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once again RANT RANT RANT and crazily a generous dollop of xenophobia - if this is a snapshot of real britian sory the speling mistakes is just so I fit in, then a very weak community it is and it's about time there was a full stop. I agree totally with Peak Oil about our addiction to oil but I don't believe this country is ready for cold turkey, and I think there is too much high-horsing among some environmentalists who live in cities. People in the rural villages, or genuinely in the sticks, are being screwed here. The public transport system is not only woeful, it is getting worse, and with government just standing by, while the (usually government-controlled) agencies responsible are praised for improvements in city service that frankly were well overdue anyway. Numerous elderly people in the income bracket that can afford to pay for public transport here would rather do that and ensure a decent service than get it free and end up with nothing! People who have no option but to use cars because of where they live are caught between environmentalists ranting at them on the one hand and the government fleecing them on the other. Yes it is high time we ate truly fresh vegetables from the allotment down the road and had solar panels on every roof to heat our water. But people need practical encouragement to get sorted, not bullying!!!

I still can't get over the fact that Diesel is still 15p a litre more expensive than unleaded in the UK, I have just returned from Gran Canaria from a short break and Diesel is still CHEAPER than unleaded, priced there at 71 cents (still less than a euro) on an island that has to IMPORT every single drop of fuel.

Brown's puppet had an ideal chance to help the motorist, yet he shafted us again.

Retailers I have spken to have stated that they will NOT be passing on the VAT cut as it would be negligible on most items sold, and too complicated to work out for small businesses. So, we consumers get stung yet again on all fronts.

What have they been doing with the £40 billion a year that t they have been taking of the motorist thats what I would like to know

by taking vat off of fuel the government could reduce the cost of every other thing we buy because everything at some stage has to be transported. This will have the effect of giving the pound in our pocket more spending power (a reduction in inflation) and stimulate the economy.

as usual the ordinary person suffers the car driver,the drinker the smoker ,i dont smoke have the ocassionally drink and drive a car not at the same time i might add.I am probably a middle earner so nothing helps me .Then again whats new.the gorverment do not care.

Absolutely shocking!! Once again it's the motorist who is the easy target for tax rises. It's about time we did something about the cost of motoring in this country, we certainly don't get value for money when you consider the state of some of the roads.

Who caused the Global Economic downturn?
Little old Britain? NO
Who hiked the prices of oil?
Little old Britain? NO
Who recently reduced the prices of oil?
Little old Britain? NO
For the answers to above please look at oil company profits and recent reports in the media of a Global Economy Downturn.
Nough Said

Well, I had a good rant planned, but Mr Peak Oil at comment #4 has pretty much said it all: he has some interesting ideas and comments there. I signed-up for petrolprices.com to find where the cheapest petrol was, not so that I could join in some Clarkson-esque crusade on behalf of the motoring lobby. The heavy, high speed, internal-combustion-engined idea of personal transport is quite ridiculous when you look at it from a perspective; and the bigger and thirstier cars are, the more ridiculous they are. The cop-out on the planned increase for gas-guzzlers is quite pathetic and cowardly, in a very Two-Jags kind of way. We should be making a start on phasing-out cars-as-we-know them from the more "ridiculous" end of the spectrum.

The same lies, deciet, hypocracy, wasting our hard earned cash as the last time labour were in power, people forget so quickly what this bunch of scumbags are about

I am a senior lady who travels by car partly becasue I feel safer and it is the only safe way for me to have an occasional eveing out. I rode on the bus the other day and a twenty minute ride in the car tokk 1 hour by bus.

another slap in the face for the motorist but should we have expected anything else?
when the price of oil drops from $135 per barrel to $55 and the government and the petrol companies still leave the price of a litre of diesel at an extraordinary high level at the pumps!
"pass it on to the consumer" Mr Darling cries!!!!
it pains me to say it as a lifelong socialist but this govt is so tight it wouldnt allow a flu pandemic to be spread unless there ws a charge for it!!

I am disabled and have to drive a large van in order to carry my equipment. I am terrified about the fuel price increases. I live on a fixed income. How will I be able to get around?

Where did the help for business come in. VAT reduction means administrative changes, re-pricing of goods, changes to computer systems. Will it generate more sales NO. For a sales person like myself fuel costs are becoming prohibitive to offering personal customer service or following up on new customer leads with a site visit.

I certainly don't feel helped.

typical give with the left take with the right(think about that one first I a right)
Who died and made them the sheriff of nottingham

I don't think that cutting the VAT to so called help us through the recession is a good idea . I believe that it will not make that much differance! But when the government put the screws on to help pay back the amount of money they have futher borrowed and to line there pockets again it will hit us hard!!. If i could keep paying vat at the 17.5% i would !!!

What all the "brains" of England and America do not seem to have grasped is if you do not produce any thing you do not make a profit, all they are doing is playing games with the figures. The sooner they realise that adding percentages to bits of paper that are in reality worthless is only warding off the day of judgement.
They should be encouraging new technology, alternative energy and keeping it rather than giving it away as usual.
Our heritage was built on making things now all we do is put more restrictions on making any thing.It btakes a year to get an IPPC certificate before you start these days whilst the Chinese and Indians have done it and moved on with the cash in the bank.

Why don't you peasants realise that the government only raises taxes to provide us mp's with bullet proof pensions and a standard of living which we all require?
Since the days of our patron saint Oliver Cromwell we intended to milk the situation for all it was worth. You wanted us then and now you are stuck with us. You cannot organise a coup as we will use our army, which is funded by you peasants to stop you. We have a police force that we control and we have the monarchy exactly where we want them. Our government is crammed full of highly intelligent intellectuals that frankly do not come cheap, so stop whinging. You wanted Tony Blair, and we gave him to you. You did not want Gord, but we threw him in as a bonus anyway.
Some of you even think I am a bit of a pillock. That was not me if you remember that was Kinnock the pillock. Just be patient we have borrowed all this money so you can spend yourselves silly getting us out of the recession.
What are just a few pence on the price of petrol?

A Darling.

This government has done so much to help us!They have increased our opportunity to pay more taxes by stealth so perhaps they want to feel loved as they have only put a further 2p on a permanent basis.Perhaps they forgot to index link it?

Well Gordon, you've really shot yourself in the foot this time.
The VAT saving is a waste of time! Those people with the least money won't be buying much anyway. Better to have given back this money in a tax cut so that WE have the choice on whether to spend it on utility bills, food or petrol!

Look, if they take it off the fuel then they have to get it somewhere is, like income tax, national insurance. You will have to pay it some how! At least most of us can choose when you get your next economical car and double the milage and by this cut the price of fuel by half. Thats' a hundred times more saving than a couple of pence per litre.

Its the Iranians, you know! If OPEC did not have such power and were so hostile to the West, we would not be in this mess.

I think we should pussyfooting around in Iraq and Afghanistan and go into Iran and seize the oil fields.

we need all drivers to take a weekend day off and lets have a massive car protest and block all the motorways and bring England to a standstill. Maybe,just maybe these idiots in government, may be shocked

Yet another "pathetic" attempt by this incompetent, hypocritical government to con the voting public! Vat drops by 2pc and fuel increases by 2p (which is effectively 2pc in the pound!), another cowardly act of this government. The fuel tax/vat combination levied against fuel which is one of the basic requirements not only for businesses of any size but also for Jo public to help maintain a decent quality of life. The public transport system requires massive investment to tempt the public and thus relieve the congestion on the roads.
It's high time this government woke up, smelt the coffee and listened to the voters and "above all" try to be honest with us! Having said that I won't hold my breath.

This is nothing more than I would expect from this duplicitus government. On top of this tax increase of course, will be an even more heavy tax increase all round when things settle down, due to the enormous borrowing which will be done. One the other hand.......is this a ploy to force use into the Euro?

It's discusting that the government should even consider adding a further burden to the motorist after all that we have been through!!

Frankly in the world economic climate of today and the monumentally difficult task facing the Goverment I think you should all stop bleating about what is a small and compensatory increase in fuel duty. Compared to other impacts such as wholescale job losses it pales into insignificance and serves to illustrate the blinkered attitudes of the majority of people on this site

Typical of this useless government. The sooner they go the better, even in a recession! The informed pundits all say reducing VAT is not the answer either and the proposed 45 per cent tax threshold for the 'so called' rich is not going to bring in a great deal either.

I have owned petrol stations for over 36 years and one thing that always amuses me is when the motorist seems shocked at fuel/duty rises. I remember selling Esso 5* at less than 4p per litre (todays equivalent).
The green peoples answer to rising fuel prices by using public transport doesnt work, we the petrol station owners will only keep prices higher if our volumes drop. We've been doing that for the last year.
Any government will attack and increase duty on Fuel, Alcohol and Tobacco. They always have and always will. There are other issues out there that need addressing.
One interesting point, at the start of the year the dollar exchange rate for oil was at over $2 to the £. Now the conversion is less than $1.50. That has added about 15p per litre to the cost of fuel.
No one moans about the strength of the dollar.

I thought the government wanted to help small businesses. It is unbelievable that they dare put more tax on fuel. I guess they think they can just hide it amidst the mess they have got us into.

As a person who drives 500 miles a week but someone who is also a Ltd company contractor I'm hit twice, once with this fuel increase and also with the reduction in Vat I lose money. The governement to encourage contractors to go VAT registered gives them a break in that it allows them to charge VAT @ 17.5% then only takes 11% from the contractor leaving a percentage in the pocket of the contractor. Before anyone starts bleating on a bout this being unfair how many employees don't get holiday pay, don't get sick pay, have to put ALL their own pension contributions in themselves and have to perform at the max all the time. The government still gets some VAT but now I get less in my bank and have to pay more out for fuel. NU LABOUR SUCKS. They get in power with the economy in the black and turn it into the biggest black hole in the history of the UK. GB fiscally unsound the mans a bl**dy lunatic with about as much fiscal common sense as a newborn goldfish.

It troubles me that this Government seems to think that the public can be appeased with one tax cut and are so daft that we don't see the other 'add ons'. Even 'poor' people sometimes need to have a car, all food and goods will not be cheaper when transported bt vehicles needing fuel.
If the Govt is borrowing such millions maybe direct access to some of that money - rather than roundabout ways to help the crisis would be a more sensible plan?

give in one hand take with the other at least robin hood took from the rich and gave to the poor and didnt take anything back for him self. If we done this then we would end up in court.

I am tired of being taxed for working hard... I would be better off on the dole, 2 chavvy kids and a council house... Scrap the ID Cards, Pull out of the EU, this would save us £85 Billion, think of the savings we could have on fuel TAX!

I AM TOTALLY AGAINST ANY INCREASE IN FUEL DUTY. WE PAY FAR TO MUCH AS IT IS.

Yet another Labour stealth tax. When VAT goes back to normal level they will get another 3p / ltr tax take without having to make any announcement! How underhand can you get.

Correct me if I am wrong, but do you remember the days when we all bought our fuel at the pump price! or just by the GALLON
Now we limit it to the nearest pound ! and LITRE

Changed days for sure. I also notice the change right now when filling up by the difference in quantity and time it takes to put the petrol in.
By that I mean I actually looked to see if I had a leak as it was only two or three seconds longer to get more in the tank! but it was noticeable that I was getting more petrol for less money ~ BUT for how long DARLING !