http://www.fuelprotest.com/

Official fuel protest site, they are looking for a million votes to take to government to complain on the ridiculous tax (around 75%) we pay on our fuel. We could be paying

Done and a link added to my website as well ...now taken link off as it has nothing to do with a fuel protest

Signed up

Steve

Signed up - hopefully it won't be being presented to a Labour government anyway by the time it reaches Downing Street

Chris

Signed up - hopefully it won't be being presented to a Labour government anyway by the time it reaches Downing Street

Chris

If you have got a mortgage... for your sake I hope you are wrong

Signed up - hopefully it won't be being presented to a Labour government anyway by the time it reaches Downing Street

Chris

I hope so too!

Done!

Signed up - hopefully it won't be being presented to a Labour government anyway by the time it reaches Downing Street

Chris

Do you honestly believe that fuel would have been any cheaper under the conservatives?

Every time there was a budget they put fuel up by just as much as Labour do , and all the recent price changes are due to oil costs goign up and not tax rises.

Labour are not to blame for world oil prices , and even if you think that attacking Iraq is responsible , then the Conservatives were for that as well.

If you have got a mortgage... for your sake I hope you are wrong

But surely the mortgage rate is now linked to the rate set by the Bank of England, so whether Labour or Tories are in power is irrelevant to this?

And I suspect fuel prices would also rise under a Labour government, but I still think they're a bunch of cretins and I would rather see a right-wing government raising fuel prices than a left-wing one.

Rob.

done

Do you honestly believe that fuel would have been any cheaper under the conservatives?

Every time there was a budget they put fuel up by just as much as Labour do ' date=' and all the recent price changes are due to oil costs goign up and not tax rises.

Labour are not to blame for world oil prices , and even if you think that attacking Iraq is responsible , then the Conservatives were for that as well.[/quote']

fair point, but lessening the tax burden we all carry in fuel, national insurance, council tax, road tax, scamera tax and breathing tax would certainly make it easier.

Fuel duty is a percentage of the cost of fuel. Therefore if the price of oil goes up, so does the amount of duty payable. Same with VAT. Its a % of the cost.

It won't matter who's in power, this will never change. The government loves high oil prices.

Would be nice to see a fixed amount of duty paid per litre - say 40p. rather than a %, but it will never happen.

But surely the mortgage rate is now linked to the rate set by the Bank of England' date=' so whether Labour or Tories are in power is irrelevant to this?

And I suspect fuel prices would also rise under a Labour government, but I still think they're a bunch of cretins and I would rather see a right-wing government raising fuel prices than a left-wing one.

Rob.[/quote']

It's interesting when you think that interest rates have been stable since the government offloaded this responsibility to the Bank of England rather than the chancellor. Fair play to Labour for doing it. Maybe in future, whoever is in power it may not have too much effect on the rates.

Ok , so fuel tax gets cut.

The government has less money.

What should they cut spending on? Perhaps they should borrow more money? Raise taxes on something else instead?

Looking at it in isolation , of course I'd like cheaper fuel , who wouldn't. I'm also well aware of what that fuel duty pays for , and in relation to wages petrol hasn't actually increased in price for a very long time.

When I started driving 13 years ago petrol was 43p a litre which sounds wonderful , but then wages (and the price of everything else as well) were half what they are now.

What should they cut spending on?

Quangos and people committing benefit fraud.

Rob.

Quangos and people committing benefit fraud.

Rob.

Easier said than done ' date=' but I'd agree.

A bit more on petrol prices.

Heres the history of fuel costs since the dawn of time (or at least the bit that had cars in it) [url']http://www.aatrust.com/aamotoringtrust/pdf/petrol_prices.pdf[/url]

In 1997 (last year of conservative government) tax was 79.35% of the cost of fuel. In 2003 it's 71.93% , and has actually gone down since then as most of the rise has been oil costs.

In 1997 (last year of conservative government) tax was 79.35% of the cost of fuel. In 2003 it's 71.93% , and has actually gone down since then as most of the rise has been oil costs.

So Labour are essentially *encouraging* us to use our cars by reducing the tax on fuel? So in turn we're more able to pollute the environment, contribute to global warming, kill cyclists, etc.?

It's an outrage!

AFAIK we don't actually pay that much different for fuel than our European counterparts. In the US, it's absurdly cheap though (less per gallon than we pay per litre?)...

Rob.

Do you honestly believe that fuel would have been any cheaper under the conservatives?

Nope - I'm just sick of our Tony

Chris

Ahhh, if I had a pound for every threatened fuel protest I read about....

In 1997 (last year of conservative government) tax was 79.35% of the cost of fuel. In 2003 it's 71.93% ' date=' and has actually gone down since then as most of the rise has been oil costs.[/quote']

With those figures, in 1997 amount of tax paid per gallon was

With those figures, in 1997 amount of tax paid per gallon was

It would be interesting to see a similar graph for diesel.

In most European countries, diesel is cheaper than petrol. Over here, it's the other way around. Labour claim that diesel engines pollute, but there are ever-toughening EC laws governing emissions.

Of course, the real reason they've whacked the price of diesel up is that it earns lots of money. Unfortunately, it also encourages overseas haulage companies to fill up in France, which makes the hauliers in the this country uncompetitive.

It also means those left-hand drive trucks (which are increasingly responsible for 'side-swipes' on cars on motorways) aren't paying a bean for the damage they do to the roads.

I'm fairly sure 'stupid' is more apt than 'prudent' when talking about Brown.

Diesel is on that chart , but only back to 1987

Diesel is on that chart , but only back to 1987

Diesel prices have only really rocketed in the last 6 or 7 years.

And have your wages gone up in those 6 years as well?

Absolutely, I'm not really argueing that we have to pay tax and it's got to come from somewhere. Hopefully, our wages and the tax we pay will rise more or less together meaning we will not in reality be any worse off.

I'm Just pointing out how we can be fooled by promises such as 'we will freeze fuel duty' making you think you will save money when in fact you're actually paying more. Freezing a percentage rate on a price thats rising will do just that - fool a lot of people.