WHY are prices rising in stores and shops? The most simple and obvious answer must be the rise in fuel price for transportation to retail outlets.

Retailers are charged more for delivery and, to offset these charges, it obviously follows that they raise prices to break even.

It has been my opinion for a long time that goods hauliers should have been exempt from the rising cost of fuel in order to stabilise the cost of goods for the consumer.

Some years ago I sent a letter to the then Transport Minister suggesting this exemption. I did not receive a reply.

No doubt the minister's mind would have been on more revenue for the Government's coffers, to the detriment of the consumer's purse - as usual.

GH Grieveson, Richmond, North Yorkshire.

I WOULD like to support the hauliers of this country in their protest against high fuel prices.

At the time of writing, one litre of fuel cost £1.15p in the UK. In the US, one gallon of fuel cost $4.17. This means we in the UK are paying four times as much for fuel, yet the price of a "barrel" is the same the world over. Whose government is ripping off whom?

John Parrott, Northallerton, North Yorkshire.