PRICE OF PETROL

[Shallot Man]

Have had an email suggesting that for the rest of the year we all boycott ESSO & BP, just buy from the Major Supermarkets. You never know it might work. shallotman

[Chantal]

I wouldn't bother Shallotman. I had the same email around a year ago and it's been around a lot longer than that.

If you boycott BP then you have to boycott Sainsbury's too, as they are supplied by BP. These companies are all mixed up with each other, it's hard to know who supplies what. Remember that contaminated petrol a while back? It turned up everywhere.

In any case, if we boycott the service stations, the one's who will really suffer are the staff. The petrol companies have enough money to sit it out or just close the outlets.

PS I think Tesco is supplied by Esso.

[lizzie]

I think that everyone should stop buying petrol for one week...the oil companies will soon bring the prices down......

I just had to pay £1.10.9 a litre from Asda before...my arse nearly fell out....it's nothing short of daylight robbery....

If the oil companies are making that much b loody money they can afford to drop the prices....unfortunately...i think the shareholders would have a problem with that

[richard p]

dont forget that 80 percent of the pump price is tax

[Chantal]

I bought petrol at last week for £109.9 and two days later it was £113.9. What the hell is going on? There was a riot when petrol was going over £1 a litre but now it's going up 4p per night!

I see there was a lorry blockade (in Scotland) yesterday so finally, perhaps, the worm is turning.

I'm very lucky that I can just about live my life without using a car. I do need her a couple of times a week but can go days without driving so rarely fill up more than once every 4-5 weeks. If I had to drive any distance to work I don't think I could easily afford it.

Boycotting petrol for a week would be easy for me, but how would people who need the stuff to work get by?

[Johnboy]

At my local garage Diesel is £1.329 a litre and Morrisons 12 miles away are £1.259 per litre.
These prices are increasing alarmingly but I feel that it is beyond us to do very much about it.
JB.

[Catherine]

Our Morrisons petrol is £1.11.9 so is Asda. I feel sorry for my husband who bought a new diesel car to replace his petrol last October and it is now costing him more than he expected. I try to use my car as little as possible. I run a little Fiat Panda but still uses an alarming amount of petrol even though i dont go many places. I used to drive up to the Lakes and do walks on my own. Now I cant afford to do that any more. I just walk locally. Although a beautiful area I like to see different places.

[KGAdmin]

I think at this point what we are really sick of, is the Government using the argument that high fuel costs are good for the environment.
They are still pondering the 2pence tax rise in October 'on environmental grounds'

This makes me fume - there are very few of us that drive around in large circles with the intention of polluting the atmosphere or for the hell of it. We drive because we have to!

Roads are crowded, rough, poorly designed and badly cared for - driving isn't a pleasure like it was, now its a necessary evil.

So telling us that yet another tax rise is good for our environment is simply insulting.

We recycle, and do a hell of a lot more than many other countries - I think we could be allowed a small reduction on tax fuel tax without it being seen as a finger up to the future of the planet, don't you?

Did you know that on top of Fuel tax there is VAT? That is where the Government is making the most money - as its a percentage tax on top of the fixed tax, and the higher the price - the greater the income.

Meanwhile in the USA, they are pondering a Zero tax on fuel for the summer, as USA consumer panic about a $4 gallon (roughly 60p a litre).

A better shock tactic might be that parts of the civil service (Say Teachers in one go) leave their cars at home for 1 day and all use public transport - like the government want us to. How would they cope? Most of them wouldn't - theres no busses in our area, they are not on right time, or they are over crowded.

There is no choice in transport for at least 70% of us - and the government knows it.

Jason
(Speaking stictly personally!)

[alan refail]

I agree with Johnboy. Yes, it is alarming; no, there is very little we can do about it.

The increase in prices is a simple matter of supply and demand: greatly increased demand worldwide, little increase in production. The oil companies do not set the price, world commodoty markets do. If the OPEC countries were able to double production, prices would fall. But then oil is a finite resource and it would run out quicker. Perhaps we should be thankful to the oil companies that we have fuel in the first place. I certainly wouldn't relish working in a desert or on an oil platform.

Of course most of the total price is tax. But imagine a significant reduction in tax - which hospitals, schools, services would be cut. Would we be happier with that?

A graphic illustration of where the money goes is HERE Go to their Home page for more useful stuff.

[Cider Boys]

Hello Jason

Well I could not agree with you more. At last this forum seems to have shed the green lobby and now common sense is prevailing.

What ever anyone says, in my view there is no alternative to the private motor car for the vast majority of us outside the big cities. I remember when this government came to power (tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime; education, education, education etc.) and I was stuck in a traffic jam when John Prescott was being interviewed by John Humphries on the Today programme. Mr Prescott was telling us how he was going to get us all out of our cars and onto public transport, he said car journeys were not necessary and we should stop and think before driving for pleasure. I looked around me at all the drivers’ glum faces, were they all in their cars for pleasure? Of course not, they were getting to work or travelling for work. This government makes most of its ridiculous policies thinking that we all live in London where there are alternatives. If they really had the slightest concern about environmental issues they would not preside over and encourage such vast uncontrolled immigration into our over populated isles. The government is totally out of touch with the people, how could Gordon Brown not have known that the scraping of the 10p tax rate would affect wage earners of below £19,000. Perhaps this level of wage is only paid to a few in London but it is way above the average wage for the South West and no doubt in many other parts of our Nation as well. Their arrogance in knowing what is best for us will be their undoing but the alternative parties don’t fill me with much confidence either!

The main problem is whoever you vote for the Government always gets elected.

Nevertheless we must show this current bunch of wazzocks to stop taxing the motorist.

Barney

[Stephen]

Barney - all of the wazzocks will tax the motorist. You may not remember that it was the other wunch of bankers who introduced the fuel price escalator (which was withdrawn by the current buch of wazzocks).

Regretably as the developing countries develop their consumption per person rises from miniscule to tiny, muliply that by their population and the competition around the world for the availible oil is increased considerably.
Add into this that most of the easily obtained oil has been exploited and that the oil companies are now developing more expensive sources (such as the tar sands in Alberta)
Add the expectation that the oil companies should now do more clearing up afetr them and you know why oil is now $130 per barrel.