There is actually a group of people to whom the latest UK anti-terror laws apply who thoroughly deserve to feel the authoritarian wrath of Tony, David and Charlie.
If you think that the fuel price is so high it’s causing you serious suffering, that’s because you live in the wrong place and/or have the wrong job. Nobody in a country the size of the UK needs to take a long commute for a low-paid job, and anyone with a high-paid job can easily afford to drive even at current fuel prices.
Meanwhile, if truckers are suffering because they can’t raise rates and still attract custom, that’s clearly a sign that we have too many of them. They should ask for adjustment grants to sell up and learn how to do something desirable, rather than continuing their economically and environmentally unsustainable way of life. If they did, I’d be strongly in favour of helping them out.
Their main argument last time (apart from the desire to overthrow the government and make a name for themselves) was that the fuel duty had been pushed too high by Con/Lab governments vis-a-vis Europe’s, and so they were uncompetitive against those firms. This time it’s been the international price, so the argument doesn’t work.
I am an engineer living on the south coast. Successive governments have destroyed my industry and each time a company I’ve worked for has failed I have only been able to find another job further away from home. Now I’m driving 100 miles a day. Do I want to? No I fucking don’t. Do I want to continue my career as an engineer? No chance.
Changing career means retraining and, unless you are very lucky or a good bullshitter, a salary drop – something I can’t afford to do. So, while I retrain and build up my skills outside of engineering I have no choice but to put up with both high fuel prices and pointless fuel strikes (or rumours of strikes).
Time for a change – invest in research in bio-diesels, bio-ethanol, fuel cells. Drop the fuel duty on bio-diesels. Why spend resources nicking people using bio-diesels without paying duty? Introduce tax-breaks for non-oil based fuels. Use the EU to enforce manufacture of engines that will accept vegetable oil based fuels without modification. Implement a policy enforcing all public vehicles to use non-oil based fuels.
Then one day perhaps we can tell OPEC to shove their oil up their collective arses.
Abso Fucking Lutely johnb! If it was me, I’d line them up, along with the self-styled ‘rural lobby’ and the McCarthyites, and string their still-warm corpses from lampposts along the M4 pour encourager les autres. See how strongly they feel about this non-issue then.
And if the flat taxers want to join them…
Oooh dear, HIOP, that’ll have someone weeping into their whisky.
Anyway, I’m not sure I’d trust the kind of genius who seeks to lower the price of petrol (or anything else) by restricting the supply.
I’m not sure I’d trust the kind of genius who seeks to lower the price of petrol (or anything else) by restricting the supply.
I think they want to provoke a crisis — bring about the "shake of the kaleidoscope" which will set everything in motion, and allow them to determine the shape of the world when it settles. In this way they are, at least, a little bit like THE TERRORISTS, but quite unlike Tony Blair, who has never been known to provoke a crisis.
I quite disagree about the use of the Terrorism Act against fuel protestors, by the way. After all, don’t we have all sorts of 1980s-era legislation against this sort of picketing, and oughtn’t we to try using that first? In any case, the previous "petrol crisis" was great — it made cycling around town much more pleasant.
If you think that the fuel price is so high it’s causing you serious suffering, that’s because you live in the wrong place and/or have the wrong job.
Let’s see John. If I’m a sheep farmer in mid-Wales or Cumbria in my mid to late 50s then you’re almost certainly right that I live in the wrong place and have the wrong job. But what do you suggest I do about it?
I’m entirely with you in being opposed to fuel blockades etc, but not for the first time here on SBBS there’s a nasty whiff of indifference or even contempt for those to whom the market has dealt a bum hand.
Whereas I agree that this round of fuel protests is silly, it simply isn’t true that those for whom high fuel prices are a problem have brought it upon themselves. It’s a great free market fallacy that everyone can just up sticks and land a new job as and when they please. What are you advocating exactly? That everyone who lives outside the reach of urban public transport networks should move into town? It’s hardly their fault if rural public transport is near as damn it inexistant.
In fairness, we already pay a hell of a lot of money through the CAP to support farmers in marginal areas, and we’re already trying to come up with some way to gradually stop doing so. One way or the other that’s going to put a lot of farms out of business, whatever happens to fuel prices. So this isn’t a new problem.
In the case of other sectors of the economy (specifically, the ones where people have to pay fuel duty), well, oughtn’t the (now discontinued) fuel tax escalator have conditioned people to adjust to long-term rises in fuel prices? And if people haven’t responded to a fairly clear price signal, what kind of policy is going to work?
It’s hard to think anything other than they’re planning something similar to last time.
Lobby spokesman Andrew Spence said: "We are not calling for a blockade, but if oil companies decide they cannot send out lorries while there is a public presence at their site, then that is a matter for them."
And Andrew Green has said this is only "the start of things to come".
Whilst I take Chris Lightfoot’s point that its all a good hoot for while, it did turn rather nasty in the end and there were real problems.
Surely the most easy way to deal with the motorway blockades would be to impose a minimum speed on the motorways?
I don’t quite follow the haulage companies economic arguments. Surely they can pass the costs onto their customers, ie Tescos, or whoever it is? It’s not like stuff can be moved around the country by rail or air more than it is now. Or is there something big I’m missing?
Wasn’t the complaint from the haulage companies last time that nasty foreign hauliers were buying up cheaper diesel in France, then bringing it to this country and using it to fuel their vehicles?
I believe so, but that complaint (see first comment) has lost much of its validity as the tax hasn’t changed in Britain since 2000, but the oil component has soared. So all countries have suffered.
Incidentally with the oil price nearly $70/bbl, I did find it rather amusing the BBC had a report of the forthcoming Frankfurt Motor Show and the news that Mercedes main product launch was going to be an AMG souped-up version of their huge SUV, which will have over 500 bhp, whilst VW planned to retaliate with a 240bhp Gold, and 8 litre Bugatti, and a Bentley that is the world’s fastest convertible.
Golf, not gold, sorry.
"not for the first time here on SBBS there’s a nasty whiff of indifference or even contempt for those to whom the market has dealt a bum hand."
I think you’ll find Chris, that the indifference or contempt tends to be reserved for those to whom the market generally caters, and who themselves couldn’t give a flying fuck about what the market does to others.
"not for the first time here on SBBS there’s a nasty whiff of indifference or even contempt for those to whom the market has dealt a bum hand."
But John is talking about national (even international, given this rapidly ends up being an EU issue) economic policy. It’s just not possible to not screw-over someone: at the very least, it would mean less tax revenue which will hit someone: is a farmer worth more than civil servant? And that’s not a long-term solution: fuel prices are going to keep rising, and if we keep cutting the tax component, eventually there will be no tax, and still 1 quid a litre. Get used to it now, I say.
I actually find John’s straight-talking fairly refreshing: at least he’s honest that someone is going to be out of a job and have a hard time, unlike most people who seem to pretend that you can have a major economic change without anyone having a rough time of it. To be fair, John does also call for helping, say, truckers to change careers.
I think you’ll find Chris, that the indifference or contempt tends to be reserved for those to whom the market generally caters, and who themselves couldn’t give a flying fuck about what the market does to others.
John’s post on Gate Gourmet and his advocacy of paying minimum wage to as many people in that industry as possible is still rather fresh in my mind.