Five years ago it plunged the country into chaos and threw the Government into crisis, and now its organisers are hoping for a repeat performance. But is the time ripe for another fuel protest? Nick Morrison reports.

IT began, like all the most strident protests, across the Channel. Angry at rising fuel prices, French farmers, hauliers and taxi drivers blockaded towns and cities, turning France into a huge traffic jam at one of the busiest times of the year, as people returned from the August holiday.

A few days after it ended over there, a handful of farmers over here turned up at the Stanlow oil refinery at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, stopping tankers from going in and out. It made the news, although there was no indication of the chaos to come.

But, more by accident than design, the British protest quickly spread. An ad hoc alliance of farmers and hauliers, perhaps only slowly realising the effect they were having, began to form. Blockades sprang up at refineries up and down the country. Convoys of lorries and tractors brought major roads to a halt.

Aided by panic buying, and rumours of panic buying, petrol stations began to run dry. Drivers waited hours to fill up their cars. There were stories of some motorists so desperate to avoid a future petrol drought that they would stop to put in as little as £1 worth of fuel. As the shortage hit the movement of food and supplies, supermarkets began to limit how much bread and milk customers could buy.

For nine days, Britain was gripped by petrol fever. By the time the blockades had been called off, the protestors had amply demonstrated the power a small number of people could wield, if they retained public support.

And of all the protests faced by Tony Blair's Government - from hunt supporters, anti-war campaigners, campaigners against tuition fees - it was the fuel protestors who were most successful. Their prime target was the tax levied on fuel. At the end of the protest, Chancellor Gordon Brown suspended a planned rise in duty, which is still on hold.

But this has not been enough for veterans of the 2000 protest. Andrew Spence, the Consett farmer who emerged as one of the leaders of what five years ago was the People's Fuel Lobby, now just the Fuel Lobby, has returned to haunt the Prime Minister, promising a renewed wave of disruption, starting tomorrow.

Blockades and go-slows have been threatened in a three-day demonstration of the power of the protestors to force the Government to negotiate. Fired by petrol breaking through the £1 a litre barrier in some areas, and mindful of the fifth anniversary of their finest hour on Friday, they are once again ready to take to the streets.

Government protestations that the rise in prices is a result of a worldwide shortfall in supply, a combination of the unrest in Iraq and the devastation Hurricane Katrina wreaked on the US oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, have failed to dent the Fuel Lobby's ardour for action.

Kate Gibbs, of the Road Haulage Association, says there is a continuing and profound unhappiness with the level of tax paid by British hauliers, compared with their continental competitors.

"We support any action, as long as it is legal and as long as disruption to the public is kept to a minimum," she says. "Despite Hurricane Katrina, the fact remains that the basic price of fuel before tax here is one of the lowest in all EU member states.

"It is the crippling excise duty that is causing a problem. We have no control over the basic price of fuel, but what we do have control over, or what Gordon Brown has control over, is the level of excise duty."

By yesterday, there were signs that fears of new blockades were causing some panic buying. Ray Holloway, director of the Petrol Retailers Association, says there has been an increase in trade, although it varies around the country. But he claims there are key differences which suggest September 2005 will not be a re-run of September 2000.

"What is different is that, before, the police were perhaps unsure of what their powers were, and we didn't know what the implications of the protests were," he says. "We understand the implications now and the police understand their powers to keep the highways open.

"The law about blockading the highway is quite specific and I would expect the police to deal with any proposed demonstrations of that kind quite quickly."

Ministers have also discussed plans to deal with any threat to supplies, helped by the fact that, unlike last time, they have been given plenty of warning of possible blockades. Measures which have been considered include restricting the amount of fuel a motorist can buy at any one time, or restricting the hours petrol stations can stay open.

"A lot has been learned from September 2000," says Mr Holloway. "That was really just a debacle and it is a case of making sure it doesn't happen again.

'The key thing is to maintain normality for as long as possible. We want to preserve stocks on forecourts so it is there for people who need it, but it isn't about queue-jumping to buy another five litres. If you introduce a minimum purchase of £20-£25, there will be significantly fewer cars in the queue for refuelling."

But he says the most important difference between now and five years ago is how much public support the protestors receive. If their blockades and go-slows are met with a tide of hostility, it is difficult to see them continuing. Indeed, a number of attempts to reinstate blockades since 2000 have all fizzled out, making little impact either on fuel supplies or on the public consciousness.

"It should not be taken for granted that we're going to see our roads grind to a halt. I forecast that, when it comes, this is not going to be an event of the magnitude of 2000," he says. "Circumstances are different now. Then, it was 80p a litre and 80 per cent tax, today it is nearer 60 per cent tax.

"But also people are better informed and understand that the oil element of this cost is because of problems in the industry, and the Government doesn't actually influence that. I don't think the public are going to support this protest."

Dr Joan Harvey, chartered psychologist at Newcastle University, shares this scepticism. She says many people are aware that the high fuel prices are related to Hurricane Katrina, and do not hold the Government responsible. She also believes that many people recognise the link between taxation and public services, and realise that if the Chancellor cuts the duty on fuel, then public spending will have to be reduced as well.

"The public does have a sense of what is a fair and a just case, and they're also uncomfortable about giving up some of their lifestyle over a cause they don't support or understand," she says. "People are not going to believe that a small number of people are going to make the Government switch its policy and if they don't believe that they're not going to support it. I think it is going to fall terribly flat."

But despite the scepticism, and despite a Government warned of its intentions, the Fuel Lobby still looks likely to go ahead with its plans. Whether September 2005 becomes another September 2000 will depend on whether their protest captures public support in the way it did five years ago.