UK NEWS
GREAT PETROL REVOLT BEGINS
ANGER: Drivers to stage mass protest at fuel prices
By John Ingham Transport Editor
ANGER over Gordon Brown’s failure to deal with rising fuel prices will boil over tomorrow in the first major new protest against sky-high petrol and diesel costs.
Hundreds of truckers will descend on the capital for a mass rally to draw attention to a crisis that is hurting millions of motorists.
With fuel prices going up every day, protesters will demand the Prime Minister cuts duty after having raked in millions in additional tax.
In scenes reminiscent of the 2000 fuel protests, demonstrators will gather at Marble Arch before a delegation marches on Downing Street to demand talks with Mr Brown. They hope to exploit his vulnerability in the wake of Labour’s meltdown in the local elections and last week’s humiliating by-election defeat in Crewe.
Motorists are already facing record fuel prices after crude oil last week hit 135 US dollars a barrel – its highest ever level.
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Diesel prices have gone up by 34 per cent in the past year and are now rising by 0.5p every day. The protest comes as the Daily Express steps up its crusade to force Mr Brown not only to scrap plans to raise fuel duty by 2p a litre but also cut the existing rate.
Accountancy firm Grant Thornton says the £730million tax windfall the Government has received from North Sea oil firms since March could be used to cut fuel duty by 12p from the current level of 50.35p a litre.
The pressure on motorists is underlined by a study showing that the cost of fuel for a typical bank holiday weekend away has soared by up to 74 per cent in just five years.
The IAM Trust road safety charity said the cost of a 1,000-mile round trip in a diesel Vauxhall Corsa has leapt to £113.67 compared with £65.31 in 2003.
For a petrol Renault Espace, the cost has risen from £67.22 to £196.59.
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And escalating fuel prices could get even worse, with experts yesterday warning that oil could start to run out within as little as four years.
The International Energy Agency is predicting an oil “supply crunch” in 2012 due to soaring demand from China and India, and has ordered an urgent inquiry into world oil reserves.
The truckers’ fuel protest is being run by Transaction 2007, which expects up to 1,000 lorries to descend on London from across the UK.
Organiser Peter Carroll said: “If the Government does not help the UK haulage industry it is going to die at the hands of foreign competition because of the surge in fuel prices.”
Mr Carroll, who runs a 55-truck fleet from Maidstone in Kent, says it now costs him £1,000 a week to fill an articulated lorry – up from £550 just six months ago.
Protester Mike Presneill said: “Hundreds of UK transport firms are being driven to the wall. Thousands of UK jobs are being lost. The Government has the power to act but appears not to be listening.”
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Philip Hollobone, a Tory member of the all-party Transport Commons Select Committee, backed the Daily Express’s crusade.
He said: “The Government tax take is going up even without the 2p rise. It’s time the Government gave some of that back to help hard-pressed consumers. I congratulate the Daily Express on its initiative, which will resonate with all its readers.”
Fellow Tory committee member David Wilshire said: “It is absolutely common sense. The Government is fleecing motorists.”
Downing Street last night declined to comment in advance of the protest.
But the Treasury insisted that fuel duty had fallen by 16 per cent in real terms since 1999 because of successive postponements of planned increases.
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Video 
OPEN QUESTION TO ALL
27.05.08, 8:54pm
Where were the big guns of the haulage industry, when all the smaller and independent ones were taking valuable time out, and using expensive fuel?
Were they going about their profit making road journeys? using the diesel they buy in bulk at prices well below the pump price we pay? Prices they negociated to keep them in this country? Do the big guns of the industry comment on the prices? or pay a lip service to us? Why not ask Mr stobart, they must not worry about fuel, as they aquire James Irlam, or the other hauliers NFT, and the other big guns. You would be very suprised at the answer.
As for us we are not important enough to the government for them to care. WE THE PEOPLE under this rip off government VOTED you IN, and it is by the SAME PEOPLE THAT WILL VOTE YOU OUT, Mr Brown and Co. No matter what you try to do now its to late, as the PEOPLE dont care. (the people are a x section around my local area) a labour area............
• Posted by: yaddie • Report Comment
PETROL REVOLT
27.05.08, 1:00pm
We should all join in, it is time to show this despotic Government the door.
'NEW LABOUR, TAXING THE JOY OUT OF LIFE'
• Posted by: sheptenelan • Report Comment
REVOLT
27.05.08, 12:29pm
it was once said the pen is mightier than the sword,the pen has run out on a government who cant read,perhaps its time to take up the sword.
• Posted by: crazyhorse • Report Comment
GREAT PETROL REVOLT BEGINS
27.05.08, 3:59am
Low Interest rates have protected the banks and house market. Stirling is 15% down as a result, and surging food, fuel and goods prices are the consequence.
Low rates are "fools gold".....
• Posted by: Mike_in_New_Zealand • Report Comment
THE BENEFITS OF HIGH FUEL TAX
27.05.08, 12:58am
Google "Peak Oil" and you will gain some understanding of why crude oil has doubled in price every 18 months over the last 10 years. Like it or not, oil is a finite resource and global production is at (or close to) its all time peak.
The UK has a long history of high vehicle fuel tax. It is nothing to do with climate change or "green" issues, but dates back to before the era of North Sea oil. High tax reduced fuel use and raised revenue in a way that helping the trade balance.
The US has always had "cheap" oil and as a consequence has developed a sprawling, oil-dependent infrastructure, where people commute vast distances in gas-guzzling cars. The rise from $1/gal gas to $4/gal gas is hurting them far more than us. In percentage terms our rises are far smaller due to the tax structure. And we are far less dependent on oil anyway because we have always been forced to treat it with value. Oil production in the US peaked in 1970 and it now imports more than 13 million barrels a day, accounting for $600 billion of trade deficit. Many people in the US dearly wish they had taxed oil highly when it mattered.
The next 10 years are crucial for the UK. In 2008 the UK produces approximately the same amount of oil that it consumes but by 2020 North Sea oil will be virtually exhausted and we will be importing all the oil we use. Meanwhile, the global price of crude may have risen to $500 or $1000 a barrel.
We need to start learning - and fast - how to live with far, far less oil. Reducing tax sounds attractive but strategically it is moving in completely the wrong direction.
• Posted by: RobertT • Report Comment
INFORM YOURSELVES
26.05.08, 9:51pm
At a Bilderberg meeting in Sweden in 1973, the Bilderberg group agreed to increase the price of oil to $12 a barrel, a 350% jump tocreate economic chaos in the U.S. and Western Europe, in orderto prop up the oil corporations' sagging fortunes. They're at it again, but for more sinister reasons, and Gordon Brown is one of their monkeys. This has nothing to do with dwindling oil supplies, the price went up too quickly. We're constantly being fed dis-information by think tanks and media, all influenced by this group of powerbrokers with their own agenda. Inform yourselves about the Bilderbergers, The Council on Foreign Affairs and the reasons for their existence.
• Posted by: ghostdog • Report Comment
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