. The goods should be terminated at Dover and the UK transport should deliver them to their destination. Why don't they consider more freight movement in the night as they do in other European countries and stop all movements at the weekend. It is also about time the lorries had more lane restrictions and gap restrictions to stop this constant bunching of them and from preventing safer lane movements for cars. I think that lorries should have to leave at least 200 metres between each other to create more space for cars to move into, which if we had better lane training for new drivers this should cut out a lot of the middle lane cruisers that cause so much aggravation. More lane discipline for lorries should be introduced as we build wider carriageways, the lorries move further outwards thus leaving the car drivers with only the fast lane for manoeuvring in.
As for petrol increases, yet again we see this is the party of total incompetence at handling any form of monetary system. They were the ones who ditched the gold reserves just before the price of gold shot up. How can any one trust such imbeciles that are only interested in feathering their own nests and leaving middle England to collect the cost yet again. Those on the "benefits" system are laughing as they just get every thing paid for them.

Posted by Gordon Mackley, 25th November 2008 12:55pm'

Is ascribed to me. There are very few people with the same name (and even fewer appearing on web pages) so it would seem unlikley to be someone else with this name and this is certainly not a comment I sent to you nor indeed ever would (as it does not reflect my views).

I should be obliged if you would remove this comment as soon as possible.


Gordon Mackley 29/12/08

Re. comment 11056

Sorry Gordon, it was me, I find my real name too embarassing so I use Gordon Mackley. I can understand your annoyance, a bogus "Tarquin" has been posting elsewhere on the blog.

RE 11059 Bogland.

I also listened to parts of the debate on the radio today.
I found it alarming that some were even suggesting a scrapping of the minimum wage structure.
There are already calls for a policing of illegal cash in hand payments targeting the easy ones first, pubs, hairdressers and butchers lads.
Just imagine the chaos if the minimum wage were removed.
I am well aware people will pay cash for competent work to save money (most working class do this) but a complete removal will send us on a slippery slope of more cash work, leading to less self certifications and so less taxes being paid.
Some small business owners were complaining of workers being entitled to four more days holiday a year as well as a wage rise from April 2009.
People will not work for less even if they are hungry. There will be a massive rise in benefit claims.
We need a modern day Robin Hood to install some real hope.
We will not find him in either the Tories or New Labour camps, so where do we go next?

RE 11506 (5101) Gordon Mackley or not Gordon Mackley,

I found lots of blogs (by Gordon Mackley) by typing your name into google.

Most of 5101 makes sense although many on the benefit system would rather be at work and only a few actually laugh all the way to the bank.

The proposed tax increase on petrol is disgraceful. It affects everybody either directly or indirectly. People can choose to reduce petrol consumption for leisure purposes, but still have to fund their commute to work. We are all affected by the increase in fuel tax as it is passedon to us by delivery services and logistics companies who provide everyday goods and services to the public.

Comment on 11037.
Regarding bad bank managers they should do as they did in Glasgow in 1878.
The City of Glasgow Bank collapsed, small firms and investors made bankrupt with a serious effect on the City. the bank manager and his directors were arrested and confined to prison. The manager were given 18 month and the directors 8 month. Far cry from the mollycuddling of the banks these days.

Just a quick comment,

I'm a Brit living in The Netherlands, just been over to UK for a Chrimbo visit to my family.

Thanks to the fiscal mismanagement of Messrs Brown and Darling the pound is now almost 1 for 1 with the euro. Making UK a very reasonably priced place for me to shop (not gloating here just stating a fact).

A few months ago one euro bought 70p today it buys 98p

An anomaly of this pound versus the euro fiasco is that UK fuel is actually a tad cheaper than here at the moment.

Are there any pro New Labour people left in the UK ????

It is interesting to note that prior to Duty/Vat. Petrol is cheaper in the UK than the US. Petrol 22.52p/litre UK- US = 24.86p/litre.

Of the Avg Retail Pump Price of 86.10p/litre. A huge 73.84% of the price is Duty/Vat. In the States the tax equals 18.6% of the pump price.

Somewhere, somebody is making a pile of cash. Guess who.

Steve Clarke, general manager of The Fuelcard People, has revealed how little interest the government takes in Britain's road transport industry. During November, he wrote to five government ministers with transport responsibilities, including the prime minister, asking them to loosen the fuel tax noose around the neck of Britain's road transport industry. None of them has replied to his letter.



"Knowing that the government is rather busy with the economic crisis, I expected to receive merely a handful of routine acknowledgements," he said. "Even that was being optimistic. I wrote to Gordon Brown, Geoff Hoon, Lord Adonis, Paul Clark and Jim Fitzpatrick. Three weeks later, I am still waiting for a reply from any of them. Meanwhile, the government has found time to implement yet another increase in fuel tax, which was already amongst the highest in the world."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steve Clarke, general manager of The Fuelcard People, has written to five government ministers with transport responsibilities, including the prime minister, asking them to loosen the fuel tax noose around the neck of Britain's road transport industry.
"It seems that the government either does not understand the strategic importance of road transport," he said, "or that it does not care. It is time for the prime minister to realise, and to explain to his colleagues, just how much every aspect of our lives involves road transport. The bacon and eggs he tucked into this morning were brought to him by road, as was his breakfast tea and the milk he put in it. If he listens to the news while he shaves, he uses a radio and a razor that would still be sitting on factory shelves without road transport. When he dresses for another hard day in the office, everything he puts on will have had to travel by truck at some point."




He added that if he received a reply from any of the ministers, it would involve a computer, paper, an envelope and a pen — all of which will only be available to use because of road transport.

Steve Clarke pointed out that, whatever ministers might say, the facts are unavoidable:

• fuel costs account for 40% of road transport running costs

• diesel and petrol are subject to both fuel tax and VAT

• more than half of the pump price for fuel represents taxation

• UK fuel tax is more than double the EU average

"Mr. Brown and his colleagues will not want to reduce the tens of billions of pounds in fuel taxes they take each year, so I do not really expect any action that will help our industry," said Steve Clarke. "Meanwhile, hauliers from mainland Europe are filling up cheaply before coming through the tunnel to undercut our own firms, steadily killing off British jobs. My letter included a picture of a fuel line knotted into a noose, to underline the point. I will let everyone know how the ministers reply, if at all."

fuel prices are so RIDICULOUS, why not increase other things, but no fuel, cigarettes and alcohol are always the first!!! why not mc donalds for once!!!!!!! theyd earn more that way!

For quite some time 'Peak Oil' has been posting and telling us of the impending oil crises.
He has been telling us how we should be prepared for a life without oil.
He has been saying we should all use less oil etc etc etc
Mr Peak Oil, can you post a reply telling us how you have reduced your personal usage of oil?
I do not mean a pasted reply but an honest one.
Tell us how you have replaced all your light bulbs for energy efficient types.
Explain how you wore several layers of clothing instead of using the central heating during the recent cold snap.
Or how you walk to the shop and carry the biodegradable bags of groceries home.
I really do not expect a personal reply, just more of your 'copy-paste'.
Even in a world of oil depletion, some things are assured, death, tax and Peak Oil's copy-pasting.

RE 11075

Totally with you 100%
Mankind is already in the $hit, we just don't know it yet.
Peak oil is right in his postings and even if he is repetitive there is an underlying message.
Post 11074 is asking the question, do you practise what you preach. No harm in that.
As I have said before I do not believe the Labourites are the way forward anymore than the Tories. Perhaps a totally 'new' government could be the way forward.
Whoever is next to manage this sorry politically correct, immigrant run island will have their work cut out. The manifesto's will have to show less reliance on oil based products and a hard line stance on all things British to win my vote.

This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.

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This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.

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NEW DELHI, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The steep fall in oil prices in recent months does not reflect market fundamentals but will help economic recovery, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Wednesday.

"The price of oil ... has declined in recent months by more than 70 percent since reaching their highest level in July -- a drop that will play a major role in aiding economic recovery," he told the Petrotech conference in New Delhi.

Crude oil has fallen steeply since it soared to a record above $147 in July and was trading at about $39 on Wednesday as OPEC kept up talk of production cuts.

Did I read that bit correctly ??
"The price of oil ... has declined in recent months by more than 70 percent"

Why has the petrol/diesel not dropped at the same rate ?

Any takers ??

I've recently noticed that the cost of fuel is starting to increase again. Last week i filled up at petrol 81.9p/l and now its gone to 83.9p/l. It;s the same with Diesel, which has also increased 2 - 3 p/l.

I don't understand why the price of fuel is starting to increase again. The price of a barrel of crude oil is really low now.

Any ideas as to why the price of diesel has started to creep up over the last few days?

What people fail to grasp is that a rise in tax means more for the country's coffers. Readers of the red tops seem to believe that the cash actually goes into Mr Darling's bank a/c - it doesn't. Now, the oil companies profiteering from oil at less than $40 a barrel yet still charging £1 a litre is the thing we should all be protesting about. Watch the supermarket profits soar too.

Chris 11088

Are you the same Chris as 11075/79/82/86.
if so and this is an observation NOT a criticism.
You seemed to lend some support to the Peak Oil theory initially
yet in other comments you've gone more towards agreeing that it's all one big rip off (as I do).
There are good reasons to subscribe to the "peak oil" beliefs but there are
good reasons to doubt their interpretative understanding of the politics of global oil supply & demand.
You've not entered into an easy to understand set of beliefs, and you will no doubt change your way of thinking several more times yet.

MESSAGE FROM AMERICA

Pop: Well, I filled the gas tank this morning, Mom, and it looks like the price is edging up just a bit each week, and I hear rumblings from the State House that our reps are considering a new tax on gasoline. Before we know it, the cost will be $ 4 again... or higher. It certainly is discouraging: in the summer, the price goes up because people are expected to travel more, in the winter it goes up because they have not produced enough, someone sneezes, and it goes up again.
Put the kettle on, Mom, I'm going to indulge in some of these plain doughnuts I bought. I figure it'll take three to calm me down - I hope you will support me.

Mom: I most certainly will support you, my dear, I just hope that your legs will be able to support you as you constantly overindulge. Sorry to be so blunt, Pop, but I'm just looking out for your health. Okay, you'll walk around the neighborhood three times... indulge.
I have been reading the article that Eb dropped off about the concern that the future production of oil will not keep up with the ever-growing demand; indeed, concern is that oil supply in the world may have peaked or will in the near future.
A Saudi oil geologist named Sadad I. Al Husseini who was head of exploration and production for the state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, discovered in the year 2000 that output would be leveling as early as 2004 - that upbeat forecasts for future production were wrong.
He had long been skeptical of the oil industry's upbeat forecasts, and in the mid-1990s he began studying data from the 250 or so major oil fields that produce most of the world's oil. He calculated how much crude remained in each field and how rapidly it was being depleted. Then he added all the new fields the company hoped to bring on line in the coming decades.
Once he tallied the numbers, he realized that where mainstream forecasts showed output rising steadily each year in a great upward curve that kept up with global demand, output was actually leveling off. Also, he calculated that the production level would last 15 years at best. Then the output of conventional oil would begin a gradual, but irreversible decline.

Pop: Wow. That's scary! Saudi Aramco sits atop the world's largest proven oil reserves - some 260 billion barrels, roughly a fifth of the world's crude - and routinely claims that oil will remain plentiful for many more decades.
Saudi oil minister, Ali, al-Naimi, took a dim view of Husseini's report, and Husseini retired in 2004 to become an industry consultant. However, if Husseini is correct, a dramatic shift lies just ahead for the world whose critical systems - defense to transportation to food production - all run on oil.
Husseini isn't the first to predict a peak in global oil output. Oil geologists have theorized for decades that when half of the world's endowment has been extracted, it will become increasingly more difficult to get more out of the ground, and eventually impossible. Global output has risen steadily from fewer than a million barrels a day in 1900 to around 85 million barrels today. A post-oil future could cause recession and even war as big importers jockey for access.

Mom: Forecasts of peak oil remain highly controversial because no one knows for certain how much oil remains under the ground. People such as Hussseini contend that the peak is imminent or has already arrived.
Optimists insist that the peak is decades away because the world has so much oil that has not been tapped or even discovered. Also, there are huge reserves of unconventional sources of oil like the tar-sand deposits in western Canada.
Interestingly, global output has remained around 85 million barrels a day, just where Husseini's calculations suggest output leveling off.
The International Energy Agency released a forecast in the fall of 2008 that by 2030, 116 million barrels a day will be needed. Some oil executives have voiced doubts that production will ever be able to keep up with demand. Christophe de Margerie, head of French oil giant Total, has declared that maximum output will only be realistic at 100 million barrels. Royal Dutch Shell's CEO, Jeroen van der Veer, has estimated that after 2015, supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand.

Pop: Despite the dazzling technological advances, including computer-assisted seismic imaging that allows companies to 'see' oil deep below the surface of the earth, the decline persists because the big, easily located fields - 'elephants' - were discovered decades ago, and the remaining fields tend to be small. They are harder to find and more are needed to approach the output of an elephant.
Smaller fields are also more costly to operate because so many oilrigs are needed to get at them. There are many, many small fields, but the cost disparity is the reason the industry relies on the larger fields which supply more than a third of our daily output. Unfortunately, because the large fields were discovered decades ago, they are in decline.

Mom: The situation is direr than most people realize. As global oil demand continues to grow with emerging societies such as China and India, the deficit will widen. According to James Mulva, CEO of ConocoPhillips, by 2010, nearly 40% of the world's daily output will have to come from fields that have not been discovered, and by 2030, nearly all our oil will come from fields not currently in operation. Also, Mulva predicted that output would stall at 100 million barrels a day - same figure of Total's CEO.
Simple math indicates that if the world needs 116 million barrels a day, and the industry can only supply 100 million barrels per day - the world is facing a huge problem... and 2010 is just around the corner!

@11079 - "Is this censorship or is "Big Brother" watching me "

No Chris, you probably had some URLs in your posts - any post with URLs don't get posted (I hope that makes sense).

any idea why petrol has gone up 3 ppl around here?

Answer to 11095

1) The Russians and the gas situation

2) The £1 is now worth $1.36

Oil is traded in dollars, so the weaker the £ gets to the $ then the more it costs to buy

Cost of petrol (Including the governments 73% duty and VAT) will cross the 90pence barrier in the next week

The pound is falling even further against the dollar.
Be prepared for a price hike at the pumps.
It will NOT come down again this time.

The time of cheap oil has passed.

Forever.

already has 4 times in 2 weks its went up bloody ridculous 11098 dont have a big garden why t he fk should i have to sdo what they want the govement can get ther fkin fingers out thats what

Information on the issue of peak oil production and the crisis facing the world including Hubbert Curve, Olduvai Theory, jargon, oil products, ...

google;

wolf at the door

This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.

the price of a barrel of oil continues to head in a generally downward direction and the value of the pound against the dolar has rallied, yet still the price of petrol creeps ever upward. Can and 'expert' please advise what is going on?

Gone from 83.9 to 85.9 in my local area in just 2 weeks. Oil prices cheapest they have been for a decade.
Government will not get away with this in the elections, if push comes to shove I will distill my own petrol from raw crude.
Right now the duty should be reduced to compensate for the falling exchange rate and keep prices constant. After all this is the fault of the government.

Surely a global recession would affect all countries so the exchange rate would remain unchanged but no; the s#itty pound continues to fall through the fault of this s#itty government.

I'm sick to death of nipple-feeding my car on overpriced "government fuel pumps" like it's some baby. About time I produce my own fuel.

btw The fuel has been watered down by ethanol so you get 5% less MPG.

The Daily Express Friday 30th January 2009.

"MOTORISTS ARE FACING A NEW PETROL RIP OFF WITH RISING PRICES"

Re: 11110

Indeed, been a long time, comrade. How times change in such a short time. Wasn't long ago we were fearing $200 oil from an overheating economy.

I recall talking about this Falklands discovery some time ago too. To put it into perspective, that billion barrels isn't large at all. It's at the very low end for a giant field, and certainly no elephant scale one. One billion barrels is equivalent to 2.5 months of oil supply. Hardly saving the world, is it?

Additionally, if any of it is deep water, then it won't be a doddle to fetch. Not in the least. Look at Thunderhorse by BP in the Gulf of Mexico, which has been trying to produce oil for the best part of a decade with a rig that cost tens of billions to produce itself, to say nothing of labour costs.

No, not peak oil now. It was three years ago.