Return Of The Fuel Protest

Reluctant Hero · Return Of The Fuel Protest

Protest threat over fuel prices

Fuel protests could take place in the coming weeks as unrest grows over rising prices, it has been claimed.
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) said the recent price increases were causing growing anger amongst its members.

Prices have gone up every week for the past ten weeks with a more than two pence rise last week, it said.

Jack Semple, RHA Director of Policy said: "Our members are angry over the latest increases in fuel prices and the restarting of the fuel duty escalator."

The impact of the price increases was "quite severe" for many hauliers, he said.

Mr Semple said that hauliers were "frustrated" by the high prices and added that duty rates were "much higher" in Britain than in other European countries.

'Frustration and anger'

He said: "We are looking towards the government for help in terms of an equal duty playing field with Europe to achieve price stability."

Mr Semple added: "For hauliers, fuel is the biggest variable cost, and it has gone up every week for ten weeks."

He said meetings had been held to discuss protests, but there was not yet the groundswell of support needed to go ahead.

"But there is definite frustration and anger. There shouldn't be an increase in fuel duty at a time of clear volatility in oil prices."

A spokesman for the pressure group Transaction 2007, the reincarnation of organisations involved in the 2000 fuel protests, said they believed action would be taken imminently.

He said: "I think it will happen in the next seven to ten days. I can't say much about it."

The action was likely to take the form of "rolling road" blocks, he said.

Geoff Dossetter, director of external affairs at the Freight Transport Association, said: "I don't think there's the appetite for protests like there was before.

"But it is clear there's a problem. There's a lot of unhappiness about the fact that prices are going up remorselessly."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7089933.stm

sgmillerton

i personally would double the price of fuel, use more local produce in local shops and tesco's (less transportation) and force lazy people to think about the unnescesarry joorneys they make.

Aventinian

Cymro

I realise we have to use cars etc less - or in the very least use less petrol etc. I'm also happy to an extent to pay taxes etc as long as that is spent in a way which will help deal with issues such as our dependency on fossil fuels.

However I'm really getting sick and tired of how Labour are using fuel as a commodity to get more money by now. I dirve 52miles round trip to my work and back everyday. I wish I could use public transport but a train would take me 2 hours as I'd have to go a hell of a long way round and a bus trip going on the same route as I take would take me 1hour 15mins at it's shortest but as much as 1:45 at times. I can do it in my car in just over 45 mins. The nature of the work and the hours I work mean I'm often travelling across North East Wales going to meetings and don't finish til after 9pm. There is no way I could do that anyother way than by car.

Since I started my job I've only pretty much got inflation payrises (the problem with working in the Voluntary Sector), but fuel has gone up and up and uo. I'm actually now marginally worse off than I worse when I started 3 years ago.

I'm all for discouraging people who do use cars (especially 4x4s) uneccesarily but for many of us it's a necessity and we're being penalised for these peoples actions.

sgmillerton

some think ntank reported that petrol would have to rise to £2 a litre b4 they would consider cutting back on their journeys they make. the thing is we are all still willing to pay for it and continue to do so.

Cymro

I wish I could cut back on journeys though. I have to get to work and I can only realistically get there in my car.

sgmillerton

me too.

Cymro

So why support doubling the tax on fuel then? I can't magic a job nearer to home out of thin air and can't afford (nor want to) move to where my job is located. Therfore have to drive.

sgmillerton

it is a nescessary car journey until i either get a new job (not likely) or there is sooperdoper 24hr public transport (not likely). i want to further increase the price to help stop unnecessary journeys like the school run and the likes and stop 100 tons of potatoes/sheep/whatever being moved unnescessarily fom kent to aberdeen. i would also like to see us move into a less rigid 9-5 lifestyle where all the cars are on the road at the same time causing gridlock nd a lot of wasted fuel. and further tax flying per passenger.

Cymro

Holebender

I take it you're a city dweller, SG. Where I live there is no option but to use private transport.

sgmillerton

SLG

Gordon, I think the problem that Holebender is highlighting, is the question of how you put off unnecessary journeys like many school runs without penalising those who have no choice but to drive. Raising tax on petrol is too crude.

sgmillerton

Holebender

So you accept that the journeys of people like me are necessary, but you would cripple us with doubled fuel prices to make these necessary (and often long - fuel consuming) journeys. You haven't really thought this through have you? Are you a Labour minister?

agentmancuso

sgmillerton

Cymro

Resulting in a drop in price of petrol? Not this side of the next centruy thats for sure, which will make me about 118 years old!

Given Labours Love of all things 'Means tested' if your plan was workable don;t you think they'd have done it?

agentmancuso

Cymro

Completly unworkable. How will the government descide whats essential in your plan SG?

I drive up to Sctland about 3 to 4 times a year to see the inlaws. It takes me about 6 and a half hours without stopping to drive there. I could get the train which would involve a 20 mins car drive to the station followed by a 9hour train ride, at certain times going as much as 12 hours to get there. I could fly - that fantasticly environmentaly way of getting there.

Is my wife seeing her family 'essential'? What about if we had to rush up for an emergency? Would I have to proove to the government that it was an emergency in order to get my fuel cheaper?

How do they descide that me taking 45 mins instead of over an hour to get to my job is fine?

sgmillerton

agentmancuso

Cymro

More nedds to be done to get us away from cars and definatly away from petrol and other fossil fuels. The government have a hugely important role to play in that but taxing us more and more isn't the answer.

I'm happy for people who use 4X4s uneccesarily (far easier to descide on that than unecessary journeys) to be taxed or even banned from havinh them (that wil bring a tear to the eye of a liberal!) but people need to travel. The mission is to get a means of travelling which is as easy as a car and as comfortable as a car for everyone.

agentmancuso

sgmillerton

agentmancuso

Cymro

Holebender

I've had a 4x4 out of necessity and they're not really fun to drive on the tarmac (they're a blast off the road though). Anyone who doesn't need one, i.e. never leaves proper roads, should really have his or her head examined for wanting one. Give me a comfortable performance car any time.

Once BMW gets those hydrogen engines into production, and refueling becomes possible, I'm having one.

Cymro

They bloody look good though! If I win the lottery I'll be taking an Aston Martin though!

sgmillerton · Re: Return Of The Fuel Protest

Reluctant Hero · Re: Return Of The Fuel Protest

sgmillerton

30 vechiles in aprotest. if thats a protest them in my street there is anarchy every night.no, it seems not.

Cymro

30 vehicles today SG. Transation's protest was announced for tomorrow. Two different protests. Think of the effect on trafic congestion that 30 lorries could have driving in a convoy on busy roads could have then you'll see why it's not a bad number in terms of desired chaos effect.

sgmillerton

i'll sit outside our local school at 9am on monday morning to get a sense of the atmosphere.

Cymro

There is a name for people who hang around schools...and it's not Lollypop Men/Women

sgmillerton

carol

monkeys

Cymro

sgmillerton

well they smoke outside our local primary.

Reluctant Hero

If I remember rightly the protests in 2000 started out with a few trucks and it ended up bringing the country to a halt.

Although I get the feeling that public opinion is not with them this time.

I come from up north, where your own mode of transport is very often the only form of transport. So I can relate to the hurt it is causing.

However, nothing lasts forever and "cheap" oil is just another example. We either have to investigate other alternatives or pay the price.

Holebender

That would make sense if more than about a quarter of what we pay were actually the cost of the fuel. The reality is that three quarters of what we pay is tax and that it within the control of Westminster, not the world oil markets. People need to finally get it that the government is the body causing unbearable transport costs, not the oil companies or the Saudis or anybody else.

Everything, and I mean every thing, in our lives needs to be transported at some stage. It doesn't matter if it's a bag of tatties or a washing machine or the shirt on your back, it all has to be transported and the transportation costs add to the price we pay for the goods. Our entire economy is being damaged by these ridiculous taxes and, what's more, our haulage industry is being put at an unfair disadvantage when compared to hauliers from elsewhere in the EU. So much for an open market!

Holebender

When you buy a litre of petrol, about 6p goes to the retailer. The pre-tax price is about 30p. The remaining 66p or so is made up of duty and VAT. The VAT is charged on the duty-paid price, so you're paying a tax (VAT) on a tax (duty).

Reluctant Hero

Let's face it. If the government didn't raise the tax through petrol prices, they would raise it in some other underhanded way.

Granted, it is crap on the British haulage industry when they are trying to compete in the global market. But that is the economy the West has built itself on, so you just have to deal with it.

Do you think there is the public support this time around?

Cymro

It's clear that the government needs to raise funds and needs to cut our dependency on petrol and diesel etc, but I think it's clear that this is more about money and a blanket attitude towards peoples dependency on fuel than actually saving the environment.

I'm all for people living in cities and big towns being persuaded that there is no excuse for the current usage of cars but in many a part of the UK it's not a vehicle of choice but a vehicle of must.

Also the duty that does come in should be invested entirely in making bigger steps to actually creating a better alternative to petrol and diesel and making public transport a real alternative to cars. Something they are unwilling to do.

Return Of The Fuel Protest

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Re: Return Of The Fuel Protest