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It
goes
down?
;0)
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Only 5c a litre tax? *Weeps*
I think we've always paid a lot compared to other countries, but it's not been so painful before. I'm going to switch into pence per litre now because it's easier for me to think int he real figures, but just work on the basis that it's a 2:1 ratio, so 120ppl is 240cpl. Also, our fuel is ALWAYS priced "###.9ppl" which we say as ### - that -.1 psychological trick really works!
*Looks it up* Actually, it's only the last decade and a half we've had such high prices. The Tories started pushing the tax up heavily 'to discourage car use' (yeah right) and then Labour took that policy and ran with it. So in 1993 before that policy we had some of the cheapest in Europe, now we have some of the most expensive.
Back in 2000 we had protests and a one week strike (depots blockaded) over prices reaching 80, with more than 80% of that price being tax. By the time of Katrina in 2005 we were already paying 90 on average, and last year we hit the mental milestone of £1 - which we'd actually hit in a spike in the summer of 2006, but it dipped back down again. The last few months it's been going up and up and up - we've had as much increase since 2007 as there was 2000-2007. Which is just frightening. Meanwhile the government are adding another 2p of fuel duty in October (which they've already held back on) which is, erm, unpopular to say the least.
Part of the problem is that we're taxed twice at the pump - first they add fuel duty, *then* they charge the standard 17.5% VAT. So we pay 117.5% on whatever the current fuel duty is.
However, the unleaded thing is mostly just pissing people off rather than causing real trouble. It's likely to affect tourism a bit over the summer - a general downturn in the British economy (the pound has fallen badly against the Euro) is making people less keen to go abroad, but at the same time it costs so bloody much to drive anywhere in this country that that's hardly a more attractive proposal. But otherwise people are just going to keep putting more and more money into their tanks, as they have over the last decade.
The real trouble is with diesel. Hauliers are getting priced off the roads because the skyrocketing cost of diesel means they just can't afford to run anymore. This is having a knock-on effect to the price of food, which has suddenly shot up in a rather alarming fashion. Part of the problem is that of course haulage in Europe is very different to haulage in Australia and the USA - you have far fewer international borders involved. We have thousands of lorries on our roads every day who are filling up in France or Belgium, where fuel is cheaper, before they come into the UK. Our own lorries are struggling to compete with that.
(I think red diesel has been rising too, so farmers are also having problems - as are people who rely on it for heating. Fishermen too. I live in a very rural area where farming is big business, haulage is fairly common and a lot of people rely on oil to heat their homes.)
Basically right now the UK seems to be heading for very nasty times, economically speaking. It's fun!
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(VISITOR) AUTHOR'S NAME
EofS
MESSAGE TIMESTAMP
02 july 2008, 21:33:32
AUTHOR'S IP LOGGED
82.69.7.14
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