Toms View of the World

Now here’s an idea - mail order fuel from places where it’s cheaper than it is here!

http://www.petroldirect.com/index.htm

(check out the “legal” page for details of what this really is)

According to the Independant on Sunday - the UK government is drawing up plans to deal with the threatened Fuel Protests later this week…

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article311812.ece

Of course, it’s not just petrol that’s going up - Gas, Electricity and other Oil’s (like Heating Oil) are all rising in price too. This is a hit in the pocket that’s going to hurt, not just the individuals who face increased bills to heat their homes this winter, not just those who drive, but everyone, as the costs of transporting stuff hits everyone through the supermarket tills too.

There’s a blog dedicated the issue of fuel pricing in the UK:

http://fuel-crisis.org.uk/

The BBC have produced an interesting selection of “at a glance” slides which reveal the state of taxation and spending by the UK Government when it comes to the motorist…

A summary however, if fuel were still 90p a litre, 60p of that (or 66%) goes straight to the Treasury’s pockets.

Then there’s the the spending issue, the Government reaps approximately 37 billion pounds a year from the motorist, yet spends only 18% of that (less than 7 billion) on roads and public transport. In 1975 the revenue from the motorist and the spending on transport were pretty much even. However as I’ve said before, public transport is still massively more expensive than the car.

Bring on the protests, bring on the blockades and the go-slows - let’s see a return to the kind of protests of September 2000 which brought this country to a halt - the Government must listen to the voters - the voters who are fed up of paying more and more tax and not seeing any improvement in the service they’re getting from their Government.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/business_petrol_pricing/html/1.stm

It seems you can now get illegal drugs on the streets in Cardiff for less money than a litre of good old legal Diesel…

That says a lot about the way the UK’s Labour government are totally failing the people of this country.

Just a follow up to the earlier post “95p” - my local garage is now up to 97p a litre.

The government must listen to the voters. Stop taking out your financial overspending on wars in small, oil rich, middle-eastern countries on the overtaxed motorist who has no alternative but to drive because public transport is also troubled by the same fuel taxes - making it equally expensive to driving.

http://www.fuelprotest.com/

I noticed as I drove into work this morning that the garage nearest the office is now charging 94.9p for a litre of Diesel.

This is extortionate, but I suspect that somewhere out there petrol stations have already crossed the “pound a litre” mark. This is all the governments fault - not only did they already tax the motorist excessively “to drive people onto public transport” - they have failed to provide a cheap, reliable public transport system that can take people where they need to go, when they need to go there in a timely and efficient manner.

They then compounded the problem by joining the USA in the invasion of Iraq, which destablised the political situation in the middle-east, driving oil prices, and hence fuel tax revenue ever higher.

Then the oil companies take their cut, posting record profits in the process, and who’s paying for all this - that’s right, it’s us, the motorist who uses the car because there’s no practical alternative.

It’s time to start those rolling blockades on the motorways, blockade the depots again - we need to remind the government that it can’t walk all over the people who voted it in (I have to say at this point that I didn’t vote Labour because of the illegal invasion of Iraq and the ever increasing fuel prices) - the government needs to listen to the people - not ignore us like they usually do.

How can we possibly be maintaining inflation at the levels the Government claims we are when fuel prices are rocketing by around 10 percent a year - according to the AA, average prices for Diesel in June 2003 were 77.2p, June 2004 was 82.8p - now they are 90.2p for the same litre of Diesel.

5 Years ago the country ground to a halt becuase of Government Policy and oil company profiteering - it’s time for this to happen again.

Remember this:
For every £50 you put in your tank, you’re giving the government £37 in tax

Online Protest Petition
http://www.fuelprotest.com/

RUF Forums
http://www.fuelprotest.com/forum.php

Less Tax On Fuel
http://www.lesstaxonfuel.co.uk/

Fuel Forum
http://www.fuelforum.co.uk/index.shtml

AA Fuel Price Surveys
http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/fuel/index.html