The arrival of £5 a gallon diesel

The trouble is as much as people don't like it you've got to realize that if
you're trying to fight our govenment you'll never ever win because there
is too many of them with their fingers in the pie so we have no chance at all.

The only pm not to have an election cos he thought he would win it?Brown!Looks like he shafted us as chanceller passed his winning ways on to Darling(what a name lol)
Fuel costs will not come down,& as for annother fuel blockade,ask the hauliers about their road tax reduction bride from the last blockade,stand alongside them? not on your nelly,
Become french lets all stand together until something is done,oh no aint we brits,well we dont do that do we?
Could go on for hours,you know nation service for the youngsters an the like,capital punishment, Richard branson for pm, etc etc,
If ya wann live here put up wi being shafted of export ya self to europe,


love the uk, or is it yuk?

The government - which this is one is supposed to be 'for the ordinary people' - has had every opportunity to protect us from this to a significant degree. Instead they are profiteering - as tax rises as percentage of price rises. In fact tax element is far greater than fuel cost element at the pump. time to say NO. Blocking/any form of civil protest is absolutely required. Anything from stickers to marches is needed to make them see reason. And do not let them hide behind 'envoronment' - this is the government fleecing its own people. Not even Soviets dared.

I agree with all your comments and would support any stance made against these every increasing fuel prices...
12 months ago, my fiance and I bought our first house, after saving for over 4years to get the deposit together. We couldn't afford to buy a house in the area we would've liked to have lived, so we took the hit on our commutes to work to get us on the first rung of the property ladder. I now do a 100 mile/day round trip commute to work and these fuel rises are really starting to hit my fuel costs - soon I shall be forced to find a new job!

It's probably not a popular view but let's try to be rational about this:

Taxes are used by the Government to pay for services we demand - if it's not fuel that's taxed then it'll be something else and there's no point in pretending otherwise.

GB & cronies could be more honest and say something like:

2p of each £1.00 of fuel tax is spent on road building and maintenance
3p of each £1.00 is spent on "safety" measures such as speed cameras, road calming and bus lanes

The rest pays for NHS, Government, Civil Service and everything else.. but you *do* have to pay for it somehow.

Why don't we instead tackle the international oil conglomerates who are making obscene profits? - I'm sure we've all seen that the US dollar has been at its lowest against sterling for decades. Crude oil is bought in US$ - diesel in the UK is bought in £Sterling - surely more dollar equivalents = more oil?

As a motoring journalist of some 45 years I find it hard to see why the UK Government has to continue to raise fuel tax when the in come from VAT and tax brings them additional revenue whenever the price of fuel rises. There is again no justification for oil companies to increase prices as I have just returned from a European trip and found Luxembourg, Austria and Switzerland all selling diesel at less than £1 a litre. This Government will FALL at the next General Election and perhaps an alternative Government will see reason and lower prices to a more reasonable level, after all they are hitting pensioners and businesses alike so costs overall go UP!

Yes, well it's all very well pontificating on the subject of high fuel prices but no body in this country will get off their arse and do anything about it. If I tried to organise some kind of protest no one would turn up! If this were the US or France they'd have been mass protests by now. But never mind, put your feet up, switch on the telly and pop a pizza in the oven - £10 a litre here we come . . . .

I thought id use this forum to point out what i feel is a complete con by the government. We all accept that they must raise revenue through taxation on fuel but the steady increase in the cost of petrol & diesel due to increases in oil costs need not all be passed on to the consumer.
With petrol at , say £0.80 per litre the government would raise a level of income that it deemed sufficient to provide the relevant services. With petrol increasing to £1.05 per litre (in less than 2 years) the government is now raising an additional sum equating to the tax on 25p for every litre of fuel consumed. This increase is colossally in excess of inflation and could be used to effectively subsidise fuel costs. Alternatively it should be made clear where this additional money is actually going.

Mu mum is in hospital at the moment and I'm finding it hard to find the money for fuel.................

I agree this is far to expensive...............I show dogs and this has hit me hard I can't afford to go to as many shows as I used to................

I now have to think twice before I make any journey in the car, although it is petrol, I am now paying £1.04 per litre. On a pensioners fixed income I have to be very careful when I fill up.

I would like to see petrol/diesl hit £15/£20 per gallon. This would eliminate most of the unessential vehicle usage from our roads. Vital traffic such as police/ambulance/doctor/distribution etc would qualify for repayments on amounts used. It would also help the environment and speed-up the provision of alternative transport methods (vehicles running on electric/ water etc.) The use of current fuels such as petrol etc., are now outdated and very old hat. It is about time we modernised and revolutionised our travel habits.

The government are trying to get people to use cleaner fuels, Diesel being one of them. Surely it makes sense for the government to keep the price of diesel lower than that of petrol as this should encourage the adoption of diesel powered cars. Is it just a conspiracy theory or are the government also exploiting the green minded members of the public who are trying to do their bit for the environment?

Get Brown out & get in somebody who appears to have some common sense (guess we better look further afield than politicians for this valuable attribute)!

We are cursed with a governement that would be hard put to organise a booze up in a brewery. Fuel price are just one of many reasons to vote these treacherous so and so's into oblivion i.e. failure to hold a referendum on the EU constitution/treaty (it's the same thing), Home Information Packs, the speed camera rip off, Browns raid on pension funds, Iraq, handling of the Northern Rock which will cost us all in tax, rising crime rate and so on and so on. The present levels of tax on fuel are a national scandal and will severely damage the economy.
I fully support fuel protests. Nothing else seems to make this arrogant governement sit up and take notice but they have to be sustained. Perhaps we should hold the opposite of a one minutes silence in protest i.e. a national 1 minutes horn blowing at a designated time. The noise across the country would send a strong message.
Buying the cheapest fuel is one answer but prices are subject to regional variation in any event and finding a cheap outlet is not always practicable.

If Biodiesel is cheaper why can the petrol retailers just sell that for now?

I am usually against direct action but, whilst the price of crude oil influences the position to some extent, the effect is exacerbated by UK taxation.

I support the idea of a well organised blockade in the absence of an early opportunity to vote out of office this rotten and incompetent government.

In response to Item 22 posted by Alan Smith, I agree that this could work but personally I buy from Asda as their credit card offers 2 pence off making it just under 1 pound a litre. Due to this I am always buying from them rather than Tesco for their points. These two supermarkets offer me the best price in my area and as such, never purchase my petrol or diesel from an actual fuel reseller such as BP or Esso etc as they charge so much more. Maybe if there could be some agreement on which supermarket we should buy from I think you would find most people would participate.

Ok I'm not sure how accurate this is but I work in oil idnustry and no one has told me differently yet. The price of a barrel of oil is based on the US Dollar with it being so weak and the pound so strong this why the price has gone up so much over the past year. What the oil giants are going to do (and no I do not know when I'm afriad) is use a standard price rate instead of the dollar. The 6 top fuel users in the world will have an average worked out on how much they use and this will determin the price per barrel rather than just using what the dollar dictates. This means that the price of a barrel is going to fall alot. However and here is the clincher it is still up to the Government to reduce the price we pay when this happens. I'm guessing this is not to widely known or talked about at the moment, and like I said I do not know exactly when this is happening.
For all thoes people sending round an e-mail saying just pic 2 companies to boycot ie BP and Shell, it might be worth finding out who supplies Asda, Tesco, Sainsburry ect as I know they dont own oil fields! It is the government that determines the price we pay not the people that own the petrol stations its them we have to boycot.

What this situation needs is a good kick up the backside to bring it to the forefront of the nation's attention. We are currently all doing the usual British thing - we whine about it but we actually do nothing. This issue needs centrally co-ordinated action, because our words are just so much hot air to the policymakers. Much as a blockade or similar direct action would personally inconvenience me (and it would, quite badly), I would support it to the hilt.

It's no good boycotting BP/Esso or any other supplier because their ability to reduce prices is limited by their requirement to make a profit, however small. The vast bulk of the insane price of fuel is accounted for by tax, so that's where any reduction must be targeted. A simple freeze on fuel tax increases, such as we saw 8 years ago, is insufficient - only a tax cut will do, and a substantial one at that.

Blockade .The goverment was really worried last time

What's all this fuss about fuel duty? Surely the people must realise by now that anything which might be of benefit is worthy of taxation. Governments, of whichever persuasion, are always on the lookout for extra revenue opportunities - one of the latest being "The Environment and Global Warming" - providing yet another opportunity for Chancellors of the Exchequer to rob us yet again with unfair, swingeing, taxes in the form of the once-called Road Fund Licence. (What happens to that money - it certainly is not spent on the roads)
Strike! Strike! Strike! Hit them where it hurts - kick them out, by fair means of course, and the sooner the better - and may the next lot abolish those highly lucrative pension schemes. Remember, many politicans have no concept of a working life!

Would the blockades work??????

Yes this would make the government take notice but they realise that this will only be a short term action. This would then give them the power to increase fuel further understanding our demand.

What this government really needs is to be held accountable for there taxing policy and the only way to do this would be to ensure they do not serve another term in power.

I live in the sticks and am also on a state pension, therefore I need my car to get from A to B. The rising price of fuel takes a sizeable chunk out of it which means I and others like me have less to spend on food.

The government should drop its`60%+ tax on fuel to help all its` citizens or am I just dreaming???

i whole heartedly agree fuel is getting ridiculously priced and we need to be seen to stand up and say enough is enough . i have had to give up useing my car for trips on my own nowaday,s . its only a 1.6 and if driven sensibly i can get 35 /38 to a gallon out of it, a car designed to carry 5 people and only me in it wheres the sense , i now ride a motorbike to work in all weathers, to visit friends and for small shopping trips . ok i,m open to the elements , weather, idiots who dont look properly in cars vans lorries etc but its made me a lot more aware on the the road and i get 50 plus to a gallon. now i,m not saying we should all get out and ride bikes but lets be seen to be standing up for ourselves and show the government that as a motorist we are not going to be an easy target

Yes fuel prices are far too expensive, and we should all do something to send a clear message to Gordon Brown and his hangers on in the so called goverment, that enough is enough. I have recently quit my job which i loved by the way for one closer to home. One of the reasons for this was the crippling cost of diesel for my 90 mile round trip commute. I have tried everything in my power now and this includes getting rid of my petrol car for a far smaller diesel one. This i thought would go a long way to help, but as the prices at the pumps increase my actions seem to have been in vain. What does the Goverment want us all to do? It seems to me that they will not be content until the rest of us have been priced off the roads, so it leaves them clear for them to travel along in their large gas guzzling cars. Maybe it is time to stand up for ourselves and not pay these crazy prices.

Surely the 'high' cost of diesel and petrol is a good thing? If it encourages us to use less, or at least think about every journey we do, then that may help at least delay Climate Change and Peak Oil. But the tax should be diverted to creating a world-class public transport system - trains and trams to every town and village, freight switched to rail etc.

At the end of the day if the tax 'burden' on motorists is reduced then where is that extra tax going to come from? VAT on food? Reduced services? And as for the poster who thinks the government have an emergency fund - he must be living in a dream world. This idiot government has run up huge debts in the trillions.

In reality petrol and diesel - both here and in most other countries - is outrageously cheap. It will never be this inexpensive again - all we can do is change our lifestyles so we no longer need to use cars. But the government - whoever it is - needs to make that easier.

I think yes petrol prices are far too high, but it's just one of many things increasing at the moment and have to "put up and shut up".

The price of rent, utilities and transportation goes up every year, but I don't all of a sudden decide I'm going to boycott TFL and walk the 8 miles to work everyday.

The thought of another boycott is absolutely outrageous and I for one would not be in support of this. How dare people threaten to bring the country to a standstill because of the rising price of petrol - all it does is turn "Joe Public" against them.

How could panic buying, companies coming to a sudden halt and people in general losing salary pay because they can't get to work be a good thing?

Protests are effective, but only done in the right way, and hauliers blockading depots is not the way to do it.

I think brain over braun is needed in this case.

What makes me laugh is the fact that the government keep saying that what they want is to get people out of cars and onto public transport, but is really? They would lose billions in tax every year if we all did that. Not to mention a public transport system that would completely grind to a halt under the strain.

when petrol and diesel prices first started to rise(no way near the price now)the haulage contractors were up in arms about it and created road blocks and go slow movement,why aren't they doing the same now it has risen 4/5 times the ammount it was then,have these same guys taken a bung off the government

We are hitting £106.9 a litre in some areas now, soon we will be faced with paying £1.10 a ltr. How about this for an idea;

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of >an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT,whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Please read it and join in!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take a ggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the market place not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP.

If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's
really simple to do!!

Now, don't wimp out on me at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to
at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at
least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the
message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached
over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and
pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have
been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it... ..

THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.(and not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8days!!! Acting together we can make a difference If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 69p a LITRE
RANGE

It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your
petrol at Shell, Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons Jet etc. i.e.
boycott BP and Esso

This government's policies are leading us down a road that just keeps getting narrower and narrower. The price of fuel is just one tactic they are using to drive traffic off Britain's roads.

Very soon it won't be possible to drive your car anywhere useful anyway, not without being taxed to the hilt; be it through road charging, congestion charging, parking restrictions, road fund license increases or the ubiquitous rising fuel duty.

Only one thing looks certain, financial barriers or "disincentives" (as they are so often referred to) are only set to increase in future, both in prevalence and magnitude.

It seems that rather than using transport as an enabler of commerce and trade, as a means to fuel our economy, this Government would rather use it as a short-term revenue supply, while generally hiding behind the mother of all excuses, "preventing climate change and protecting the environment".

I wonder how long it will be before the Treasury resort to describing all road users as a potential terror threat and introduce new surveillance taxes to ensure our road networks are safe for the one remaining group of users (and only other constant in this equation) - the workmen and their cones!

@ Al Hanson (No8)
The equity from House prices is never realised by the average home owner (as the next house is equally expensive), the only people who really benefit are those moving from inner city areas to more rural retreats and of course property developers.

This shouldn't be used as a direct comparison to on-going costs such as fuel prices.

If wages had followed a similar % rise as fuel prices then I would agree - house prices, nothing to do with it.

I agree that petitions do nothing - this government definately need hauliers drivers, and farmers taking action - blockade the depots again, bring the country to a standstill. Lets work together!
Write to your MP. Bring the issue to the ballot box, put it on the political agenda!

we should have a fuel blockade and I for one,being on state pension, will be there supporting it. Blockaders should not take too much threats about police arrests only let's do it when it will bring UK to a near halt maybe,just,maybe the government may drop it's 60%+tax take from the hard done motorist

This is getting ridiculous now. The trouble is the government does not give a damn until something extreme happens. Mr. Brown kept taking away from the public and now his successor is following suit. I think it is high time that we took away the government from this lot to give them their own back.

Which people voted for NO when they said petrol prices are not to expensive? Are you mad?

1995 I paid around 40p per litre and there was a huge fuss because this price was blamed on the Gulf War. Who do we blame now?

Someone is getting very rich off this and it certainly aint us.

In 7 years my monthly fuel bill has trebled to the point where I am going to have to give up work and sign on. Local jobs pay nothing so I have to travel. How many more people are going to be forced into giving up their jobs due to the fuel costs?

The government and the fuel companies know we will still drive our cars regardless of what the price is, so they charge what they want.

I heard Jeremy Clarkson champion the fact that petrol was actually cheap at £1 per litre! It's not cheap you fool, it's £5 a gallon....the real price of petrol not some European measure to bamboozle the UK into thinking it's cheap.

I'm with Steve Parker!! (21st January 2008) We stood alongside the hauliers and farmers last time and would do so again. This is the only way to get the government to listen. We live where we have no option but to use a vehicle and the fuel costs are crippling us.

We live in Hampshire and my husband works in Surrey. He spends over £80 per week on diesel and the company he works for do not pay anything towards it. This is so unfair!

The only way to protest is to hit them where it hurts. Nationally, we should protest by not buying any fuel for at least one day of the week (more than one day of the week would be even better). Or perhaps we could boycott certain petrol stations/supermarket petrol stations on set days. Surely this would achieve something. It's better than just sitting back and keep accepting it?

there are a lot of people who are just on the border line of keeping there cars that look forward to the week end of visiting place's but the increase has put those people back to the 50's where it was a rare thing for a family to have a car . i thought the whole i dear of progress is to go forward ? people up the top [ mp's ] dont have to worry about getting to work because they are subsidise people down the bottom havent got that wish and some loose there jobs with out a car . they all say ye we remember the old days if it lasts in there minds for ten seconds to them its a long time. instead of wife swop ask them if they would like to do JOB SWOP. dont think so good luck to all.

i work in the nhs, and average 300miles a week to work and look after people for naff wages, and now it costs a bomb to fill my car up to get there, we need to take drastic action such as blokades, in the last 2 weeks tesco keep sticking the odd few pence on and we all pay it????????

help, somebody, plz

The only way to get the government of "Rip Off Britain" to listen is to bring the country to another stand still as 8 years ago, we have to stand up for our right to voice ourselves and make ourselves heard.
I truly support all farmers and hauliers to blockade depots, and for what use a car would be would happily park mine with them!!! we have to stand together this is getting way out of hand now.

The haulage industry provides a great service to the UK.
without it nothing would be in our shops, life wouldn’t be the same.
if you consider what is being moved by a lorry its relatively efficient,
why not allow the haulage industry to use red diesel?.
Just a thought.
it would make it much more profitable and allow competition.
boosting our economy.

Houses have DOUBLED in price over the 10 years that fuel INCREASED from 63.3p/litre to whatever it costs now. But the public whinges only when the price of houses goes down. Funny how selective we are about prices rising.

This is a nightmare for the average person.

What can we all do collectively to stop these price rises? Why are the transport companies sitting back and taking it too?

The idea posted by Brian Polkinghorne seems sound - as my car manual specifically states it's fine to run it on bio-diesel, but gives a list of standards to which the stuff must meet (all EN stuff if I remember correctly). Why don't we start compiling a list of places where this stuff can be got - it's it's 30p/litre cheaper that will surely save us all a fortune.....I'm not looking forward to when it costs £100 to fill the car up....

I am currently now paying over £30 a week to just do 180 miles, and that is 99% motorway driving. The price of fuel is rediculous, and why should the government take so much in tax!!

surely they would be better off reducing the taxation on fuel, and using the pot of money they have lying around for emergencies so it avoids the strikes, and motorists don't end up wasting money cos the governement want 1 extra holiday a month!!!

I thought a fuel protest was going to happen, i gather its not going to happen now

While I accept the argumenst about the large on-cost to hauliers and the rapid price inflation, I think the two greatest concerns about diesel prices are as follows:
1) Our government taxes company cars based on their Co2 emissions and recognises diesels to be much more fuel efficient, better for the environment and therfore taxes them at a generally lower rate. Yet when it comes to prices at the pumps the government does nothing to recognise this same fact.
2) The UK is the only European country to charge so much more for diesel compared to unleaded. The only two other countries who charge fractionally more for diesel are those motoring giants Switzerland and Slovakia. In many countries diesel is 10% less than petrol. Is our government trying to tell us they have got it right and the rest of Eruope has it wrong??? Why do we put up with it, or is it that wer all go price-blind when we travel abroad?

I think all hauliers and diesel drivers should find a common voice and start lobbying hard for common sense to prevail.

I agree that another blockade is sorely needed.

In the meantime, why not make the switch to Biodiesel, currently retailing at your local supplier for 82.9p (thanks to NO tax insentive by the government like on LPG).
Most diesel cars will cope with a 50/50 mix and my Mazda 6 TS TD will run on 100%, although it doesn't like cold starts anymore (It looks like I'm electing a new pope with all the white smoke).
I have noticed NO lack of performance and NO change in fuel consumption.

Another pain is that, even though my emmissions are FAR lower than on mineral diesel, I still get stung with £170 tax every year.

How can we use our democratic power if Brown won't call an election?

Filling in petitions on the prime ministers website does nothing - what this government needs is a reminder from hauliers and farmers taking action - blockade the depots again, bring the country to a total standstill like they did 8 years ago.

Remind Brown that the motorist/haulage industry is not a cash-cow to be taxed until it hurts, then taxed and taxed again.

We need competitive haulage rates to curb inflation as distribution costs affect the price of everythign - and provide jobs to our truck drivers - and with the current taxation on fuel, our hauliers cannot compete across Europe, and the price of everyday goods is set to rise.