Fuel Lobby threaten the vote
April 22nd, 2005“The election would be stopped if we had our way”
Who said this? An Islamic revolutionary in Iraq? A hardline fascist in some former Soviet republic? Nope. It’s the words of Andrew Spence, of the Fuel Lobby, who apparently would like to deny every other citizen in the UK their basic human right, for the glorious and rightful cause of cheaper petrol.
The Fuel Lobby will be attempting to blockade the country again from May 3 in an attempt to disrupt the election (can you imagine what Thatcher would have done had the miners pulled a similar stunt in 1983?). It’s even more remarkable when you consider fuel duty has only gone up at the rate of inflation or less so far this decade (and inflation has been kept nice and low thanks to the Treasury and the Bank of England). The real reason why fuel prices have been rising is thanks to the market, an inability of current production to cope with demand. The Lobby’s argument is, well, just a load of babble:
“We equally recognise that government has frozen fuel duty for some while now, but this has done little to stem the huge increase in costs hauliers must pay before they receive any return from the customer - even if that customer is paying something towards the extra cost. We desperately need some kind of fuel stabilisation formula which would result in tax levels on fuel being reduced as world oil prices increase.”
But this already happens - as duty is a fixed amount per litre rather than a percentage of the price, any rise in production price results in the proportion of fuel costs as duty falling; the government is doing the haulage industry a bit of a favour here by not using a percentage tax, which would have exacerbated the recent world oil price changes much more.
There should be a debate on fuel and how it should be taxed, within the much larger context of the economy, the environment, carbon dioxide emissions, congestion, the future of world oil production (not looking too rosy, to be honest) and whether the fact we rely so much on oil to keep our economy going is sustainable in the long term. But is there an attempt to create such a debate? No, just simple thuggery. All that scum like Andrew Spence can think of is to threaten to a hold a gun at the ballot box. Hopefully the politicians will have enough spine to stand up to them.
April 22nd, 2005 at 14:32:41
You don’t expect a coherent argument from those morons, do you? Their entire reason for existence is to argue that they shouldn’t have to pay more for things, just because the price has gone up.
By their logic, I want to know when the Government is going to hand me about £100,000 to offset how much faster than inflation the price of houses round here has gone up by.
April 22nd, 2005 at 15:24:18
The Govt. didn’t exactly stand up to them last time, did they? Why?
because probably, deep down, most voters feel the same way about fuel prices. Why does it keep going up etc.? They don’t give a toss about global warming, the rationale that they need to cut down on fuel consumption and the like because they like driving to work et. al. — people like The Fuel Lobby are just a radical manifestation of that thought.
So we’re all going to go to hell in a basket.
April 22nd, 2005 at 17:23:42
Hey, whinge about policies you don’t like by all means; its everyone’s democratic right to do so. But when their democratic right to whinge gets in the way of my right to get to work in the morning, then I’m all for moving the bastages out of the way with a few anti-tank missiles.
April 22nd, 2005 at 18:02:28
Fuel protests could be the wildcard in this election, mind you. Which is scary, as it could even cause enough of a swing in the opinion polls towards the Tories (as it did in 2000) to help them win the election!
April 22nd, 2005 at 18:30:05
“the government is doing the haulage industry a bit of a favour here by not using a percentage tax, which would have exacerbated the recent world oil price changes much more”
Value Added Rax @ 17.5% ?
Even if they do actually blockade oil refineries from iin the week before Polling Day, this will not lead to immediate petrol or diesel shortages, judging by the previous time, so any talk of a “threat” to the Election is rubbish.
April 23rd, 2005 at 11:38:13
We desperately need some kind of fuel stabilisation formula which would result in tax levels on fuel being reduced as world oil prices increase.
I love the idea of a tax system in which businesses can increase their profit levels almost without limit, knowing that the government will shield them from any adverse consumer reaction by lowering the tax on the goods. That’d work really well. Oh yeah.
April 26th, 2005 at 00:40:27
about time it happened a fuel strike we need 1 we getten ripped off all ways was charged 80 quid for motor on drive no sorn its stupid we sould do as the french and all stick together on this good work
April 26th, 2005 at 16:35:44
Garry; therein lies the argument againstTthe Fuel Lobby…
April 26th, 2005 at 22:18:34
I fully support the fuel protesters. I will walk where I have to go to support them. I can see this will have other effects, not so much money paid to enter central London, not so many police/councils making so much money from ’safety camera’s’ and parking fines, as there won’t be so many cars there offend. What a shame!
April 27th, 2005 at 12:09:50
…not so many people getting to work, not so many goods and services reaching their destination, not so much food in the shops, not so much income to the country, not so much money available for essential government services…
No, nothing serious to worry about at all. Feel free to act like a dumb little thug all you want.
April 27th, 2005 at 18:14:13
we in in the haulage industry would like to have the same tax level on fuel as the french & dutch etc alowing us to compete on even terms
April 27th, 2005 at 21:50:21
Presumably, you’d also be happy to pay the much higher levels of corporation tax and national insurance, just like your French counterparts do, then?