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So, The Prime Minister, under the guise of The Chancellor, has increased fuel duty. He can immediately claw back some of his VAT cuts AND increase the cost of living, at a stroke! Very clever!

Although I agree with everything Peak Oil says, as a small business owner involved with the delivery of goods to people's homes as well as hospitals, nursing homes, etc., I have to face the short-term realisties of getting goods to my customers and am having a terrible struggle trying to keep up with the huge increase in the costs of deliveries we've encountered over the past year. I had to buy a new van in January and carried out intensive research into alternative forms of fuelling before buying. But there was no practical alternative (from a cost and availability point of view) to diesel. Has anyone any advice they can give me before my business needs another new van? Joanna Newcastle

Since the 'credit crunch' was announced and Gordon Brown introduced his supposed measures to protect us all from it, his popularity has seemingly soared. This petrol tax has just shown again what sort of government Labour is. All they are concernd with is getting more and more of your money. This is a back door tax that is there to stay now. Why don't people realise this? Why are people so keen to allow themselves to be taxed so highly?

You say Fuel is taxed twice - a fixed duty and percentage VAT. The changes mean that the fuel duty will be 52.35p per litre and VAT will be 15% from the 1st December.
Seeing i have paid income tax on the money i buy petrol with fuel is taxed three times what a con.

I do not want my Government to raise the duty on fuel.
It is cheating the electors by playing at games which they give a little by reducing Vat Duty in one second and then increasing the Fuel Duty.
ELynagh

The small VAT reduction has no effect on small businesses which are VAT registered as they recover the VAT on their purchases anyway. It will impose extra costs implementing the changes and then changing back again to the 17.5%.
Who in this motley crew has any business experience. They could not run a whelk stall.

Blunt instruments used by cavemen...the sooner we get our say at the polls the better.

Brown and Darling would struggle to get tipsy in a brewery, they haven't got a clue, no doubt they will be blaiming OPEC again for our fuel being so expensive - the fuel is 'cheap', it's their taxes we can't afford.

Yet again we have a devious increase in costs to the earning classes. Advisors to this government obviously have no commercial experience whatsoever and, in all honesty, neither do most of our MP's. Not a clue!

Reading all the comments above I feel that there could well be a revolution coming on. We are all FED UP with the temporary Part Time Amatuers currently in Westminster.
When the troops marched to Westminster so Gordon could personally thank them (Ha Ha) they should have taken the same line that the last lot of troops did the last time they entered Westminster and kicked the Bl---dy lot of them out!!
I am surprised that civil unrest has not started in France.

I think the vat cut is a total joke. I am a small courier business in the last 8 months i have been losing money every week due to the rise in fuel. The goverment said they would help the small business the only help was to the banks what another joke. so the banks are still charging high fees then the goverment think it is a good idear to rise fuel duty . WHAT PLANET IS THE GOVERMENT ON...................

As someone else has said "what planet is this Government on?" The cut in VAT will make no difference to spending - 2 and1/2% - do not be ridiculous - a few pence of Christmas presents we would be buying anyway? Not to mention the cost for people of having to change their IT systems and stationery etc to manage the change. Small businesses particularly will be hit.

Then to put up fuel? The sooner this government gets out of office the better now.

Labour just getting us into yet of mess and making us all pay while they keeping getting all their allowances and voting themselves big pay rises. Roll on the next election.

Our dependency on oil is going to cost us more and more as time moves on, to say nothing of hastening own destruction -> we destroy the environment on the planet, the planet throws some large natural disaster our way, most of us, if not all die, planet lives on (it is hundreds of millions of years old remember and we've been around for a few hundred years).

Or more and more us help support and drive the move off oil. I endorse post by Peak Oil (4) and start helping future generations now. Also see Peak Oil article on wikipedia.

Years ago, diesel was regarded as 'waste product' from the fuel industry. I seem to remember that the government tried to get people to convert to diesel-fuelled vehicles - because it was cheaper and more efficient.
For a long time now diesel prices have been higher than petrol prices and hit transport and thus food costs far more than most people realise - directly affecting all consumers - someone should provide the government ministers with hearing-aids so that they can hear the protest. An increase any or all fuel costs will deepen the depression of the whole population.

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

I note that fuel prices in the UK rise when the price of oil rises but fails to drop when the price of oil drops. The price in the UK is astronomic and a big income stream for the Government. The use of cameras also generates an income stream for the government.

Driving at a constant speed reduces fuel consumption whereas speed bumps and congestion greatly increases fuel consumption and results in more revenue for the UK government and is very much against being green and sustainable. A green government would help reduce fuel consumption by reducing congestion and improving traffic flows

In the last two months the price of petrol in the USA has dropped from $4 to below $2 a US gallon - directly related to price of crude oil

So whats new we pay, we have always paid .
No 10 or is't 11 hit us all the time, With smokers on the way down whats left,
Drinkers & US.
We will have to look at going Abroad for good as this country has had it.

what a farce, the benefit which would have been enjoyed by most is not there but hey 13p of a CD will benifit everyone

Typical - no mention of the increase of Fuel Tax - can anyone believe in what they say. "2 years times taxes will go skyhigh to pay for all of their out of control borrowings.

It is a terrible situation we are now in where instead of going forward we seem to be going backwards to a time many generations ago. The banks have been wreckless but it seems that the tax payer is being hit from all sides and now we are being hit on the road too as if thinks aren't expensive enough to run a car.

Give it in my right hand and take it from my left hand, my pockets, my piggy bank and my wages.

I wonder what will happen to this country with the job losses and with the increased fuel tax you have to pay to go further a field to get a job you might just decide to stay at home. It is not like we have a decent public transport system to use instead of a vehicle either.

Someone has to pay for the mistakes and the current government think that someone is the poor public not these multi billion pound banks who have contributed to the near collapse of our economy.

I am sad to think my 2 year old baby girl has to grow up in a country that puts the profits of shareholders and the chairman before the welfare of her parents and her friends parents.

Re comment 4
In general I agree with you, HOWEVER, even with the rising costs in fuel, until there is some public transport that is non-profit making, reliable, cheap, frequent and serving the community (especially in rural areas), a car with just a driver is cheaper to use than the alternatives on offer, let alone a full car.

we need to cut the price on petrol not put it up (save the country not let it go under)

What's the government supposed to do?
NOTHING, get real!

Stealth tax labour at it again!!! Gordon Brown is a new day sherriff of Nottingham.........About time we got rid of him!!

I'm British and currently live in the Middle East but will soon be moving back to the UK. It's only equivalent of 11p a litre here and there is no such thing as tax at all!

I realise that with the costs of transposting the fuel it will be more expensive but the government are taxing and taxing us in the UK and giving nothing back! How is it that other countries manage to provide infrastructure, educatio and medical care with out the taxes? The Uk government is ridiculous and I don't think the tories would really do any better job!!!!!

i travel 210 miles per week to work and at present it costs me about £50 i have had it .i cant change jobs because the work is just not there when will the goverment stop milking us.

Petrol almost down to $2 a GALLON in the USA, recent relatives of mine on a visit here from the States can't understand how I manage to live. The government are borrowing more and more money and dragging the rest of the nation's population with it. This country is in this mess through no fault of the general public yet it is the general public that always has to suffer. RIP-OFF Britain is well named and a laughing stock across the free world. Fuel prices have recently come down, can't be having that can we? The country is a joke, and it will get worse. Get out while you can. It's finished.

A typical Labour move, revealing their inability to think a problem through from start to finish and to foresee the consequences of their own actions. Increasing fuel prices increases the cost of getting goods to the shops so the VAT reduction will be swallowed up in increased prices due to transport. The net result of this is that there will be no effect on the economy. I'm only surprised they didn't decide to put fuel costs up by 10p.

This puts up the price of everything! A most retrograde step!
Also, the Tax on petrol should be per Gallon or Litre thus stabilising the government take. To base the petrol tax on the variable price adds insult to injury.

How can an increase in fuel tax help the economy and lower inflation, fuel costs are reflected in everything we buy. The lowering of VAT to 15% will help but only in the short term. It is government spending that is cripling us, it is them that need to focus on where our hard earned taxes are spent. We need to help young single mothers get back to work, yes but not by makig them justify their claim once the youngest child reaches 12. Surely it must be better and more economical to supply government subsidised creche's were young mums can leave their children in a safe environment for the whole time they are at work including shift workers, and alllow them to return to work after 1 year. Lets get the fit and unemployed into community and if necessary short term work contracts work to help justify their benefits, some small businesses need workers perhaps only at busy times and cannot justify full permanent employment, the unemployed could help these busineses and recive payment this would hep ease the tax burden on us all. Hard times demand hard policies. The whole fuel tax system needs to be overhauled and road tax should be incorporeated into it, that way the more you use your car the more road tax you pay, that is the fairest way i can think of, businesses should pay less duty on fuel and this would then reflect the price of everything we buy.

He's NOT a darling as far as i'm concerned, yet again this government has screwed the motorist.
In London we have a excelent bus service 24 hours a day BUT,
My relatives in felixstowe suffolk get 1 bus an hour and NO SERVICE on Sundays and PUBLIC HOLIDAYS so they are penalised big time

It looks like the chancellor is going to cost the UK public a lot of money over the next few years

I am a dissabled driver and reley heavily on the use of my car. Although I am not pleased about the 2p increase, I am not totally against it. It is up to the motorist how much car travel we do, even for me there are alternatives such as public transport, and of course try to be organised so that unnessessary trips in the car can be avoided. If you need a car to get to work, try to car share.

The Chancellor has effectively made a decrease in the income for OAPs who have to use their own cars for essential travelling and there are a lot of us!!!
His calculations in the pre Budget speech make us £20 a month better off - this is in itself pathetic considering the increase in the price of essentials. However with a measly 2 1/2% decrease in Vat, we are going to be approximately £25 worse off, if we use our cars at all and with the interest rates going down our small savings get less and less. The aim, says Gordon Brown, is to boost the market and make us spend more - more of what, may I ask??

I run my car on LPG to try to be a bit 'greener' but I've seen the price rise by 50% in a year and it still hasn't returned to previous levels like petrol.

If this happened to unleaded there'd be riots - come on Darling, play the game!

It's always the motorists!! We live in a rural area and must rely on our car for going anywhere! We have no busses to catch! The nearest shup is over three miles away.

This is another attack on people who don't live in major towns. I can't get to work, or to the shops, on public transport and I don't live in the wilds, just in Sussex. It is miles to the nearest railway station, and there is an occasional bus from the village 3 miles away but these go mainly north-south and a major employment area is west of here.
Government is surrounded by public transport in London but as ever does not look outside their own experience and concerns, and yet they are supposed to serve us all.

What the government doesn't seem able to grasp - though it was perfectly obvious when petrol prices were very high - is that higher fuel costs impinges directly upon the costs of practically everything, including food. Therefore, the Chancellor isn't only clobbering the motorist - he's diluting whatever good he's appearing to do for everyone else too!

Im retired have a car and enjoy traveling, I am disgusted at this govern ment , But who voted them in ????????????????

And will they be S------------enough to do it again ?

They always have been a disaster and always will be.

Where is the tax on the fuel companys who are making Billions for their fat share holders ,that soon went under the carpet

Trouble is we are in a very bad position and those in charge are seem to have no idea of money management

Borowed money HAS to be paid back AND it costs more in the long run,

John