Your Comments

I'm almost afraid to say anything because of the abuse I expect to receive for saying fuel duty should go up. What else is going to stop this crazy use of a diminishing resource simply for moving people and goods when better and more efficient solutions exist.
Continuing to pour CO2 and other warming pollutants into the atmosphere will damn future generations and the time to do something about it is today, if an increase in fuel duty will help that happen then bring it on.
And I'm not a hair-shirt, cycle everywhere, anti-car loony. I enjoy my car, and its 3 litre turbo diesel engine, but try to restrict its use to journeys that would be all-but-impossible otherwise.

Stop the hike. Thx

Fuel duty on diesel should be halved but to compensate the VAT rate on fuel should rise to 60-65%. To the average member of the public there would be a slight price rise (if my maths is right roughly equal to the 2p that potentially will be put on fuel duty), but to businesses and hauliers the difference would be incredible. The cost of getting goods from place to place would be slashed, increasing their revenue and giving the economy as a whole a much needed boost. That won't happen though as they're too keen on hiding taxes and spending our money on bank bonuses.

Maybe we should all do a Tamil or Muslim, and demonstrate outside Westminster. Daily, weekly, monthly, untill the government capitulate .

How does this help us to spend our way out of this recession as our PM
wants us to do when he's taking more of out of our pockets in petrol tax. STOP THE INCREASE.

what can you expect from a labour government, there hasnt been one labour government that hasnt brought this country to its knees, they always run this country into debt & put up every tax they can think of to recuperate their losses & its us the joe public that has to pay for it through stealth taxes & exorbitant fuel taxes just so they can claim their vast exorbitant expense sheets & line their own nests, I am a disabled pensioner with a limited income & need my car to get about, but the more fuel goes up the less i can get out

Stop the increase in fuel duty, We have enough problems as it is, everytime fuel is increased food goes up and as I am a pensioner, who by the way is looking for work, I am being held prisoner in my own home as I cannot afford to run my old 15 year old car.Even if I could, I wouldn't be able to have a meal out as it would be too exspensive.

i think its time that british people woke up and told the government enough is enough when it comes to hammering the motorest .
i am sure that if other countries or the americans were charged for motoring the way wee are there would be riots on the streets

Fuel duty has to go up. Scrapping the Fuel Duty Escalator was a huge mistake, because it gave everyone the certainy required about future fuel duty to allow them to invest in efficiency measures. I hope the chancellor has the strength to ignore these crazy 'I have the right to drive cheaply even if it screws up the planet for everyone's children' campaigners.

Hi thanks for updating us on the current situation, firstly I'd like many others are shocked by how much fuel keeps rising...but even more sad that its not being reinvested in greener or cleaner options- neither in public transport and infrastructure nor in cleaner fuels. Sadly like many people I have little choice but to use a car, because the alternatives (I live in rural Devon) are poor and often getting worse. I am concerned about the state of the environment but also from the comments received of those whose transport is a life line to hospital or care, or community and without which they'd be in greater difficulty. Its not an easy situation and there doesn't appear to be a silver bullet. Nonetheless I do protest that the fuel rises are just being sucked into Government coffers with no real will to look strategically at viable alternatives other than a lot of political rhetoric.

On a practical note, it wouldn't it be far more expedient to have a template letter run out for people to add, amend or use, 'as is' to send to our local counsellors, MPs etc. We are no longer a letter writing nation, more email and many of us don't feel confident to articulate our points sufficiently well and so are put off writing.

Just a thought to expedite matters more speedily.

D.

Raise fuel duty to help save the environment, what a crock.

This has been the government excuse, raise the duty to stop us buying 4x4s and large cars.

Well we have stopped buying Land Rovers and Jaguars, so now we have to bale them out. Hypercritical at least.

Gordon Brown has run an economy of debt for 10 years, and now need to get money in to his coffers, the only way he'll do that is to TAX TAX TAX and the motorist is a very easy target.

So here we are again. A government with broken promises. Duty on fuel up on April 1st (they must think we are all fools) and now proposed increase in the budget. Are they suffering from dementia or do they think Joe public is. Not long ago they said fuel duty would not increase until July.
Being a pensioner I notice we are being hammered by the Government with virtual zero savings interest and continual increases in prices.
One may say pensions were increased by £5 a week, but Council tax went up by almost the same amount. My private pension increased by 0.9% in line with RPI which equates to 50pence a week.
So how can we continue to absorb increases in fuel (sometimes on a weekly basis) and find foodstuffs and everyday items, which have risen in excess of 10% since late last year.
Perhaps if MP's were in touch with reality, and Not enjoying expense accounts, they would perhaps vote againt the everlasting increases in fuel duty and Road Fund Tax, the income from which is not spent entirely on our roads network.

i am disabled and i need my car but if the covernment keep puting tax on fuel
Iwill not be able to run my car.What the covernment need to do is stop giving
themselves big rises.2p a litre is nothing to themwhen they have just awarded themselves a big pay rise

Even with a poor pound vs euro exchange rate it is cheaper to head abroad!

£50 to fill the tank and £5 for a days parking at the beach is the government saying p7ss off to Europe for your holidays!

So much for rescue to the UK economy!

The good thing about the EU is immigration. In the sense that a Brit doesn't have to live and work in shi44y Britain. Sorry but that is the truth.

Thanks NU Labour!

I agree with previous comments on this page that mineral fuel prices must go up but for different reasons. The UK Government has stated that we must use more biofuels in an attempt to reduce our carbon emissions. However the cost to produce biofuel is restricting its sale as people want to go green but only if it is a cheaper option! Put the extra duty on mineral fuels and not on biofuels, this will help all of the transport companies running commercial vehicles as well as anyone running a diesel engined vehicle. We must protect our environment, using Biodiesel for example will help enormously and assistance from the budget in NOT increasing duty on Biodiesel will help everyone. Come on guys lets support biofuel and make an immediate impact on carbon emissions.

Dover ships 75% of Eastern European drivers, would they all be limited to 200 liters of fuel, then they would or stay out or help to pay local taxes by means of fuel. Today, they cross with 1200 liters and make sure they leave the UK before they have to refuel. Would they buy 1000 liters each in the UK, prices would level rapidly and everyone would be happy, local hauliers, short sea movers and government. Who will take action to have these Eastern European drivers SPENDING and SUPPORTING taxes in UK, so they can help to improve motorways, in stead of pure utilisation and distroying all competition and prices ??

Please lets get something going for this countries sake and our own sanity! This next duty rise will force me to only drive to work, I wont be able to afford to take my daughter out anywhere....I am a single parent, yes I work, part time but I need my car to go to work as public transport doesnt go anywhere near where I work. I suffer from health problems as well and I cant walk to my nearest supermarket or local shop and carry shopping home. I rely on my car and I like to drive it. Its so fustrating having to sit back and just write emails etc to our MP's...help our food prices to go down as well by supporting this, if duty goes down, the hauliers of this country should have a better deal and give us customers better prices on every day things that we need to survive! I totally agree with number 31, the foreign drivers with their extremely large fuel tanks....make it illegal for them to come in with so much fuel, make them give us something back for a change!!!!!

Here we go again this bloody government ripping us all off, first they tell us to sell our cars and use public transport which is almost non existant then they tell us if we are disabled or old we will get free bus travel so we like idiots believe them the next thing is they keep putting up the price of fuel, then they start withdrawing the free travel so we can't travel. They bail out banks who are robbing us blind but the government allows this because they have their own hidden agenda about this as well. This really is the thin end of the wedge the people of this country are struggling hard to make ends meet but they don't care they hit them time and time again and they say they feel for us? I don't think so!

They rob us blind with thier expenses and have the nerve to say that they are all legal WELL THEY BLOODY WELL SHOULDN'T BE! They have the nerve to put adverts on telly saying they are watching us Who the hell is watching them what they take from us is a massive but is meant to be LEGAL? I really think they need brought in to our world with a massive bump up the back side they are Robbers!

I feel that the government will be will to increase fuel duty again this April for the 3rd time in a year because the them self's are little effected by any increase. Why Firstly because they earn considerably more that the national average wage, giving then a far greater percentage of deposable income. Secondly whatever increase that they and they will add they simply claim back in expenses. In my view all they seem to be worried about self image saving the banks poring our money in to the civil service creating jobs for the boys, they don't care about the motorist who hast to used his car to survive on a day to day basis, all the care about is them self's... Talk about a child and the ME ME ME attitude they should look at themselves, Bring them down to size we could save money simply by saying that they should earn no more that the average wage for the privilege of being an MP. I wonder how many would chose government as a career if that were to happen not many I feel which goes to prove my point.. a bunch of selfish self rightist individuals who are just in it for self gain ego and not in the slightest despite of what they say have any interest in the average person on the street who after all pays their wages and expenses... SO in answer to your question Alister Darling already has seed the fate of this question, He may get round it by saying that any extra will be delayed for a period of time but it will go up and the extra revenues will be wasted on some silly scheme help some out of touch government department.

Hi all I am a community mental health rehab worker and as you can imagine I travel a lot therefore the cost of fuel is important to me. It is a struggle to just keep my car on the road with out the cost of fuel going up. Can you imagine how many workers like myself are finding it more and more difficult to keep up with these costs, without my car I could not do the job so out of work could cost the country even more money so think about that one ! ! !

I would like to see more motoring organisations joining in this campaign. The AA and the RAC are supposed to represent their members, so perhaps the members can assist in making this happen. There is also the Car and Van Rental Companies which must account for over 100,000 vehicles on the roads of the UK, their contribution would be a significant impact.

Brendan
Sadly our unelected leader will take absolutely no notice of the comments on this blog, nor I suspect the letters we write to our MP's. Inevitably the blog becomes a political rant and rightly so.
Having reached the magical age of 65, and having never drawn a brass farthing in benefits, I find that I can no longer retire on a lifetime of savings, the interest return has zero'd out. So I will carry on, at least I no longer will have to pay NI contributions on earnings.
The green lobby make much of greenhouse gasses destroying the future of the world and the need to increase taxes to restrict fuel useage. Sadly if everyone in this country stopped driving cars and lorries it would make no difference whatsoever to the final outcome. The activists from that group need to persuade the leaders of the developing nations and the likes of China, India etc to stop using fossil fuels, our output of Co2 is miniscule compared with theirs.
I guess I can afford the proposed increase in fuel costs and I make no excuse for driving a 6.75 ltr turbo car. I drive a small annual mileage and whilst my cars footprint maybe horrendous, I never ever fly abroad thus my simple mind tells me that the saving on the Co2 output PER SEAT on a family trip to the Costa's is offset.
WE have to increase taxes, but fairly. Not the motorist every time. The Government, and the next one, are forced to follow "the law of diminishing returns". If their coffers are not full enough to support their spending they have to borrow or raise more money through tax, or of course cut spending, or reduce benefits. Tax the rich? why many of them have worked damned hard for their money ( excluding the likes of Sir Fred )
As a smoker I have been hit hard. Stopping smoking saves the NHS millions, maybe, only maybe. Smokers tend to die quicker when they become ill, dead people cost less to keep in hospiital than alzhymer etc sufferers. Thats the scinic in me. The ciggy tax revenue has lost the Government millions and closed thousands of pubs.And, of course, our PCT's still lose millions and are as inneficient as ever. Ask the patients from Stafford.
The answer? I really fear that there is not one given the level of this countries debt. Change the Government certainly, but on the performance and lies of the last 10 years. The next Government will be forced to continue tax rises, and that WILL include fuel because the return is instant cash to squander.
I guess I could sign this "from a dis illusioned would be pensioner, once proud to be English ~ but no longer"

It's rip off Britain again,MPs have their feet in the money&expenses trough and we foot the bill,we are all being taken for a ride and they are laughing all the way to the bank,with their big fat pensions,while ordinary pensioners can hardly pay their food.heating and council tax bills,we need this lot OUT at the first opportunity and that cannot come soon enough.

when the supposed 2p increase went on fuel my local tesco put theirs up from 90.9p to 93.9p a litre.
I believe duty is put on luxury items but how can fuel be classed as a luxury item? Maybe when they first put it on fuel but not now.
What if everyone converted their cars to run on cheaper forms of fuel like LPG, the government would impose duty on this because it wouldn't have the tax from duty it receives now. The only think this or any government understands is money so to me the only way to hit both the fuel companies and the government is to either cut down using the car or stop altogether, if you notice fuel drops in price when people may not be using their cars but as soon as they may be then the price increases, the holding off increases line by petrol companies is a load of bull.
If people did stop using their cars for a month then I bet both the government and fuel companies would start to worry in case people had stopped using their cars altogether.
What keeps the price high apart from duty is demand, if demand decreases then the price eventually will drop.

It's increasingly sad the way that the Govenment of the day continually squeezes the motorist. Whether we like it or not, we are the silent majority who MUST use our cars/vans/lorries for work. We have no say in the increases simply because no-one speaks up for us in government. We are, basically, the 'cash cow' which makes us the easy option for any greed.
I run a car on diesel. It is capable of some 60mpg, yet it still costs me an arm and a leg to refuel, because in my area the diesel is £104.9. No other European countries have the gall to virtually double the price of diesel. I have complained to the oil companies who say that the extra cost of refining ups the price - simply a lie as it doesnt cost this overseas, plus the cost has been going up for quite some time - more than enough to increase refining capacities.

What else can you expect from a Labour government???? If you want to suffer more, vote them in again at the next election. You only have yourselves to blame

When I was in america in November, petrol was at $1.83 a GALLON. Its true to say that our petrol also came down. But the issue is the states petrol has stayed low and ours started to rise again. I certainly dont want to be paying the peak of £1.18 a litre again like last year.

83.9p - December 2008
92.9p - April 2009

This governments a disgrace because they know people need fuel and have little other option. I do my bit by not accelerating to fast and driving steady. Im all for going green but the government / oil barrens dont want to invest in green travel leaving me no option but to pollute and pay high tax. All I can afford is a very high mileaged car on gas fuel.

You wont be getting my vote again.

Whilst I do agree about the concerns of the enviromental issues with fuel, you have to look at the current economic climate and wonder what the government are thinking. With money tight and jobs tighter, I find that I have to travel to the centre of london everyday. At present, this is the only work I can find. I have to travel 88 miles to the train station. Then 45 mins to London, Then 30min on the tube. Other than driving the whole way, this is the most practicle route. So with a total daily travel of 5 hours for 9 hours work, I now find the government are to raise tax again just to help us out of the credit crunch!!!
I put about £175 petrol a week in. Not through choice but because I have to for work and to keep my job. My car is 9 years old and we've not got the money to change it for a more expensive deisel. Although with the cost of deisel we wouldn't be that much better off.
The government are crippling people who have to use their cars for work. At a time when jobs are few and far between, you would expect the government to help people, not tax them.

With OPEC meeting to 'hike-up' oil prices it is inevitable that there will be a large rise in fuel prices for oil products such as heating oil, gas and fuel for transport. We live in a rural area, are pensioners, have oil-fired central heating and really need a car. The 3-litre turbo-diesel owner [not the most economical of cars!] probably earns megabucks, has the car run by a company and lives in town-what experience has he of having to walk/cycle/drive almost 2 miles to the nearest shop or bus-stop?

The current row over MP's expences and fuel prices brings home the fact that taxation is theft. Why is the working population of the UK forced to support a failed business model like banking so the bankers can keep their Ferrari's?

This applies to all Governments.What gives them the right to rob us,when it comes to fuel duty.Why should fuel duty be three times the price of the fuel.
This puts the prices up on everything we use.Food,fuel,buildings,transport,etc;etc.
If Mr Brown and his cohorts,stopped giving our money away to illegals,prisoners and uncle tom cobley and all,sorry forgot about snouts in the trough Politicians.
I worked 40 years of my life away from home,including 24 years in the Royal Navy,I had to pay for "Digs",not claimable(tax Man), pay for everything I needed, both at home and my digs. I usually spent a minimum of a fortnight away at any one time.I was not even allowed to claim tax relief on the payment for my journey to my place of work.Even today,the "ordinary" taxpayer cannot claim this sort of allowance.
I could not claim for my digs,therefore why can a Government Minister claim second home allowance and call a rented room,their main home?????????

Yet again we are subjected to the drip drip drip of the hiking of tax on our fuel. What ever we say the government doesn't seem to listen to the ordinary folk who not only have to pay the increased prices at the pump, but also the increases of everything we buy. As a senior citizen it only makes our life more difficult to survive on our pension. Already this years increase has been eaten up by the constant rise in price of everything we need and unleds we become housebound that means the fuel we need to get about.

The 2p on petrol which was "suspended" last year because of the "global" crisis was added to fuel in December when the government reduced the V.A.T. to 15%. Remember that we also produce oil so the more it sells for the more the government make. Independent petrol stations are disappearing because there is no even playing field, the government take no notice so people do more miles to reach a petrol station. Oil "they" say is a precious commodity so why allow price cutting to be used as a "loss leader"? The duty taken on petrol is phenomenal, and they want to increase it?

I have already contacted the P.M.s office about the last 2p rise being an utter vote loser. The other parties will not reduce the tax on fuel in fact if the Tories had been in power it would have been higher. It is nonesensical to keep hammering the motorist enough is enough. If they want more tax income tax the rich not the ordinary people who can ill afford to pay extra every month to get to work. Tax the rich who are scewing us all and tax M.Ps expenses while we are at it.

It is about time we realised the government are out to screw the motorist as we are the easiest targets to get their revenue. I wrote to the PM when this "global Warming" issue was raised I asked 1) where were all the cars emitting these dangerous gasses during the last ice age. 2) how much did the government pay the scientists to give them the answers they wanted to enable the cash cows to begin ripping off the motorist. Guess what I did not receive an answer, I think I touched a nerve there.
Anyway now we are being told to use energy efficient light bulbs that give off toxins and contain Mercury, what next????
As for the additional costs they are robbing from us motorists, it will only go to paying for their oversized expenses and pay rises, they get fatter while we get thinner. Time for a revolt, and it will end in tears before bedtime. ROLE ON MAY 2010 when we will get rid of a PM who was never voted in in the first place, that says it all!!!!!

It is about time we realised the government are out to screw the motorist as we are the easiest targets to get their revenue. I wrote to the PM when this "global Warming" issue was raised I asked 1) where were all the cars emitting these dangerous gasses during the last ice age. 2) how much did the government pay the scientists to give them the answers they wanted to enable the cash cows to begin ripping off the motorist. Guess what I did not receive an answer, I think I touched a nerve there.
Anyway now we are being told to use energy efficient light bulbs that give off toxins and contain Mercury, what next????
As for the additional costs they are robbing from us motorists, it will only go to paying for their oversized expenses and pay rises, they get fatter while we get thinner. Time for a revolt, and it will end in tears before bedtime. ROLE ON MAY 2010 when we will get rid of a PM who was never voted in in the first place, that says it all!!!!!

When price per barrel of crude is near it's lowest, why oh why are we allowing both the current Government and the oil companies to make so much money out of us ordinary motorists. There was a campaign probably a year ago, to boycott some petrol companies like Esso and BP. I must say that even though I have kept this up, these companies are still making record profits out of us, like the Government.

I am a disabled driver, and at the rate the increases are going, I will be house bound again, the same as I was when petrol prices were at their hightest. Oh yes, disabled people qualify for free bus passes the same as pensioners do, but what about us that can't walk as far as the bus stop, and couldn't get up a step as high as a bus has if we did get there!

If the sensible voters got rid of this Government at the first opportunity, we would still have years of austerity to put things right and get the Country back on an even keel financially. With all GB's monetary gifts to banks and MPs etc, this Country is in a worse financial state than its ever been, and they must learn that they can't get all their borrowing back from the poor old motorist - AGAIN!

I don't know if its my imagination, but in my area prices were slowly coming down, but as soon as the Easter holiday period approached, when a lot of extra miles would be driven, prices shot up. Me wonders IF in a couple of weeks time when all that extra cash has been raked in, prices drop a little. time will tell. Perhaps that is just suspicious me. And as for these people owning gas guzzling cars that support any of these rises planned, I expect that they are financially OK to cover any rise planned. Try being a pensioner on a poor fixed income where a disability means that the use of car, no matter how small and economical is a necessity for a basic means of independence and getting arround.