Protesters to fire “warning shot” to the government.

Have we at last reached saturation point where the battered & bruised British motorist can take no more. Extremely pleased to see the haulage contractors taking action but very disappointed that they are looking for a 25p REBATE on the diesel duty they are paying. If they are ditching Jo Public by only looking out for themselves the rot in British society spirals in an ever deeper dive. If the lorry drivers succeed in getting their rebate it is pretty obvious the ordinary motorist will take the brunt of subsidising the haulage industry with higher prices at the pumps. As Julius Ceaser said, divide & conquer. Everyone must unite if Gordon's fuel policies are to be re-evaluated & the 'I'm alright Jack' attitude will save some but put others to the wall. Whoever is co-ordinating the current fuel protests must mobilize the general public if they want to keep the support.

My sister lives in California,and she was over here 2 months ago and could not believe how much we are paying for fuel. The US average then was just over $3 per gallon....and yet they still pay less than we do in the UK. Yes! I know the US gallon is less than the imperial UK gallon,but it still is cheaper than ours. What we need is a national strike,( no one goes into work,or use the roads),until this happens this government will not listen. So companies suffer,and petrol stations,and in turn so does the taxman.....but no one will,will they???. I use my vehicle to transport my disabled scooter around,as I have C O P D....and use for shopping,so it`s just as hard for me on disability allowance. I rest my thoughts.

BOYCOTT BP from the 17-03-2008 maybe the government will listen when big oil companies start going bust how much will that cost the government FAT CATS

We are going about this the wrong way. We should have a campaign wher one day a week nobody drives there car to get to work we all atempt to use public transport. The bosses will just have to live with people being late or not arriving. At the same time one week a month we should not buy any fuel unless desperate. Slowly fill up over the preceding three weeks lets see where they store the fuel it will cost the oil majors a fourtune to stop and start there refinaries and the chancellors cash flow will go to pot. Lets have some action before the £2 litre arrives.

None of these protests have amounted to anything more than a slight inconvenience, because the numbers of protestors has never come near to the "critical mass " that will make them felt. Maybe what we want is some solidarity, as in France. I'd bet that if their fuel prices had risen, like ours, over the years, they would have got a favourable response from their government. Our lot don't listen, because when they shut their ears, the problems go away. And, please explain to me why we pay (I think) more for our fuel than most people elsewhere in the world - haven't their crude prices risen by the same amount as ours?

I can quite understand that when the cost of crude rises to over $100 a barrell, then petrol/deisel prices will rise on the forecourt.
What annoys me is that crude is now well under $90 dollars a barrell and has been for over a month.
Why then are fuel prices not dropping as quickly as they went up. Do they think that now we have broken the £1 a litre barrier, we will get used to paying it.
Well like a lot of other areas in this country we are being ripped off, and the government need to realise that while they may enjoy the benefits of the increased revenue will be no compensation when the loose the next election.
I have been a life long labour supporter, but no more I am sick to death of being ripped off. I am not to sure about direct action, but lobby your MP and let them know they will loose your vote.

diesel prices used to be between 5-10p a litre cheaper than petrol,but the price is higher now but people still think there are getting a bargain because road tax is a lot cheaper than petrol cars,does the goverment think the car drivers in this country are dumb ??? on another point while im on a roll IF this wasteful goverment is genuinely interested in reducing co2 there should be grants available for bio cars,lpg cars,duel fuel cars etc,that would appease the green brigade,but they wont do that because they are getting to much tax and vat from a litre of diesel fuel.

I'm new to this Blog so here are my opinions.

We pay tax on fuel at a rate of over 400%.
We pay road tax at over £200 for a year.
I'm not even going to list all the taxfor purchasing cars having MOTs and the fines we pay for the increasing number of road offences (It's easier to catch the people in the tin cans than the murderers, robbers and rapists that are hiding round the corner)
The money we pay for all this tax is not spent on roads (only about 20% of the road tax is used on roads) it's spent on the huge bureaucracy that has grown up in lodon and europe. It's to pay for the new Trident that wll never be used and is not needed, and other huge systems like the ID cards that wll never work.

If you want direct action then get one of the big Oil companies to do it.
We should all pick a major company to boycot. Imagine if noone bought say BP until the tax was cut to a more reasonable level. It just might work. I have some sympathy with the oil companies as the margins they work with can get very tight but we need them because they have a BIG political voice in westminster.

Duma

Having just been to Tescos to fill my car up with £60 worth of unleaded, I asked why the cost of fuel hasnt dropped due to the cost of brent crude oil falling to$86 yesterday, they couldn tell me, but did give me the telephone number of someonr who should no, its 0800505555 oppton 5 I suggest everyone rings this number and ask why. the answer i got was its down to the buyers, so i asked them to ask the buyers why theu havent demanded a lowering in the costm they will be putting that question to themand getting back to me, I WONT HOLD MY BREATH.

Once again here is the number to call 0800505555

Posted by Kev, 24th January 2008 4:25pm

When oh when are the protests to begin? the price of fuel is still going up & if the 2p tax increase in April goes ahead we will be paying nearly 20% more than 3/4 months ago.

If the Govermant is making so much extra money from fuel tax & Vat, where is it spending it on? Not on education, transport, hospitals etc.

Is it being stored for future election purses?

The country is on its knees thanks to the Labour Government! They do it every time. I remember the winter of discontent 78/79 when we couldn't bury our dead, no bins were emptied and we replied on green godesses! That was all thanks to Labour Gov of the day. Get them out or we wont have a country left at all!!!!!!!!!

The Governers are blocking it.

is anyone else having trouble getting onto the transaction web site

Clamping parked cars is an even worse way to raise money. It should be illegal to take another person's car off them. The cost of recovery puts our unfair fuel tax in the shade.

The French public stuck glue in the clamps every time they saw them. There are no clamps in France any longer. A lesson for us? Direct peaceful action can work if the public decides to unite.

Has all this gone the way it usually does.just moan and accept it, seems so to me anyway. As there has been no protest, and no reduction in the price, in fact, it just keeps going up and up,when will it stop, also I always thought that we were an Oil producing Country were has all ours gone,probably sold off to foreignors like everything else,that belongs to the British Public

Don't forget that Fuel Duty is part of the calculation that is subject to VAT, so that in effect we are paying 60.5p per litre, not the 51.5p that is the official level of Fuel Duty.

Don't forget that Fuel Duty is part of the calculation that is subject to VAT, so that in effect we are paying 60.5p per litre, not the 51.5p that is the official level of Fuel Duty.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I missed the demo as I was in Afghanistan! For this, I apologise!

It is indeed time that we had a revolution and threw out this government and it's like ly successor's, as they will only pay lip service to the public's needs and wants!

It is time that political parties were disbanded and time that the electorate installed with her Majesty's pemission, only individuals who truly represent the British people.

One problem of course is that any ring leader's actively attempting to overthrow the government of Great Britain would belikely to arrest under terrorism and treason charges.

All interested? Please blog me!
Gordon.

It is irony that we call ourselves advanced with third class train service, second class road conditions and one of the world's most expensive train and road fare/tax system including fuel tax on price.

It seems our Government has to learn from others how to subsidise or be efficient not to charge through roofs to its public................

Have been in the USA since 15 December so have rather lost touch with the arguement and any action being taken.

However I was not best pleased to have to pay £1.10 / litre for diesel for my pick-up ysterday to get to work.

I the USA they are violent about petrol, prices which have risen in line with crude costs. In August a (US) gallon of 91 octane was $2.39, it is now $2.79.

In comparison based on $2 = £1 and 4 litres = I gal US, we are paying $8.80 / US gallon or just over 3 times as much.

In reality as I was driving a 5.7 litre 4 wheel I was probably paying about the same per mile as I think it's MPG is in single figures.

It's a lot less painful though when a tank full is less than £30.00

There have been many reports of late, signposting that we as a civilisation are heading for ecological catastrophe. These include the 2006 United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Report, the Stern Report and latterly, the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). All of these paint a disquieting, plausible portrait of an Earth inching toward the brink of abrupt catastrophic planetary collapse, and challenges us to transform our current parasitic relationship with the Earth that sustains us.

We must realise now that attaining a “reasonable lifestyle” cannot be accomplished with sledgehammer tactics of the past. In our blind struggle for the survival of the fittest, richest and most acquisitive, we seem to have forgotten many of the fundamentals necessary to support all life. It has long been assumed by neo-classical economic models that the sum of individual demands somehow equalled a broader social good, and commercial interests, designer politicians and errant economists continue to tout this view with renewed vigour.

All scientific evidence so far, supports that fact that our current “reasonable lifestyle” based on this neo-classical “consumption assumption”, could turn our big blue marble into just another cold dead rock - as described by physicist John E. Brandenburg and science writer Monica Rix Paxson in the book Dead Mars, Dying Earth.

On a more practical and immediate note, now that oil has broken the 100 Dollar a barrel mark, some oil strategists predict that the whole industrial culture will at some point start breaking down and that a world without oil, is not a world that can support 6 billion human beings. It is not a world that can support 3 billion. It may not even be a world that can support one billion, as transportation, power and other oil-dependent products and services will become much more expensive.

They envision a catastrophic end to the era of fossil-fuel exploitation, a radical collapse of the entire world industrial system within the 21st century, a collapse that, they say, actually began about the year 2000, will quicken in pace till about 2012, and then drop off a cliff in the run-up to about 2030, when the lights will have begun to go out permanently, and there will be, so to speak, a need to train “candle makers”, if wax can be found.

The maths is done. No amount of alternatives will replace the demands of the many rapacious, energy hungry economies that exist at present. Not coal, not gas, not nuclear, not solar, not fuel cells, not wind, not anything. The prospects for all of these options are well reviewed and found wanting. We are building our way in to the “Big Empty” and the undoing of this “Earth Rape”, inadvertently called “progress” will inevitably happen.

Then we will no longer consume more than nature can provide and waste more than nature can clear away. So Stefan, you can join the dinosaurs and ask them why they never drove cars?

Re: Robert Nadin (above ^)

To quote - "I'll tell you all that it was a Labour Govenment under Ted Heath who started this."

Huh? Is this the same Ted Heath who was leader of the Conservative Party from 1965-1975?

Final argument: You are one ignorant scumbag yourself Mr Nadin.

Yes, I detest paying tax. Tax is payable so much on everything.
People dont realise that when fuel tax/price on fuel goes up, everything else goes up because EVERYTHING goes by road.

My argument is that, why the hell should we be forced to pay this excessive amount of UK tax on fuel, when all these foreign scumbag truck drivers pay absolutley nothing. They fill up at cheaper countries, as previously described, such as Spain etc, drive to Scotland and back and because their fuel tanks are so large, they can get back to spain without having to put any fuel in!!

Then theres the road tax. Yet again foreign scumbag truckers pay no road tax, yet a very high proportion of motorway accidents is caused by these scumbags. The governments answer is to GIVE them convex mirrors so they can see down the BLIND side. Who is paying for these mirrors?? Us UK tax payers.

BAN FOREIGN TRUCKERS FROM THE ROADS.

If not, make them pay a masive amount of pay as you drive tax.

This government is the worst goverment ever. Why can the British public not see this???????????????????????????????????????????????????

People blame the conservatives about nationalising all of the major industries. I'll tell you all that it was a Labour Govenment under Ted Heath who started this. There we go LABOUR yet again!!!!!!!!!!

Best way to make the government see how unhappy us motorists are is to bring London to a standstill with protests. Do you really think Gordon Brown cares when the M6/M5/M4 is at standstill or when the refineries are blockaded? NO.

Will he care when he cant use his JAG anywhere in London or be forced to walk?? I think he'll be bothered then.

Bring it on.

Final argument: Just think about this. When prices of fuel rise, haulage companies have to pass this cost on to us, the consumers. When prices in shops rise, the government is making even more TAX because of VAT.

Leave the refineries and suppliers alone people......Its not their fault the price of fuel is like it is.....Gordon Brown and his clowns should be Primary Targets with a sustained dosage of Direct action like the froggies have successfully done and like airline companies here in UK will be doing soon......
Bring the main arteries to a COMPLETE standstill.....Get the Ferries, hauliers, rail/bus Networks on board and lead by militancy with the so called Law if necessary. Just dont give up again!....You wont get another chance like this one when Browns popularity is so low and the people are seeing what a magalamaniac he really is. Brown needs to be reminded that he serves us! and not the other way round!(That was his pledge to the Queen)....All he serves and those before him are themselves and their own greed for power which has all too many time , led to corruption to which we have had to pay the ultimate price..

I totally agree with what you are doing, the price for fuel is disgusting and its about time the British people stood up for some thing and let the government know how it feels, lets hope they listen although they didn't listen with the war in Iraq!!! Lets show them we are not happy

Re:
"you bloody mad or just stupid"
By Kevin Dell, 19th December 2007 7:36pm

What right do you think you have to be critical and abusive to someone who has expressed a valid opinion on the price of petrol?

What's your problem? Don't like it when someone else has an opinion that does not match yours? You are one sad pathetic poor little insignificant nothing.

If you want this to chang do it by voting at an election. It is our only way of truly having a say that matters. If you don't then idiotic lefties give this lot the mandate to do what they want with tax and now look at us. The most taxed generation ever! We have a pathetic Prime Minister who hides behind a reputation that is misplaced behind economic stability. Believe me if you look at his record it is actually just luck and it is now his policies are working out.

The cost of living including and most of all petrol is going to continue to rise. Fact! Vote at an election and get this pathetic and ridiculous excuse for a government out before they tell you its bad for your health and ban it!
Gordon Brown has had a huge say in all policy over the last ten years and worst of all it is he that is responsible for tax over the last ten.

Vote and get this clown out! For god sake we must realize its actually our only way of changing things. This government is so power drunk it doesn't care what we think but wishes to think for us.

only one thing will get a change****and it may not be for the better***

put the s. n. p. in it could not be any worse

Unfortunatley the vote doesn't reflect national average feeling, as nobody has the nerve come out on mass to give the goverment a bloody nose. Until this happens nothing will ever change. I should know as I'm a trucker and we're find it increasingly more difficult to get by. So we have increase our prices which inturn has a majour effect on inflation, so come on everybody stick together and come and support the protests. After all if nobody felt that fuel was to expensive no one would view this site.