Fuel Prices .. Where will it end ...

[kevinshally]

I see on the news last night that it's not just us Irish muppets that are getting ridden with the VAT on fuel. We are on about 1.18 euro here. A few years ago I was paying 52p (irish pennies) a litre. It was at 89 cent not long ago at all.
Filling up my Automatic Rover (which I use to dumb down my senses before taking out "The Bull MCabe" for a run) I see that 30 euro gets it half way up.
For that price I'ld be expecting a dinner out the with lady attendant. (or at least her number).

 

[944turboS]

You must have much better looking fuel attendants than we do here.

 

[kevinshally]

Not really. I'm just in it for the free food. Statoil shoudl have sweeding blonde ladies working there. They should be experts at the squidgy too. If that was the case would you go out of your way to get the next fill?? A big business opportunity being overlooked in my humble opinion.
I hope that the English revolt and get prices down. I got my petrol in Newry the last day. 82p a litre in Tesco.
(I had to spend 50 quid in Tesco first - so maybe no Nobel prize for thrifyness for me just yet)

 

[sawood12]

You can bet your bottom dollar that Joe public or even the motorist is not going to see any benefit at all of the windfall revenue the Chancellor is raking in as a result of the high fuel prices. I makes my blood boil when you think of the vast amounts of cash the country gets out of the motorist and we still have to make do with conjested and bumpy roads due to lack of investment into the road infrastructure because this government is too chicken to take on Swampy and the minority of his very loud and annoying anti-car lobby. I have a good idea as to where all this money is going but I won't speculate for fear of sparking off a huge and contaversial political debate which is never a good idea.

 

[TTM]

95 unleaded currently costs 1.33€/Liter down here []

 

[Fen]

sweeding blonde ladies who are expert at the squidgy sound incredibly rude to me [8D]

 

[jr2015]

Absolutely Fen, I don`t think he`s paying enough!
regards,
jr.

 

[Hilux]

About 10:00 am all the garages around here (North Herts) suddenly had queues, and I mean queues, they were full and stretched back up the road in most cases. One colleague filled up at a local ASDA after waiting an hour [&o] and then went home and did the same with his wifes car. My son filled up his motorbike at a garage with an Alfa dealer and they were filling up the used cars so that they woulkd have petrol.

I filled up last night at a remote garage with no queue but they said they estimated that thay had nearly run out of fuel and if yesterday repeated itself today then they would.

Has the world gone mad[&:][&:]

 

[kevinshally]

Agreed, the world has indeed gone mad.
It's a long time since I heard of queuing for petrol.
It can only get worse though.
I imagine that in 10 or 20 years time our old cars will be illegal and only hybrids will be allowed.
So get classic motoring while it's still there and before the governments find something else fun to ruin.

 

[Hilux]

I think it was cos the press (daily mail) ran a story re petrol blockades and the radio suggested that government were considering rationing

 

[chris_boyle33]

I didn't see the daily mail story but have absolutely no problem with them being blamed for this. I drive my 944 daily, my friends have a Scoobydoo P1 and a wierd Nissan 200. Petrol may be expensive but we're all great fans of pressing the fun pedal more than we need to. If having fun whilst driving thirds the fuel economy (which it kinda does) then does that suggest suckers like me are willing to pay three times the going rate for petrol? [8|]

I also drive it daily by myself (admittedly that qualifies as half full)[]. So me and everyone else doing that at rush hour kinda have to take a bit of the rap for congestion, delays, jams, smog, etc.

I realise it'd be a much duller (and sweatier) world if classics were put in glass cases and everyone cycled to work. But i'm not against fuel prices going up.

okay start throwing heavy objects at me now. [&:]

 

[Fen]

WHAT!? You do realise that for every 1% that the oil companies put on the cost of fuel due to rising oil prices (in no small part driven by the foreign policy of our and the US's government, remember) the government get an additional 3% in tax? Let me put that another way, every time the cost of petrol goes up we see four times the true increase because of our government and the tax it levies. Now, you still think that is OK?

 

[944Turbo]

Incoming!!!!!!!!!!!!! []

I have a big problem with the fact the government has a 250% mark up on fuel and then p*sses it away.
If they reinvested at least half of it in roads it would not be quite so bad,
Frankly they are taking the p*ss and it affects everything we buy and a lot of what we do.

If some people want to go and protest on our behalf then I will thank them, it might inconvenience us for a day or three but if the government listens then great.
With the price of the raw material increasing (and hence the VAT take) they can afford to cut the duty.

Does anyone know if the £40billion the governement takes in motoring taxes is a UK Billion 1,000,000,000,000 or a US billion 1,000,000,000 either way divide that by 365 and again by 24 that is going to hurt for every hour its missing. taking the lower estimate (US billion) £4,500,000 per hour that makes a protest painfull to th government - back the protesters I say.


Tony

 

[Fen]

In case it wasn't clear I 100% support the protests also. It might mean the Hastings meet is a casualty but really I think that's a price we can all pay - I know I will be happy enough to sacrifice it.

 

[kevinshally]

Protests eh. Good for ye.
Over the water here we just moan for a couple of days and then forget about it.
12.5% of Irish revenue is got from direct motor taxation.
My car tax here is 1,110 euro a year !
Increases in fuel will mean taxis will be more expensive and road hauliers will go out of business.
old people will freeze this winter, mark my words.
Now I feel a bit guilty of taking the Bull McCabe up the M1 as soon as I get it back from the paint shop.
(avec new windscreen)

 

[skendrick]

Hi everyone,

Just to give you my 2 penny's worth.

If the US are gonna struggle with lack of fuel then why don't they get rid of their 8 litre engines and get more economical cars. If they all did this then there woun't be a shortage as they have the cheapest fuel and the biggest engines (bit selfish i think).

Steve

 

[Fen]

What does that have to do with UK fuel duty? [&:]

 

[Guest]

I had to pi$$ myself at The lovely Mr Brown today on the news. He said "we must target the source if the problem, the oil producers" (I'm paraphrasing). WHAT??? does the guy think everyone is stupid? With 2/3 of the price of petrol going into the governments pockets for doing sweet FA, he must think we just can't read! Perhaps he thinks his spending cuts in education have affected everyone.

I have to admit, if you think about it, if the price of oil is dropped to the extent of 1p/litre petrol, IN THEORY, the price to the consumer will actually drop by 3p. however, I guess that'll be negated by the 5p increase he'll put on in whichever budget/interim budget/day-of-the-week-with-a-'d'-in-it he feels like to claw back the lost revenue to spend on cabinet pay rises and jollys to far flung places to fix things like bras!.

The guy needs to be told that drivers of cars in this country (and let's be honest, it's still the only decent way to travel more than 2 miles... the rail service sucks, cycling is dangerous (lack of planning and infrastructure), and busses, well, don't get me started), simply cannot be priced off of the road by the greedy attitude of assuming we are an easy target. If it takes a protest, or even a blockade as in 2000 (although they made that illegal soon after so they wouldn't lose too much cash), then I'm in support. The thing is though, no matter what happens government policy on this will not change. We are too easy a target. No petrol = no car. no car = no easy way to get to work. no work = no house, food or general things to live. Petrol could be taxed at 5000%, and there would still be a demand! (although the sales of Polo 3L's would increase!)

Protesting is a lovely ideal, but what's it gonna change? nothing.

There's some interesting reading on the bbc. It seems that most of the other EU country's governments have already stepped in to relieve motorists in some way or another. Of course our lot are lagging behind again........... Even more interesting is a comparison between taxes paid by motorists vs gov't spending on public transport and roads. In 1975 £13.8b was paid, and £12.8b shelled out, compared to 2000 figures of £37.7b sent straight to Browns pocket, and a measly £7b spent on giving motorists an adequate network AND giving them a reliable, decent alternative.

Mr Brown, I say shame on you.

 

[zeb]

ORIGINAL: Hilux

I think it was cos the press (daily mail) ran a story re petrol blockades and the radio suggested that government were considering rationing

Youre right Hilux its this darn rag and its 'quality' journalism thats started this particular forest fire. I agree that we are taxed to death for fuel and that old Gordon should be looking closer to home.

What i really resent is crapalarmist journalism by a tabloid pretending to be a broadsheet causing national panic

...come to think of it...makes 'freddie star ate my hamster' look like a piece of cutting edge critique[]

 

[chrisr]

£102.50 for ' Super ' last night , a tad over £60 to fill the old girl up but being British we will keep getting stiffed by the good old government.

PS - Zeb , great result last night beating Dirty Leeds !!!