petrol prices again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bearfraser

I know were all supposed to not use the dreaded petrolium derivative , but what the Hell.
I cant believe those Tw@s in government are going to put up the price by appx. 5p a litre in January as yet another escalator/green tax . What gold plated tower do they all live in to think it wont hurt Joe Public who is allready hurting.Is it time to tell them to shove it where the sun dosn't shine. (actually the sun probably does shine out their backsides) :evil: :evil:

ooermissus

Did I miss something?

pb21

Dont drive / drive less?

Pokerface

Yes. Petrol prices are too high. How do you suggest we tell them to shove it?

Pross

I thought they were bringing in a system where the tax rises only take effect if fuel prices drop?

As for don't drive / drive less, I can't be the only one who has to have my car available for work? I can go in in the morning and get a call to look at a site hundreds of miles away the same day so whilst I get the money back for the actual business trip I still have to fork out to drive to work and back just on the off chance I get a call. I've already cut back on other car use so no longer travel to watch my rugby team play away matches etc.

benjboy

Who voted Con/libdem now hope you are all happy. They lied to you and now they are shafting you. Dont get me wrong labour are a bunch of c#&t too.

briantrumpet

Pross wrote:

As for don't drive / drive less, I can't be the only one who has to have my car available for work? I can go in in the morning and get a call to look at a site hundreds of miles away the same day so whilst I get the money back for the actual business trip I still have to fork out to drive to work and back just on the off chance I get a call. I've already cut back on other car use so no longer travel to watch my rugby team play away matches etc.

The trouble is the way that we've all come to rely on cheap long-distance transport - but this has only really come about in the last fifty years. Even in my lifetime we've gone from a pretty localised economy (and that's from when petrol was about 40 pence per gallon from my earliest memories) to a national/international one. So many jobs (like yours) are predicated on the ability to travel hundreds of miles easily and cheaply, and our food economy is based on nothing being grown and sold locally. Madness.

We might look back in a hundred years time (well, I won't, cos I'll be dead) at this curious blip of an era of long-distance mass transport and trade, and wonder what on earth led us to squander such an amazing natural resource in a 200-year orgy of energy consumption. All in the pursuit of, well, what?

I'll get me dungarees.

smurfylicious

bearfraser wrote:

What gold plated tower do they all live in to think it wont hurt Joe Public who is allready hurting.Is it time to tell them to shove it where the sun dosn't shine. (actually the sun probably does shine out their backsides) :evil: :evil:

They're politicians!
1. Those at the top with the most power to change this are pretty well off.
2. They either live in grace and favour homes yards from parliament with ministerial limos or get their travel expenses paid by Joe public
3. They're incapable of relating to the fact that £60 is a hell of a lot of money to fill a tank for a lot of people in the UK
4. They've thrown the middle class petrol-heads a bone (80mph motorways) so we should be thanking them instead of complaining

Have I missed anything?

stigofthedump

The petrol price escalator is there precisely because we all have to have petrol. You have to get to work, you have to buy petrol, you have to pay the Tax. Tax on cigs and drink works in much the same way. Easy money for the chancellor

Welcome to the real world

jam5ie76

and another 4p in April 2012 too.

sucks eh?

smurfylicious

Does anyone know how expensive fuel would have to be to really start harming the economy? The truckers haven't been very vocal, so I assume they're not hurting too much at the moment.

Food prices seem to have rocketed in the last 5 years, surely quite a bit of that is distribution cost such as fuel.

invincible

smurfylicious wrote:

Does anyone know how expensive fuel would have to be to really start harming the economy? The truckers haven't been very vocal, so I assume they're not hurting too much at the moment

Food prices seem to have rocketed in the last 5 years, surely quite a bit of that is distribution cost such as fuel.

no theyre just going under instead....

mikeyboy12345

smurfylicious wrote:

Does anyone know how expensive fuel would have to be to really start harming the economy? The truckers haven't been very vocal, so I assume they're not hurting too much at the moment.

Food prices seem to have rocketed in the last 5 years, surely quite a bit of that is distribution cost such as fuel.

I work for a haulage firm and we've actually just lowered our prices because the cost we pay for fuel went DOWN last month

Mad Roadie

Pokerface wrote:

Yes. Petrol prices are too high. How do you suggest we tell them to shove it?

Petrol prices in real terms are not the highest they have been - whats the fixation with a high revenue tax on petrol - we should all use less, and the arguement for cheaper fuel forgets that the government would then have to raise revenue by other means - what do you suggest 2% more on base income tax? or maybe tax the 50% band higher so even more of them emigrate and the UK becomes even more a second rate country with second rate investment?

stratblue

Don't be naive enough to think the high price of petrol is in anyway 'green'. The higher the price of oil, the more effort will go into digging it up. Gold and diamonds are pretty expensive too, you don't hear anyone saying 'Nah, it's too expensive, leave it in the ground' do you? You can bet that every single drop of oil on this planet will be drilled and burnt, too many revenue streams depend on it, our government, like many others, have their lips wrapped around the crack pipe of oil revenue, eyes shut and sucking hard. Good luck prising them off.

stratblue

Mad Roadie wrote:

the arguement for cheaper fuel forgets that the government would then have to raise revenue by other means - what do you suggest 2% more on base income tax?

No! The government needs to be starved of money not given more. They need to be pared to the bone they waste our money criminally.

Mad Roadie

stratblue
you're in dreamland

Schobiedoo

Government needs money. It has chosen to get revenue from the roads, otherwise has to get it from elsewhere. Either raise the money through fuel duty or vehicle excise duty. Fairest way is those who use the road more, pay more which translates to a rise in fuel duty. If you don't like the fact that they're raising money from the roads, then how about paying more income tax / vat?

If you think that they don't need the money then stop asking the government to spend money on all the benefits that we all come to expect.

EKIMIKE

To be labelling it as a 'green' tax is a little cynical on the part of the Govt.

The problem being that there seems to be little in the way of alternatives. Particularly any enforced or subsidised (well enough) by the government. The cycle to work scheme is good but took a knock when HMRC got involved. The trains and buses are frankly p1ss poor. And the car manufacturers have no incentive to provide the market with cheap(er) fuel efficient cars. Hybrids for example are all pretty expensivo so very few can afford them.

It's a complex issue though. It requires collaboration and co-operation between national Govts. and industry, national Govts. and other national Govts., and collaboration between industry players (which is a difficult area due to competition laws).

Basically if there's going to be an effective commitment to 'green' transport solutions, there needs to be ALOT of Govt. regulation (nationally and int'lly). The market and competition simply won't sort this issue itself. Once the commitment is in place however, the market will be able to operate freely. Just needs a biiiig push in the right direction so that everyone is singing from the same hym sheet.

If not then the present situation will be perpetuated whereby everyone is looking at each other and saying 'i won't if you're not' because there's money to be lost by being the only one (or the few) to change. It's rational irrationality people. And it p1sses over everything else 'cos it means people in high places are getting rich, and people in high places set the rules.

Escadrille Ecosse

Schobiedoo wrote:

Government needs money. It has chosen to get revenue from the roads, otherwise has to get it from elsewhere. Either raise the money through fuel duty or vehicle excise duty. Fairest way is those who use the road more, pay more which translates to a rise in fuel duty. If you don't like the fact that they're raising money from the roads, then how about paying more income tax / vat?

If you think that they don't need the money then stop asking the government to spend money on all the benefits that we all come to expect.

Pretty much sums it up, money in needs to match money out (there's been a bit of an issue with this recently apparently according to the news).

Pigtail

EKIMIKE wrote:

To be labelling it as a 'green' tax is a little cynical on the part of the Govt.

The problem being that there seems to be little in the way of alternatives.

The main alternative has to be to reorganise our lives to travel less. Long distance commutes will be seen as unviable in the future.

Driving has always been very important to me, but I have cut my mileage pretty dramatically in recent years.

We are already seeing some of that, with a big drop in fuel sales this year.

Pokerface

It's a minor thing in the grand scheme of things, but I rarely will attend races that are outside a certain driving distance now (in the UK) as the cost to drive there is just too high now. And unfortunately hauling a bike across the country on a train isn't feasible.

Mad Roadie

Schobiedoo wrote:

Government needs money. It has chosen to get revenue from the roads, otherwise has to get it from elsewhere. Either raise the money through fuel duty or vehicle excise duty. Fairest way is those who use the road more, pay more which translates to a rise in fuel duty. If you don't like the fact that they're raising money from the roads, then how about paying more income tax / vat?

If you think that they don't need the money then stop asking the government to spend money on all the benefits that we all come to expect.

spot on