Paul Wilson

If I ran a garage I would set up my tills so that the reciept stated.

50L 97 RON - £7.00

Tax - £38.00

Then EVERYONE will realise how much tax they are paying

Triggaaar

Sith
Boycotting one station is not supposed to reduce government revenue, but to hurt all oil companies, who have the power to persuade the govt to reduce the tax.
Stations cannot put up their price to recoup losses, because they are already charging a price that they think maximises thier profit (ie, a higher price would mean lower sales volume - they're only being boycotted a few days at a time).

I don't agree about not buying petrol for as long as possible, or using less. This would justify the goverments decision to have increased the tax in the first place (environmentalists would love it). Pressure on the govt is the plan - make it a vote winner.

NickF - how else would Sir like to pay his tax? - fair point. On average, the country may pay the same amount of tax, but too much tax from one source is what is annoying us, as some of us will pay far more than others. Why should just those keen on driving have to pay so much more? Increasing VAT again would spread the cost more evenly, but the tax would be more obviouse, and voters would look elsewhere - they get away with it on fuel because people hadn't noticed - until now.

Paul - I agree - they should do it.

James_Harvey

The government has to pay for our highly abused benefit system.

Perhaps they should do more about the work shy, illegal immegrants and all the other bludgers out there!

How many times have you seen someone, who doesnt work due to back problems, lifting heavy blocks or whatever?

Did you see the show about all the immigrants in Calais trying to get to England? Why? What do we offer that France doesnt? I always thought that Asylum had to be claimed at the first safe port of call... since when has France been considered unsafe?

Sorry for the rant, but that really gets my goat!

James.

Dippy

Oil companies certainly do have a lot of clout with the UK government. In 98 when the government announced that it planned to change the taxation on North Sea oil but wouldn't say how, the oil companies were so pissed off that they stopped their investment plans. For example BP cancelled the Clair project for the West of Shetlands.

This scared the government so much that they announced that there would be no changes after all. Unfortunately with the usual incompetence of our politicians the harm had already been done and now, although the oil price has recovered, there is still no sign of North Sea oil investment returning.

I believe that the oil companies would be in favour of reducing petrol tax, partly because they could sell more, but more probably so that they then have more flexibility in increasing their own profit.

The subject of method of taxation is a good one, but aren't Labour supposed to be socialist, i.e. favour a progressive taxation system? Whilst petrol tax is the same for everyone, it hurts the poor more than the rich. Surely this proves that Labour have lost the plot.

The worrying thing is that on Question Time last night Hague criticised Labour's petrol tax increases but refused to promise to reduce it if the Torys are elected. Not that I expect any MP, no matter what colour, to keep promises, I do hope this campaign gets them so worried that one of them makes such a promise and then there will be something to vote for next time.

DrD

hmm, with all this tax on fuel, do you reckon prodrive will convert my car to run on heating oil - only 12p a litre last time i filled my storage tank

any idea what my 0-60 time would end up as???

Kev

Look what VBH sent me today .......

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Hello poppets,

I can not believe the price of fuel is set to nudge the pound-a-litre mark.
It's a complete disgrace and is a real slap in the face for millions of us
drivers who have been taxed through the nose for fuel for too long.

Motorists have paid for many, many Government projects over the years,
funding every else it seems apart from transport upgrades.

Every 12 months, £35million a year is pumped out of us, yet road users
benefit a mere £6million from that. To put it in other terms, every time you
fill a tank with £50 of gas (a big tank.) the Government comes in and swoops
£43 of it. Unbelievable!

Another massive revenue earner is the speed camera. It does my head in that
many of them are placed in sneaky, unnecessary places where their sole use
is to act as a cash till. I'm in favour of having them outside schools or at
accident black spots, but that's it. I bet the Government still rubs its
hands in glee at the continuous flow of money that's generated from them.

I wouldn't mind so terribly much if money was used to improve public
transport. It's not, and public transport is a shoddy, shambling wreck that
is particularly useless if you live in the countryside (like me).

I fully support all Dump the Pump Days (starting on August 1st) and just
hope that it shocks the petrol giants and the Government into doing
something about it.

We Brits get such a rough deal for our 4-wheel-frolics. Sky high petrol
prices AND the highest new car prices around is all pretty tough to swallow.
And unless we make a stand, join together, and boycott filling-up one day a
week, then the blooming politicians (who no doubt have company fuel cards
and cars) will have us over a barrel. As usual.

Vicki xxx
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if only it was from her personaly

K