Price of fuel.... will it all kick off again?

[Bry Nylon]

I used a bus once
One of the most miserable, soul-destroying, dispiriting (and mile for mile most expensive) experinces of my life, and one I shant be a hurry to repeat. When the doors finally went "fsssssssssssshh" at my destination, I felt like a man who'd been released early from a life sentence.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I think people can exaggerate the rate of inflation of fuel prices.

On the basis that average earnings have gone up by 28.7 per cent since January 2000, and the price of a litre of unleaded went up over the same period from 75.6p to 99.9p (January 2000 - October 2007), or 32.1 per cent, that's an increase in real terms of less than half of one per cent per year. Offset that against a whole basket of goods where the price has come down in real terms, and it's hardly worth getting het up about.

Unless, of course, your agenda is simply having a pop at Gordon Brown. In which case ... carry on, but don't expect to win the argument.

 

[Bry Nylon]

I think people can exaggerate the rate of inflation of fuel prices.

On the basis that average earnings have gone up by 28.7 per cent since January 2000, and the price of a litre of unleaded went up over the same period from 75.6p to 99.9p (January 2000 - October 2007), or 32.1 per cent, that's an increase in real terms of less than half of one per cent per year. Offset that against a whole basket of goods where the price has come down in real terms, and it's hardly worth getting het up about.

But you need to also factor in how much other taxation has gone up. Like Council tax for example. And domestic fuel costs. maybe its just me that's missing out on the party everybody esle is having, but I certainly don't feel any better off. In fact I feel decidedly worse off....

 

[tedebear]

But you need to also factor in how much other taxation has gone up. Like Council tax for example. And domestic fuel costs. maybe its just me that's missing out on the party everybody esle is having, but I certainly don't feel any better off. In fact I feel decidedly worse off....

Move to Aus. we need all the help we can get fighting bush fires

Yes you're worse off as the tax on petrol is exceptionally high in this country - but balance that with what you pay for health care? How much? Nothing? Move on - nothing to see

 

[e77]

I really can't get excited on a single source of tax because the overall tax burden isn't going to change and any increase or decrease from one type of taxation will be balanced out somewhere else anyway.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

"Yes, you will pay more in green taxes. You will, for example, see the reintroduction of a fuel duty escalator, I am quite sure." - Steven Norris, former Conservative Transport Minister, in his capacity as leader of a working group on transport for Tory leader David Cameron, October 2006.

And what's the fuel duty escalator? It's the mechanism, introduced by the Major government, to increase fuel duties at a rate that rises faster than inflation.

An incentive to save the planet, reduce fuel consumption and run transport more efficiently.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Well, I simply think that any commodity has a price that consumers are willing to bear, and then no more, and I think fuel is rapidly reaching that threshold, hence the increasing numbers of people filling up with red diesel. It doesn't matter how much the increases are dressed up as 'green' taxes to make them seem more cuddly; everybody knows that the economic expansion in India and China eclipse any positive 'green' initiatives in the UK (via taxation or any other means) by a magnitude that is simple impossible to even begin to contemplate.

Anyway, as stated at the beginning of the thread, I don't really care personally, as I probably only drive about 5 or 6 miles a week, if that - and generally use my mountain bike for getting to and from work. But I do think that if the govenrment want to keep ratcheting up the price of fuel, the very least they could do is emabark on something brave, like pumping some serious money into a non-privatised public transport infrastructure that would provide a modern, clean and efficient service that doesn't make you feel like slitting your wrists every time you have to subject yourself to it.

The last time I took a bus, the driver was an unshaven, rayban wearing, gum chewing, i-pod wearing, non-communicative oaf in whom I had zero confidence of actually steering us to our destination safely. The windows were so caked in road grime I couldn't actually see out (and it was pointless asking the driver where we were, as he wasn't especially interested in interacting with his passengers), and every time he opened the doors clouds of diesel fumes billowed into the bus, as it obvioulsy hadn't been serviced properly and the manifold must have looked like a colander. They were the high points.

 

[Zesh Rehman]

In Hartlepool it was 92p a litre diesel and 90p a litre unleaded !

The price is going up again in the next week...

 

[Stevie Boy]

now the government have got the fuel over £1 a litre without any fuss, whats going to stop them from making it even more, i can see in 2/3 years time its going to be £2 a litre, i wish my wages went up everytime the fuel prices go up

 

[Guy Fawkes]

It's all very well saying that as fuel prices go up, It would mean people would and should use public transport instead.

The problem with that is that there just isn't the capacity in our public transport system, and as a result of this, to try to reduce the numbers actually using the trains, Prices were increased, because if you can't increase supply, then you have to reduce demand, yet at the3 same time, public authorities preach about switching from the car and onto trains etc.. (especially if you think about the high price charged for on peak travel, when people would need to use it to go to work!)
The cost of buses, as mentioned above also go up with more expensive fuel, so what is there that is a real alternative to car travel to and from work.

If people were serious about reducing emissions from vehicles on the road, they should be looking into ways to keep the flow of traffic moving freely, not, as we have in some places now, a traffic light system that means that as soon as you pass through one set, you get stopped at the next set, (Seven Dials to London Road in Brighton for example) Excellorating and breaking uses far more fuel, and produces more carbon emissions etc, Hardly a green solution is it!

 

[Tubby Mondays]

It can only be a good thing if it forces people to use their cars if they really need to. I do feel sorry for the tradesman etc. who rely on their vehicles to carry out their business though.[/QUO

What about the poor granny who lives in the sticks who relies on her car to collect her pension which is about 8 miles to a post office and no public transport?

Pensions no longer paid at the Post Office, but direct into bank or building society account so any journeys that this remote living, elderly female is making are purely to get in everybody elses way.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

I really can't get excited on a single source of tax because the overall tax burden isn't going to change and any increase or decrease from one type of taxation will be balanced out somewhere else anyway.

But the tax burden has increased quite markedly over the last 10 years or so... it's one of the current Labour government's great legacies

 

[Dave the OAP]

I remember the fuss around when petrol went to £1 per gallon!!!!

 

[Papa Lazarou]

So do I - and I remember when it was cleverly decided to no longer price petrol in gallons as the price neared £4 a gallon....

 

[Woodchip]

Wasn't today meant to be a NO FUEL day or something, where everyone would protest by not buying fuel.

Seems like word spread well. Also there is another campaign urging people not to buy fuel from BP or Texaco until they drop the price to 69.9p

 

[Lokki 7]

But the tax burden has increased quite markedly over the last 10 years or so... it's one of the current Labour government's great legacies

As is record spending on the NHS and education. Tax revenue doesn't go straight into MP's pockets you know.

 

[Woodchip]

As is record spending on the NHS and education. Tax revenue doesn't go straight into MP's pockets you know.

No, they need to make random expenses claims first.

 

[e77]

But the tax burden has increased quite markedly over the last 10 years or so... it's one of the current Labour government's great legacies

That is a different (though no less valid) argument.

My point is that if tax gets taken off Fuel duty, it will be added somewhere else.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

That is a different (though no less valid) argument.

My point is that if tax gets taken off Fuel duty, it will be added somewhere else.

A charge on road use perhaps?

 

[Titanic]

That is a different (though no less valid) argument.

My point is that if tax gets taken off Fuel duty, it will be added somewhere else.

Like INCOME - where it should be.