Your Comments

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

You're not far off the mark, Jack.
Diesel for tomorrows delivery is costing the retailer
38.96 pence for refined product, plus
50.35 pence duty, plus
15.63 pence VAT,
= 104.94
Asda selling at 101.9 are losing 3 pence per litre and keeping the market artificially low. Just to pay staff and credit card costs they should be selling at 107.9 that doesn't cover rates, electricity, product shrinkage, drive offs, water, carrier bags, till rolls etc etc.
Just to break even the price an independant garage needs to sell at will be 109.9
So when you pass your local garage and think "he's ripping us off" he's not. He hasn't got Asdas' or Shells' big pockets to bail him out.
Buy local and help your community - before its gone

8990 - Look at prev comment, am wanting to get something started, but nobody else seems bothered, again all hot air and no action.

If like 8991 says and the government are to hang themselves, I cannot really see that making a difference at the pumps. There has to be action and I think 8993 has hit the nail on the head.

Who took the Great out of Britain? Lets face it, this country is living off the wealth our former generations accumulated. A few years and one Empire later... We're skint! More of us are in debt than ever before and the problems only getting worse. How many of us actually own the cars we pay to fuel? This issue of crazy taxation goes way deeper than we'd all like to admit. We're a nation without industry to speak of and farming is near enough dead and dusted... The money is drying up along with the oil. The government and the banks have us by the balls and are not letting go any time soon. I wonder how long until we see horse and carts on the streets again?

I used to have a good job and pay high taxes on my salary and NI contributions.

Unfortunately 4 years ago I became registered disabled and lost my job. So there am I at 36 wanting to work, but no company will employ me. Don't think being registered unemployed covers it. I don't get any unemployment pay nor do I get Incapacity Benefit. Although all these benefits exist, somehow I appear to be the one individual who doesn't quite fit into the "pigeon hole" to claim any of them.

Well it's bad enough being in this situation, but I need a car. Well I have an economical diesel car and the constant fuel increases are now at a stage where I can't afford to run the car and so seem to be becoming more and more house bound.

How about our fuel prices become more inline as the rest of Europe? Fuel prices need to come down in both reduced taxation and profit capping of the large petroleum companies.

Thank you for allowing me to have my one whinge a year and hope I haven't bored you all to tears.

I can believe that in the last 2 months the goverment have managed to force the price of fuel up by 15p litre. Its the 2p in the budget and then the tax on top, as a untied country we must make a stand something has to be done, also can we remember its not the price of oil getting more expensive, ok its $99 a barrel but there is also $2.10 to the pound, that has not changed the price of the oil in 3half years. Can we also remember that this dear goverment get the tax on the oil 10 times from the moment the oil company puts the rigs in the North sea to the time we put it in the car, where is the justice in that10 lots of tax on one product. with the oil we sell around the world and with what we buy as another member has so rightly said now we are living in the BIGGEST rip off Britain over.

there's an email going round to say boycot BP and Esso because they are aparantly the same company??? This peson obviouslt hasnt done their homework because they are MAJOR rivals!!! and it also says that we need to start buying petrol at supermarkets! DUHHHHHH all these are supplied by BP and Esso and other major oil companies! Do asda have a little oil rig in the staff room where they make their own petrol??? I dont think so! Get over it! petrol prices are high and there's nothing we can do about it! Try going out and socialising! it's much better than talking rubbish!

Regarding your comment Areuallstupid, do you know that as the price of petrol, and diesel rises, etheir by tax, or by the price of oil on the world makets, or both, this then forces up the price on all goods and services in this country.
Wait until next April, and see how high the council tax will incease by.

In certain areas of the West Midlands, both the Oil Majors, and the Supermarkets are selling Petrol/Diesel at exactly the same price.

On average the Refiners make more money than Non-refiners on fuels.

In Asda's case, any loss they make on fuel, is written off against profits made from increased food prices in their stores. The end result, they pay less tax on profits, it's all swing's and roundabout's.

Both fuels will continue to rise in price at the pumps, Diesel faster than Petrol.

All fuel in the UK comes from 12 refineries, so an Esso refinery may be supplying Shell and BP with fuel, it's cheaper that way.

Inflation is on the rise, due to increased fuel prices. This is the only factor that may affect the Governments stance on fuel price, but don't hold your breath. They need the extra revenue, to cover the huge debt they have incurred so far this year. At some point, they must pay the piano player.

As usual the motorist, rich or poor, is the easy target for a lazy Goverment to fund their excesses such as wars in Iraq and Afganistan. What we need is a Socialist Government who apply the original basic rule of taxation "from each according to his means"

Here we are then people, Barclays are happy to show their support for renewable energy sources on their adverts (excellent marketing ploy by the way Barclays, well done)

But where is all the investment in electric or green powered vehicle manufacturers then government? ...you've known about it for many years, why isn't there any yet?

You know, the transport network that'll keep the economy going and keep paying your taxes.

Oh ..oh I see ..you've spent all the money blowing up iraqi's and propping up failing banks.

Oh, silly me, I just thought there was a global crisis on.

Did you have a nice holiday in Africa Gordon? ..did you bicycle or take a plane? ..perhaps all those carrier bags your reusing will offset you carbon footprint.

I live in a sml town in the middle of the fens i have to drive 13 miles to drop the kids at school and then another to get to work, this is due to the lac of work in my area for my qualifications and the fact all local jobs have been taken by immigrants, my local BP garage which there are 2 in r town 1 each end have just put there fuel up to 103.9 for unleaded 108.9 for diesel and 111.9 for premium unleaded. im now going to have to concider leaving my job as it costs me £250 of my meager £800 wages per month in petrol costs, i like 99.9% of the british people need to work to pay there bills that just keep goin up and up. tax on fuel, tax on earnings, tax on savings, tax to work, tax to have private health ins as the nhs is in a bad way, tax on water, tax on food, tax to buy your own home, tax on pritty much everything you can think of. what the hell is goin on in this country is there no way we can make a stand and fight for our rights? ( oh i forgot we have non any more!!!).

On Sept 30th 2007, the national average for petrol stood at 95.80p/litre.
On Nov 26th 2007, the national average for petrol stood at 102.56p/litre.
A rise of 6.76p/litre or 7.06%.
Of this rise the government portion accounts for 3.00p/litre or 46%.

On Sept 30th 2007, the national average for diesel stood at 97.70p/litre.
On Nov 26th 2007, the national average for diesel stood at 107.03p/litre.
A rise of 9.33p/litre or 9.55%.
Of this rise the government portion accounts for 3.40p/litre or 36%.

As can be seen, the government is raising revenue on the back of high oil prices, and a supposedly CO2 policy. However congestion has not changed, take a run along the M6 section in the West Midlands, it's a joke.

Public Transport in the West Midlands at the moment is a shambles. Thirty Services within Birmingham have either been axed or suspended recently. So much for Public Transport provisions.

I understand that the price at the pumps goes up if the price per barrel is increased. But the barrel price is in US dollars, a currency which is doing badly against the UK pound. So as OPEC raised the price over the past couple of years, did the exchange rate offset some of the increases we should have seen, or are the oil companies keeping this to themselves ?

What annoys me is the way the government uses "Green Issues" as a reasonable excuse to raise the duty on fuel. As there are no real alternativesd to using a car these days (trains being expensive & buses not running to all destinations or at convenient times), what are we expected to do?

Also raising fuel duty adds costs to almost every other product we bnuy, as they will all be transported by hauliers who will be incurring increased fuel costs, which could in turn fuel inflation.

Petrol prices! We as a country need to stand up and be counted. We need a blockade we have to show the government that we are not a load of puppets prepared to bow down and be mashed into the ground with their unrepenting additions of taxes to all and sundry. WE NEED A PETITION! now before the price gets any higher. We have to stand together united to support each other! No more Mrs.Nicegirl. Let's make a move.

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

Highway Robbery!!!!

I personally think everyone has a right to moan.

This isn't about an ever dwindling resource, this is about spending money on illegal wars while the government themselves ignore a looming fuel crisis and plough their ill gotten gains into a fleet of armoured vehicles and propping up disfunctional banks when some form of alternative should be being worked on.

Most people have seen your arguments on here already Greg, no need to repeat yourself, everyone knows there's a problem, they're just sick of paying for a mismanaged country, corruption and incompetence on a huge scale.

It is time the British People stood up and were counted,
never mind the stiff upper lip

Come On Britian stand up to the Government

The biggest issue in the UK when it ever comes to this sort of thing is the general public everybody in the UK will wine and moan about how this is too much that is too high and this is wrong, but do they do anything about it er NO.

They will go get tanked up at the pub and riot in the street cos there beloved football team just lost.
They will still vote in the one of the same 2 parties to run, what was once a great country into the ground.

Yet will never do anything about the greed of any government, and will believe what ever you're told, i.e. the last fuel protest way did go folks we showed them in the end....Not

This time instead of strikes lets try a new tactic its very simple but it would mean that everybody would need to do it, we don't strike we just stop using our cars, vans and anything else that run on fuel for 2 days a week
This would not only stop the flow of tax on fuel but would also stop the flow of parking ticket, speeding tickets, parking cost in car parks, any other motoring offence ticket and also it could stop all trade for 2 days in retail shops and also business large and small from trading on those days.

If we did this and only used public transport it would show the government that we have no other way of travel as that would struggle to keep up with the great need on those 2 days, I also believe that things like underground and British rail would just fall apart as it's not in a good working order.

Best of all it would stop so much revenue being colleted with in the first day I would think there would be a reverse on not just fuel cost but road tax and also the rip off fee's that garages are expect to charge for an MOT, which by they way even states is not a safety certificate for your vehicle, and if that's the case what the hell do we need an MOT for...?

So there is my plan, it's up to the rest of you to join me though, and I doubt you will, and yes I do use my car as little as possible maybe 1 to 3 times a week I'm a start but I can't make a difference on my own and need all the UK's help.

Rant over lol

I would suggest that every hard working motorist in this country do another petrol protest like in 2000. Cause the government are gonna keep taking the piss and bleed us of our money so we can't afford to drive anywhere.

If it is not petrol, it is speeding fines.

Come on people! Stand up and voice your opinion and do NOT accept any compromise. I want petrol to be 90p. they steal far too much tax from us on petrol, all because no one in the treasury can count.

So come on! Let's show these idiots who is really in charge of this country.

The problem is NOT the price of the petrol or diesel itself, It's the extortionate amount of tax this greedy, arrogant dictatorship government impose on us. This is the real problem that needs to be addressed, greedy gordon and all his cronies need to be taught a lesson, arrogant B******S the lot of them. I just don't know what has become of the British people to allow ourselves to be treated in this way instead of making a stand for what we believe is right. It appears government spin and propaganda has brainwashed many into a state of apathy. God help us all.

As a non driver this isn't affecting me at the pumps personally but it does affect us all, and if we don't join together and act as one its to easy to ignore. I'm not talking about blocking refineries but something needs to be done by all of us. if you look at www.transaction-2007.com, they are looking for support and ideas not just from hauliers but all road users

Don't you think it's time to actuall start thinking beyond the ends of your noses? This bloke does and he explains why - is he wrong? Are you right?
I'm not betting on you lot. Sorry.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY AND THE POLLYANNA PRINCIPLE

Peter Goodchild


The problem of explaining "peak oil" does not hinge on the issue of peak oil as such, but rather on that of "alternative energy." Most people now have some idea of the concept of peak oil, but it tends to be brushed aside in conversation because of the common incantation: "It doesn't matter if oil runs out, because by then everything will be converted to [whatever] power." Humanity's faith in what might be called the Pollyanna Principle — everything will work out right in the end — is eternal.

The critical missing information in such a dialogue, of course, is that "alternative energy" will do little to solve the peak-oil problem, although very few people are aware of the fact. The situation might be illustrated by a representative conversation I myself had a few months ago; the discourse might also illustrate the extent to which we are preparing the next generation for the coming decades:

P: There won't be much gasoline left in a few years from now. Did your mother ever tell you that?
A (age 14): No, but I pretty well figured it out by myself. I guess we'll be running cars with vegetable oil.

The Pollyanna Principle, after all, is what gets us through the day. Unfortunately, a quick glance through any standard textbook on world history would show that the principle does not apply to the many civilizations that lie buried beneath the sand. But to point at oil-production charts is to mistake a psychological problem for an engineering one: most people do not like to be pushed very far in the direction of the logical.

The main stumbling block, as noted above, is not the fact of the decline in world oil production, but the related fact of the impracticality of alternative energy. Alternative sources of energy do, of course, have certain uses, and they always have had, especially in pre-industrial societies. However, it is not possible to use non-hydrocarbon sources of energy to produce the required annual 400 to 500 quadrillion BTUs, and in a form that can be (1) stored conveniently, (2) pumped into cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes for the purpose of long-distance transportation of goods and people, (3) converted into a thousand everyday products, from asphalt to pharmaceuticals, and (4) used to run factories (which are places for machines that make machines [that make machines etc.]) — and which costs so little that it can be purchased in large quantities on a daily basis by billions of people.

There is also the question of time. The entire conversion of world industry would have to be done virtually overnight. The peak of world oil production was perhaps 2006. The more important date of peak oil production per capita was 1990. There are approximately 1 billion automobiles, and nearly 7 billion people. Throughout the 20th century, food production only barely met global needs, and in the last few years it has not even reached that level. In terms of the amount of time available, the switch from hydrocarbon energy to an alternative form of energy would stretch the bounds of even the most fanciful work of science fiction.

Contemplating the expense will also take us far into the realms of fantasy. At $10,000 per vehicle, replacing the vehicles that are now on the road would cost $10 trillion. The infrastructure — the ongoing manufacture, transportation, maintenance, and repair — would add much greater expense. The existing furnaces and air conditioning in all the world's buildings would be obsolete. Every machine on the planet would have to be replaced, every factory redesigned. We would have to replace the asphalt on all the world's motorways by a non-hydrocarbon substance. The money and resources simply do not exist.

It is already too late; the system has been collapsing for years. The concept of retrofitting an entire planet must have the Pharaohs (who built only pyramids) chuckling in their graves. It is perhaps fortunate that there is no politician or business leader who would be willing to initiate such a mad venture.

In actuality, the world of the future will not be crowded. Survival for a few will be possible; survival for a population of billions will not be possible. But very few people have asked the ugly question of exactly how that rapid and dramatic reduction of population is going to take place. Voluntarily?

There are two further problems with trying to educate people on these matters. The first is that any discussion of both peak oil or alternative energy requires a scientific frame of mind: an understanding of empirical research and an ability to follow statistics without being misled. A grasp of basic science is essential in order to get a balanced perspective on the data, and in order to judge between the practical and the impractical.

The second of these further problems is that the concepts of peak oil and alternative energy are extremely complicated. Although it is possible to reduce those two topics to an "ABC" form of 500 words or so, the problem with such a single-page explanation is that much of the vital information would be left out. If the document failed to mention every "and / but / or," the message would almost certainly be lost. If, on the other hand, the document were to be expanded to about 5,000 words, the writer probably lose track of the reader, since the text might exceed the latter's attention span.

test

Greg,

Go buy yourself a battery powered golf buggy and a wind turbine for your garage roof while they're both still cheap.

At least with all the fossil fuel vehicles off the road, going to tesco will be a lot quieter and safer.

Personal transport is a long way from dead ..it'll just be different.

BUT ...BUT ...how will the government tax us then?

No fuel duty, no speed camera revenue ....the worlds coming to an end, we're all doomed!

I think this government are try to get this country to go bust more fuel hicks means we pay more fore our food , clothes , and any thing else when is it goner stop , or if it carry on then we turn in to a third world country

I'm just waiting for the ression to kick in. I predict after Christmas, when everyone is in so much debt, they all tighten their purse strings. I'm starting to do it already, and I'm not in any serious debt.

Did you know since Labour came into power petrol has gone from 57p per litre to 107p. Wars in the Middle East, getting to chummy with the US and the grab and dash tax tactics, they are not fit to run the country.

A wise man once said "Any political party who are allowed to remain in power for too long, become complacent and arogant".

For the well being of the nation we need to swap them every couple of terms regardless of how baddly they did at their last go in power.

Note: The wise man who said it originally 'wasn't' David Cameron, he just copied it in a speach recently, non the less it is very wise words indeed.


Global warming, petrol shortages, terrorism, middle eastern wars.........no one is scarred of god anymore, so this is the politics of fear.

I have to agree with the "if we were French" comments; there would have been bloodshed by now...and it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch!

For interest take a look at the Revenue and Customs site - (http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabe l=pageExcise_InfoGuides&propertyType=document&id=HMCE_PROD1_027232)
where you can see that we're paying 52.35% duty per liter regardless of the fuel your vehicle uses. What frustrates most though is the fact that we then pay VAT on the duty...! Surely the very least that the Government should offer is this: when there is an increase in the wholesale price of fuel there should be a reduction in the duty to make the VAT element stay at the same cash value? It wouldn't mean a massive reduction in price, but it would certainly reduce the rises.

Out of interest, has anyone been sent the e-mail about boycotting ESSO and BP forecourts and buying your fuel from Shell, Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Jet, etc? I read through the text and couldn't help wandering if it had been started by one of the latter as a bit of guerrilla marketing! Can anyone help in proving it's validity?

I'm disgusted by this government and previous ones as they never plough
this tax fully back into the transport network, like Japan does, rip-off Britain
comes to mind again.

As a disabled working person (not drawing incapacity benefit) so ticking the governments box I need my car and public transport is a total joke in Cornwall not that it would be remotely of any use to me or my business nor does it seem to be any use to others as its always empty making unnecessary journeys adding to green issues. I run my car on autogas but this has gone up to. Cost to my business £800 per annum I have no choice but to pass this on to my customers driving up there costs and inflation. This on top of their fuel going up to isn't motoring great!!!

All those years ago when North Sea oil was discovered most of us thought that we would have cheaper fuel..but it never happened. It's about time we came in line with petrol prices similar to other countries.

The goverment are crooks, they just keep putting the price knowing that people will pay it because we need to, it is time that we all stand up for ourselves and speak out.

With increasing the fuel, it reflects to everything else increased on the shelves.

Bothered by fuel price? Cut your speed: stick to the limit, keep your distance
to avoid hard breaking and reduce consumption (even walk, occasionally,
& live longer!).