Drivers race to fill up before the tax hits !

[Papaumau]

I am sure that many of you Tory-loving people here will eventually be castigating this cruel coalition as you notice the draconian cuts biting into your income as each day passes. You may even be some of the people that are at present racing to fill their fuel-tanks before Cameron's 20 percent VAT-charge hits their pockets.

This VAT rise of 2.5 pence on top of the 0.76p that already went onto the fuel-duty yesterday is going to take the cost of petrol and especially diesel very close to the £2.0p a litre - that it will surely hit sometime this year. ( In some of the Highland and Island forecourts in my beloved Scotland these prices are ALREADY being charged ).

I sometimes wonder just how long it will take you swing-voters to make that swingometer fall back to the left hand side of the scale. Not long, I might surmise.

[caminito]

Papa said
I try hard to remember ALL that has gone before....

When Labour came to power in 1997 the average cost of petrol was 57.9p per litre. With costs now well above £1.20p it represents around a 107% increase in 13 years.

As for your beloved Scotland ...Well I love England and this needs to sorted out ... asap
For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members tolerate ... Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on English politics while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

[Chrisjay]

Scotland (along with Wales and N.I.) has it's own budget and could if it wanted take on subsidising fuel duty and charging for university placements, prescriptions and hospital parking to name a few but it chooses to hang on to central governments coat tails when it comes to making unpopular revenue raising decisions.

I totally agree with Caminito on its time only English MP's voted on English issues.  In Canada there was a very large separatist movement to have Quebec made an in dependant state.  The rest of Canada was all for it.  Build your own airports, build your own roads, pay us for the ones we have already built, start building your own hospitals and schools, fund your own coast guard, armed forces, border patrols, get the picture.  Needless to say Quebec is still very much a province under central government.

One thing that I did find good about Canada was that two lots of taxes were taken out of your paypacket.  One was federal taxes that paid for the armed forces and the countries infrastructure.  The other was provincial taxes that paid for education, unemployment, the civil service, etc in the specific province you lived. 

A system like that would sort out how taxes would be spent in the four separate areas of Britian and as Scotland would have to raise it's own taxes and then decide how they are spent based on the number of people earning in their country I wonder how many Scots would cross the boarder for lower taxes as the lower the population the higher the taxes.  A thought worth a debate maybe?

[caminito]

Papa ...As a matter of interest ....
Do you have to get the owners permission  to advertise your personal website "
Ripped - off Britain , with each of your postings  on this forum

[Chrisjay]

Quote "I am sure that many of you Tory-loving people here will eventually be castigating this cruel coalition as you notice the draconian cuts biting into your income as each day passes. You may even be some of the people that are at present racing to fill their fuel-tanks before Cameron's 20 percent VAT-charge hits their pockets".

Oops I missed something here was it not a Scottish MP/Chancellor/Prime Minister that got you labour-loving people up there in this mess that the rest of us are also paying for ?

[Chrisjay]

Today petrol was £1.21 at Morrisons and £1.23 at ASDA maybe we should have a petrol watch thread to keep up with who is giving the best prices as my car costs about £75 to fill up and I get about 180 miles (town driving) for that so two pence makes a difference.

[caminito]

Guide to fuel prices

Cost per litre of crude oil extraction:    8p
Cost per litre of refining:                            2p
Cost per litre to transport to UK:            2p
Cost per litre to transport to pumps:    5p

The rest is TAX  
The Uk has been one of the highest fuel tax countries for years
 

Crikey ,Chris ,what do you drive ....a Foden eight wheeler 
£75 would last me for 3/4 weeks 

[Chrisjay]

  I drive a 4 x 4 American Chevy Blazer 4.3 engine fully loaded with cruise control and air con etc Automatic and I LOVE it even though running it is a challenge 

I bought it so Jac my golden retriever could stand up in it it is the biggest two seater ever (I never have the back seats up) before that I had a Merc estate which was not big enough.  Unfortunately being a Canadian I cannot abide driving small cars, I don't smoke, rarely drink and my car is my treat to me.  Its bought and paid for and costs me £170 fully com for insurance (age and good driving record has it's advantages)     There are very few of them in this country but any garage I take it to loves driving it which says something about how great a car it is, my garage in South Wales just revved it to hear it roar.  Parts are a problem sometimes but touch wood very little goes wrong with it.

[caminito]

I know what you mean about a car like that !
I had a Jeep Grand Cherokee  4L , auto ,fully loaded.
Bought it whilst I was in Spain from a guy returning to the UK.
Only paid £600 for it !
It was RHD . Kept it for a year and sold it on to another English guy . ( for £600 )
It was immaculate and beautiful to drive . Everybody moved over to let you pass , when you came up behind them  

[Chrisjay]

Oh and I forgot to mention I am a bit of a boy racer in it love being at lights with the young ones revving and then let them eat my dust - safely of course.  No one ever moves over for me I am always in front 

[caminito]

No wonder you only get 8 mpg 

Curling is the perfect sport for a husband and wife,
the husband can go bowling while the wife can do the sweeping. 

[Chrisjay]

I get about 25 - 30 mpg (or more) on the motorway its only heavy on town driving which I try not to do a lot of - I live less than 2 miles from the motorway network so plan my trips I don't 'pop' out for single things I plan a full list of shopping and visiting to make the most of my mileage.

[Chrisjay]

Changing the subject slightly (away from my car)  .

Last year the price of a barrel of all had a high of around $135 per barrel and a low of $35 per barrel but the price at the pumps never reflected the low.  So although I believe the government takes an unfair proportion of the price of petrol in taxes one has to question the profiteering of the petrol stations especially the supermarkets who I would think sell the most petrol to motorists.

When the price of crude was $50 per barrel the price at the pumps stayed over £1 per litre  .

Although inconvenient I would support another petrol blockade/strike to get the price under control as this is another example of the motorist being a cash cow and the high price of fuel affects everything we buy that is manufactured or moved including food  .

[caminito]

Hi Chris
Two articles about oil in the telegraph today.

Bad news
Despite a 1.4pc drop in the oil price yesterday to $93.53, economists are cautioning that oil above $100 could put the brakes on the world’s emergence from recession.

Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, warned about the impact on growth while the price remains above $90 per barrel.

“Oil prices are entering a dangerous zone for the global economy,” Dr Birol told The Financial Times. “The oil import bills are becoming a threat to the economic recovery. This is a wake-up call to the oil-consuming countries and to the oil producers.”

The global demand for oil is likely to increase this year by 1.7pc to a record 87.8m barrels a day.

But OPEC, the oil producing cartel, declined to dampen prices by refusing to raise production last month.

Good news
The share prices of Premier Oil, Encore and Nautical all rose amid optimism that further drilling in the North Sea will yield similar finds. Their Catcher field was last year hailed as the best North Sea find in a decade.

The companies said the new Varadero field may contain 30m-50m barrels – about half as much as the Catcher field next door, which is estimated to hold 80m barrels of recoverable reserves and 300m in total.

Premier Oil, a £2.4bn company which has been the subject of recent takeover speculation, saw its share price rise 68p, or 3.5pc, to £20.18. Encore jumped 12pc to 149p and Nautical was up 8.6pc at 430p.

Tony Durrant, Premier's finance director, said there was "additional prospectivity" in the area, adding that the companies plan to keep exploring further west if oil continues to be found.

[Chrisjay]

Knowing this country it will continue to export North sea oil at the lowest price and import at the highest price as most are idiots Brown being a prime example.

Depends which news you read/listen too as the BBC says OPEC will raise production to dampen prices