Fuel prices (From The Northern Echo)
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Fuel prices
9:55am Thursday 18th March 2010 in
WHAT is going on with the price of petrol and diesel? It seems to go up weekly and no one says anything about it.
I would be really interested in hearing from those “in the know” who can explain the high prices at the pumps. I have seen diesel as high as 122.9p at Bedale Services and Wetherby Services.
Even supermarkets are jumping on the price increase bandwagon and this thieving Government is hellbent on adding more misery by increasing the tax, as if we aren’t taxed enough.
It’s not as if the tax we pay is spent on roads because they are in a disgraceful state.
Frank Headen, Bowburn, Durham.
Comments(51)
JS2
says...
4:15pm Thu 18 Mar 10
The Grim North
says...
4:33pm Thu 18 Mar 10
The Grim North
says...
4:33pm Thu 18 Mar 10
Kate Buell
says...
6:17am Fri 19 Mar 10
Super steve wrote:I'm sure that you cannot see just how stupid your remarks are on this site at times.
Cos only the hard working tax payer and the rural elderly and poor need petrol to get to work or reach the services, The benefit dwellers dont need it. Just work harder, millions on benefits need your tax money.
Your rabid hatred for anything left of NSDAP (NAZIs for short) so infect your every fibre of thought, you cannot resist having a go at those on benefits.
The Nazis blamed the Jews, you blame the "benefit dwellers", shall we do to these benefit dwellers what the Nazis did to their scapegoat?
The reason oil prices are high is because of the system so favoured by my birth country, capitalism, which will not even allow 4 million of my poorest countrymen, healthcare.
Do you know that there are tankers or were tankers, lying off the shores of this country, with full cargos, waiting till the price of oil went up before they unloaded, some had been there for months.
The navy should have sank them, or the government set a 200 mile zone around the country overlapping all other Euoprean coastal states and charge them for lying off, you'd see how soon they'd want to unload then.
Grow up you dumb klutz and think if you can, before you open your mouth or type a response to this letters page. Or better still, move to Arkansas or Missouri, you've got the best qualifications I've ever seen for a Redneck
Kate Buell
says...
6:19am Fri 19 Mar 10
Super steve
says...
9:10am Fri 19 Mar 10
The Grim North wrote:What a good point, I never thought about that.
Now they have made smokers outcasts and let all the pubs go out of business they have to get their dosh from somewhere so its the only easy target left.
Super steve
says...
9:27am Fri 19 Mar 10
Kate Buell wrote:Madam Its perfectly clear you are the end product of Labours idea about education.
Super steve wrote: Cos only the hard working tax payer and the rural elderly and poor need petrol to get to work or reach the services, The benefit dwellers dont need it. Just work harder, millions on benefits need your tax money.I'm sure that you cannot see just how stupid your remarks are on this site at times. Your rabid hatred for anything left of NSDAP (NAZIs for short) so infect your every fibre of thought, you cannot resist having a go at those on benefits. The Nazis blamed the Jews, you blame the "benefit dwellers", shall we do to these benefit dwellers what the Nazis did to their scapegoat? The reason oil prices are high is because of the system so favoured by my birth country, capitalism, which will not even allow 4 million of my poorest countrymen, healthcare. Do you know that there are tankers or were tankers, lying off the shores of this country, with full cargos, waiting till the price of oil went up before they unloaded, some had been there for months. The navy should have sank them, or the government set a 200 mile zone around the country overlapping all other Euoprean coastal states and charge them for lying off, you'd see how soon they'd want to unload then. Grow up you dumb klutz and think if you can, before you open your mouth or type a response to this letters page. Or better still, move to Arkansas or Missouri, you've got the best qualifications I've ever seen for a Redneck
The National Socialist Workers Party of Germany was one of the greatest spenders of public schemes and benefit support schemes,public healthcare etc. The Nazis were more socialist than fascist in the early days.
But they did not let generations get away with living off benefits, nor did the soviets. In the UK at this moment EVERY penny raised in income tax weekly is spent of benefit payments.
After twelve long years of BOOM under your beloved Labour government we have more people than ever living off handouts, Benefit payments are at record levels.
2.4 million out of work, 1.8 million on disability, 2 million inactive massive national debt and record amounts being blown on handouts, and that is AFTER 12 years of Labour success.
How wonderfully adult and mature to suggest the navy goes around sinking super tankers just to settle your spite about people making lots of money in venture capital. Especially as from every increase in the price of oil this government gains even more tax revenue from both VAT and Direct taxation.
Oil prices are simply so high because over 80% of its cost goes in tax to the government so it can keep bailing out the benefit parasites.
We could please you ever so easily,and me at the same time by cutting fuel duty and VAT on crude and refined products by half. That would give us affordable fuel but also mean there would be little left for the govt to give away in benefits.
I'm all for cheaper fuel and cutting welfare payouts.
How very adult telling me to grow up then calling me names and demanding the navy sinks oil tankers, so very very mature!!!!
melwilson
says...
10:54am Fri 19 Mar 10
miketually
says...
11:43am Fri 19 Mar 10
If fuel were not taxed, from where would the government raise revenue? Shall we have a tax on food? Clothes? Increase Council tax? Bring back Window Tax?
Super steve
says...
12:04pm Fri 19 Mar 10
melwilson wrote:Yeah get out there and sink some oil tankers, Mel there is nothing normal about socialists or labour supporters
Kate, absolutely brilliant! You are dead right, this lot have infiltrated this site with their hate for far too long now, it's about time us normal people, sorry, the loony left as these fools would brand us, started breaking them down. Get over yourselves, you sad excuses for men
You and Kate are well suited, you want cheaper fuel and social welfare systems, but you cant have both.
Most of the cost of oil products is taxation, the same taxation the benefit parasites expect to be given to them each week.
Mel pray tell me what is hateful about exposing the complete and utter disaster the lefties have brought onto the country? Twelve long years of Labour has ruined the economy, Labour has made the ordinary working person much worse off for poorer public services.
what is wrong and hateful about pointing out that it is Labour and its voters who are responsible for starting two wars, wars that killed 600,000 Iraqis and nealy 500 British troops. What is hateful about pointing out that Labours immigration policy has been disasterous for social cohesion. what is hateful about pointing out that Labour raided our pension schemes, let housing get so expensive few young couples can hope to get on the housing ladder. whats so hateful about pointing out that with Labour letting councils more than double council tax that many old folks have to choose wether to eat or heat their homes. And Mel dont forget its your loony lefties who have sent 79 yr old widows to prison for not paying their council taxes.
Its the patriotic duty of every decent person to hold the left to account for its complete betrayal of the working class.
melwilson
says...
12:40pm Fri 19 Mar 10
TimeBandit
says...
3:38pm Fri 19 Mar 10
Steve and I have clashed a good number of times in these columns but as regards those on benefits I broadly agree with him, unemployment benefits should be for people such as those made redundant from Corus and not those who "left school on Friday, signed on on Monday". For my part I have spent my working life in the petro-chemical industry and can assure you that to produce a gallon (a UK one!) of gasoline spirit the cost is negligable - pennies even. All companies pay the same price for a barrel of crude the difference being that the US treasury opts not to tax its citizens to the hilt as the British treasury does regardless of the colour of government.
Recently, I and my fellow workers recieved a substantial py rise (we did n't get one last year though!) but guess what, my salary increase has been taken up in incolm tax, not solely to tide over someone who has worked hard all his life at Corus and needs a bit of a leg up until he can find gainful employment (do n't mind that)but also to keep some feckless, bone idle, workshy layabout who's never seen a workplace in his life and expects, nay demands (and gets!) the Earth.
miketually
says...
4:47pm Fri 19 Mar 10
TimeBandit
says...
8:23pm Fri 19 Mar 10
Have you thought of a career in spin doctoring Mike, your previous post about taxes at petrol pumps protecting us from price rises of crude oil do not ring true.
simmo3578
says...
9:17pm Fri 19 Mar 10
taxpayers
says...
10:44pm Fri 19 Mar 10
taxpayers
says...
11:12pm Fri 19 Mar 10
http://www.petrolpri
ces.com/
not as cheap if you drive a council vehicle or some other state sponsered vehicle courtesy of our tax money
taxpayers
says...
11:23pm Fri 19 Mar 10
miketually
says...
8:07am Sat 20 Mar 10
.
The tax acting as a buffer is true. When the price of oil doubled, the US pump price almost doubled while ours went up a much smaller percentage. In fact, it's not dissimilar to the tax on your pay meaning you don't feel the full effect of a pay rise :)
.
"if everybody uses their car less and drives at the right rev range for better fuel figures,the old saying of supply and demand springs to mind" - when people start doing this, I'll believe fuel is expensive enough! If fuel were £5 a litre, how long would it be before we were all driving 150MPG cars?
paula46
says...
10:26am Sat 20 Mar 10
Super steve
says...
11:35am Sat 20 Mar 10
melwilson wrote:No one, its democracy at work, But no one could make a big a mess of things as labour.
I can't wait to see your reaction when its a hung parliament Steve, who on earth will you blame then??
Super steve
says...
11:38am Sat 20 Mar 10
melwilson wrote:Well Mel its like this, Labour voters have been blaiming anything that went wrong, even self inflicted failures on Maggie Thatcher decades after she left office. So I think you will agree with me that any of the problems that we have to face as a nation in the future can be laid firmly at the feet of Labour and its supporters.
I can't wait to see your reaction when its a hung parliament Steve, who on earth will you blame then??
stevegg
says...
12:12pm Sat 20 Mar 10
Super steve
says...
1:22pm Sat 20 Mar 10
miketually
says...
3:43pm Sat 20 Mar 10
.
Since the last fill-up, we've driven the four of us to Leeds and back twice and to Middlesbrough and back.
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That seems pretty cheap to me.
Laird
says...
4:25pm Sat 20 Mar 10
Hypocrite, springs to mind.
Kate Buell
says...
5:05pm Sat 20 Mar 10
paula46 wrote:but coming from a country that was responsible for bush,reagan and worst of all obama,i hardly think you are qualified to comment on matters here........
In response to the hysterical outpourings from Mel and kate,when all else fails,resort to name calling.I am not sure kates idea's were a wind up or not,but coming from a country that was responsible for bush,reagan and worst of all obama,i hardly think you are qualified to comment on matters here.Oh and please keep your americanisms to yourself.This is england,not one of your states-yet.
I've lived here 30 years, what do you think???
Quote....This is england,not one of your states-yet.
You sure about that??? you're moving that way and have been for years....old Labour didn't, Tories and Nu labour definitely
How about an Americanism and a Geordie mixture........raisi
ng my middle finger.........."Spi
n on it Flower"
simmo3578
says...
5:14pm Sat 20 Mar 10
Kate Buell
says...
8:12pm Sat 20 Mar 10
simmo3578 wrote:And what evidence have you got for that thought...Strewth, I thought only rednecks and banjo players lived in the southern states.
miketually is probably a public sector worker claiming a generous mileage allowance, probably making £20 profit on that £50
don't know why half of you on here don't move to Mississsippi and revive the old habit of burning a few n******....Nathan Bedford Forrest would be real proud of ya.
Don't any of you see where your rabid hatred and unfounned suggestions lead eventually
Laird
says...
11:37pm Sat 20 Mar 10
miketually
says...
8:15am Sun 21 Mar 10
Hypocrisy? I'm talking about petrol being cheap; it would be more hypocritical for me to say that if I never paid for petrol, wouldn't it? Public transport would have been a **** sight more expensive than that cheap petrol.
Laird
says...
9:11am Sun 21 Mar 10
miketually
says...
9:14am Sun 21 Mar 10
Andy of Aycliffe
says...
11:04am Sun 21 Mar 10
ng my middle finger".........."Sp
i
n on it Flower"
Classic .......
muskmallow
says...
11:10am Sun 21 Mar 10
You can’t have it both ways. Either you accept the NHS-supporting taxes on fuel in the UK (since driving causes increased asthma and obesity and road deaths in children and adults), or you go and live where petrol is dirt-cheap and you can drive yourself silly while opting not to pay health insurance, but can’t guarantee your heart attack won’t land you (or your family) with the bill of a lifetime.
Fuel really isn’t expensive, in fact, for all those millions of years of fossilised sunlight, it’s a bargain.
Laird
says...
12:23pm Sun 21 Mar 10
*shakes head slowly*
says...
1:19pm Sun 21 Mar 10
Driven by hatred, racism, snobbery and bias, they never let intelligence, facts or common sense penetrate their tiny closed minds. If they weren't so loathsome I'd actually feel sorry for them, living in fear as they do!!!!
Anyone who dares speak against their ultra-right-wing rants is a looney leftie and when faced with an irrefutable point, they move the goalposts and try to start a personal slagging match, where they feel most comfortable!
Thank god they only have one vote each and they're going to waste it on some no-hope party anyway! LOL!!!!!
As for fuel, if it's too expensive, stop using it. How would the demon government get your taxes then?
simmo3578
says...
2:31pm Sun 21 Mar 10
*shakes head slowly*
says...
5:48pm Sun 21 Mar 10
simmo3578 wrote:Oh, I see Oscar Wilde himself has joined us. Brilliant contribution there.
tax fresh air probably u to55er
Dean M
says...
10:55pm Sun 21 Mar 10
"The tax acting as a buffer is true. When the price of oil doubled, the US pump price almost doubled while ours went up a much smaller percentage."
.
What nonsense is this? A complete red herring. So if, just as an example, the USA charges 20p a litre (no tax at all) but Labour charge £1 a litre (80p tax + 20p cost per litre) we should all be happy when we get hit with another 20p per litre increase because £1.20 is not double £1.00?
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I was going to agree with Time Bandit's point about you being a spin doctor but perhaps not, even Labour couldn't spin this 'buffer' nonsense about their extortionate fuel taxes.
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And you claimed 20p a mile just for riding a bike? From the taxpayer by any chance? You're not a Labour councillor are you?
.
And Shaky's latest laughable comment:
"As for fuel, if it's too expensive, stop using it".
Yes, of course. Labour has improved public transport so much that the nation's motorists could all stop using their cars tomorrow if they wished. Complete rubbish. Cars are essential, Labour know this, so high fuel taxes are imposed. And yet again, just like alcohol and tobacco taxes, council taxes, etc, fuel taxes hit the lowest earners the hardest. Fuel was 60p a litre when Labour came to power, it is now £1.20 a litre. Labour look after the working man? Don't make me laugh! The billions they have thrown at the NHS and other public sector organisations have been swallowed up by huge salary increases to NHS consultants and doctors, senior council executives and the like - for very little improvement in services.
.
I do like Kate's 'spin on it flower' comment, although I'm not sure Bill Clinton would appreciate the association of Arkansas with right-wing nutters...
miketually
says...
9:32am Mon 22 Mar 10
.
As for the buffer thing, a 20% rise in fuel costs is easier to handle than a 100% rise, as in your example.
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Americans also drive big V8s for long distances, so they're paying just as much per mile as we are. But, if they crash their car they have an expensive medical bill to pay while we get free healthcare, paid for by taxes...
darlo-rhino
says...
1:52pm Mon 22 Mar 10
DWilson
says...
5:11pm Mon 22 Mar 10
darlo-rhino wrote:Interesting point darlo-rhino and not without some substance where some people are concerned. Leads in nicely to my opinions on how Vehicle Excise Duty (or Road Tax as some bleaters prefer to call it) should be levied.
But the americans knowing the cost of healthcare should they crash will drive more slowly and efficiently so as not require health care whereas us Brits can drive like raving loons because we get free health care thus contributing to our tax system more. It explains the rubbish driving in Darlington though.
My proposal is this. Continue with a sliding scale of engine size/emissions/fuel economy but also factor in driver behaviour.
Eg. Add £30 for every 3 points deducted from licence each year until they are reinstated. A ban due to drink driving could be £100 for each year they are banned. If drunk in charge and you try to evade police capture and/or crash car, then £500 for being a total louse. You see where I am going with this? Tax the bad drivers more on top of their fines and make the scumbag drivers pay even more. This should encourage safer, more fuel efficient driving and maybe as a sweetener offset that increased VED for some with reduction in fuel duty. Might take care of a few boy-racers in their Corsas and Saxos too.
maharg01
says...
8:26pm Mon 22 Mar 10
Dean M
says...
10:54pm Mon 22 Mar 10
miketually wrote:I think you're spinning this Mike. Anyone is able to claim 20p per mile from their employer if they ride a bike on business? Anyone? Any business? I don't think so. Employers set their mileage rates, not the HMRC, and I suspect only Public Sector employers pay mileage for riding a bike.
Dean, I claimed the 20p a mile from my employer, as anyone is able to do under HMRC rules.
.
As for the buffer thing, a 20% rise in fuel costs is easier to handle than a 100% rise, as in your example.
.
Americans also drive big V8s for long distances, so they're paying just as much per mile as we are. But, if they crash their car they have an expensive medical bill to pay while we get free healthcare, paid for by taxes...
.
A 20% rise is easier to handle than a 100% rise? Surely not - genius! Talking comparative %'s is a red herring. Petrol has doubled in price under Labour and is heading upwards again. Trying to suggest that a 20p per litre increase is not a massive % increase is not the point at all.
.
I'm sure that some Americans drive V8s for short distances, some of them don't drive V8s at all and that many of them are increasingly fuel conscious just as we are. But it is the high cost of fuel in the UK that is of concern to motorists here.
Kate Buell
says...
7:36am Tue 23 Mar 10
Since then, successive would be governments have uttered that same cry.
My husband told me that prior to 1980, he paid 37.5% tax, the highest for his income band......But he said, you could get a cop when you wanted one, a clean hospital bed as soon as you needed one, free medicine prescritions, and sholls didn't have to hold fetes and bizars to raise funds and they nearly all had large sports frields.
Now of course, there is little of those things mentioned and tax is half of what it was then.
None all of us grown ups, know there is no Santa Claus and governements have no money of their own, and as we all know, you get nothing for nothing so if needed revenue cannot be got from income tax, then it has to be got from elsewhere.
Now I know that governments waste money, all governments, not just this one. However, we all have our ideas about what money should be spent on or what constutes waste. Personally, I think the rockets and missiles you buy from the US are a waste.
The point is, if you want a reasonable health service, cops and education, oh and for the hang and flog brigade on here, defense or as it is of late, attack services, then they have to be paid for.
Of course, if Tony Blair was half as intelligent as he thinks he is, he should have told Bush.."sure George, we'll help you fight BUT you pay for it, kit, weapons, helicopters, cos we just got over paying off the last lot from 39-45"
You can bet your ****, your troops wouldn't be in the middle east now if he had.
No siree, if you don't raise captial one way, you got to raise it another.
*shakes head slowly*
says...
9:20am Tue 23 Mar 10
The noise of another point flying over nick scotts head...LOL!!!!
Tax pays for services.
No tax = no service.
Motorists are a good source of revenue because they are consumers of a valuable resource. Not every journey is essential.
TimeBandit
says...
11:56am Tue 23 Mar 10
"Personally, I think the rockets and missiles you buy from the US are a waste."
Do n't we need them for sinkinking all the oil tankers you advocate?. Oh and **** the crew members who'll be killed and all the oceans and coastlines polluted.
As for your comments calling people rednecks etc, I really think it is you who should head off home, perhapes they're looking for extras for a remake of Deliverance.
*shakes head slowly*
says...
7:57pm Tue 23 Mar 10
Dean M
says...
11:00pm Tue 23 Mar 10
"My husband told me that prior to 1980, he paid 37.5% tax, the highest for his income band......But he said, you could get a cop when you wanted one, a clean hospital bed as soon as you needed one, free medicine prescritions, and sholls didn't have to hold fetes and bizars to raise funds and they nearly all had large sports frields.
Now of course, there is little of those things mentioned and tax is half of what it was then."
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I think your husband either has a bad memory, is looking back through rose-tinted specs or is delusional.
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I think you'll find that total government receipts from taxation were approx 40% of GDP in the 1970s and were approx 40% of GDP in very recent years - so no change in the total, just movement between direct and indirect taxation.
.
My memory of the NHS in the 1970s and 80s is that it was dire. Waiting lists for operations ran into years not months or weeks, hospital buildings were awful, nurses were poorly paid and doctors were even more a law unto themselves than they are now. I remember being in hospital in the early 80s and an old man in the bed opposite asked (very politely) a passing member of staff if he could have a blanket because he was cold. The young woman he asked (who I'm sure was a junior doctor) replied 'Ask a nurse when she passes, she'll get you one'. Obviously beneath her to get a blanket for the old guy.
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Now I hate this current Labour lot as much as the next working class bloke, but I do accept that they have thrown more taxpayers money at the NHS and police than ever before. The service from the NHS has improved under Labour. However, whether the scale of improvement is relative to the huge amount of tax put into the system is not proven and has been doubted by independent analysts.
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I'm also pretty certain that prescriptions were not free for all in the 1970s!
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So no Kate, it's perhaps selective amnesia from your other half, but the 1970s were not a good time in the UK - far from it.
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Super steve says...
2:23pm Thu 18 Mar 10
Just work harder, millions on benefits need your tax money.