Is it time to fill up

[paulyoung666]

i nearly caused a riot at my local petrol station , there are 2 entrances to it and i went in the one no one else was using , needless to say the local meatheads were not happy

[BBKing]

I'm amazed to see how much of a deal it was to a lot of people in 2001 - I didn't have a car then and went to work on public transport, so it made naff all difference to me. Nowadays I do drive to work, but there's a parallel train (40-45 minutes longer, though). And I can always work from home if necessary.

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by BBKing

I'm amazed to see how much of a deal it was to a lot of people in 2001 - I didn't have a car then and went to work on public transport, so it made naff all difference to me. Nowadays I do drive to work, but there's a parallel train (40-45 minutes longer, though). And I can always work from home if necessary.

lucky you then , as it would take me over 2 hours to get to work on the bus it is not really an option , and i cant work from home , so for me it is a very big deal

[BBKing]

Quite - it's worrying how much we're dependent on private transport (outside London, anyway). We seriously need better public transport if oil is going to be this high in price (and it is, it's all downhill from here production wise). More efficient cars would be nice, too, of course.

I filled up as normal tonight - it didn't seem any busier than normal.

[Russ]

Would be nice if we had a pro-motorist government for once though, then hopefully incidents like this would be rare.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by BBKing

I'm amazed to see how much of a deal it was to a lot of people in 2001 - I didn't have a car then and went to work on public transport, so it made naff all difference to me. Nowadays I do drive to work, but there's a parallel train (40-45 minutes longer, though). And I can always work from home if necessary.

I would love to go to work on public transport if only it was reliable and feasible.

My car journey takes about an hour and 10 mins to get there in the morning, the earliest train from my local station (over 2 miles away) would make me late by nearly an hour, it would also involve two changes, one at Bristol and another at Cheltenham. I would then have to leave after only working a six and a half hour day, so I could be home before 20:00 hours.

And the privlidge would also involve costs a fair bit more than my current fuel bill. Public transport is very poor except in large towns and cities, I get annoyed at idiots like the Liberal party who say they are going to tax heavy to force people to use public transport.

[Russ]

I'd love a bus or train which will leave Gowerton in Swansea at 2am to bring me back home from my show but given the state of transport around here, that's just not going to happen.

So my car it is then.

Anyway this protest isn't about fuel tax but about the lack of support for the diesel using lorry drivers.Who I think do have a point.They are facing competition from the continetal lorry drivers who all get concessions and pay lower fuel taxes and this government promised to look at the situation after the last lot of trouble in 2001 but just forgot about it.However I thinking blockading won't solve anything and won't get the government doing anything.

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

i nearly caused a riot at my local petrol station , there are 2 entrances to it and i went in the one no one else was using , needless to say the local meatheads were not happy

Give em hell Paul!!!

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Escapee

I would love to go to work on public transport if only it was reliable and feasible.

My car journey takes about an hour and 10 mins to get there in the morning, the earliest train from my local station (over 2 miles away) would make me late by nearly an hour, it would also involve two changes, one at Bristol and another at Cheltenham. I would then have to leave after only working a six and a half hour day, so I could be home before 20:00 hours.

And the privlidge would also involve costs a fair bit more than my current fuel bill. Public transport is very poor except in large towns and cities, I get annoyed at idiots like the Liberal party who say they are going to tax heavy to force people to use public transport.

I think a lot of people would. I personally do use public transport, but thats partly because I can't drive (although I will be learning once my eye is sorted), and partly because it would actually take me longer to get to work by car (bizarre, I know, but the traffic around Catford and Lewisham is a nightmare in the morning), and I would have the headache of parking (there are 200 or so spaces on our campus, but over 3,500 people that could potentially want to use them. You have to be in by 7 to be guaranteed a space.

It would be considerably cheaper for me to drive though.

The problem with public transport here is that the first bus doesn't leave my borough of Gosport until 6.30 am.Unfortunately hubby has to be in Havant by 7.00am.Therefore he has to either get a lift or drive.So using public transport is scuppered right from the start.

[BBKing]

I get annoyed at idiots like the Liberal party who say they are going to tax heavy to force people to use public transport.

Where in the LD manifesto does it say this? Presumably you've read it before coming out with such a damning assessment.

It actually says:
1) Cut car tax for more efficient cars (presumably putting it up on *less* efficient cars, reading between the lines).

2) Encourage congestion charging (which isn't a tax, as it's optional for most people - for people for whom it isn't optional I'd cut it, personally, as a hardship grant)

3) Replace fuel tax and car tax with usage-based charging (whether this is technologically feasible or not is another matter, but we're interested in what they *say* here).

It also says that 'For many people..cars are a necessity and cannot be replaced by public transport'.

IMHO the LD manifesto on transport is quite weak, unfortunately. Nothing on nationalising the rail industry, for instance, which anyone serious about public transport has to do* (the Greens have it in, of course). And I don't see anything wrong with making people pay for the congestion and pollution they cause. If you're stuck in a traffic jam it's because a lot of people like you have chosen to drive on a road without the capacity for you all to be there, so it's your responsibility.

*Because it would save the cost of the UK's bit of the Iraq War every year in subsidies, around £4.5bn

[Xaccers]

Oh please let there be blockades and fuel shortages again, pretty please!
Have you seen the price of diesel?? It's over 91p a ltr here around milton keynes!
When you consider on the rest of the continent it's about 2/3 to 3/4 the price of their unleaded, how can they justify the extra cost over here?
I think, thanks to the previous blockades and campains by the AA, people realise that the fuel companies and garage owners don't make much money from the sale of fuel, people know it's all down to tax.
And of course the tax/duty is a percentage of the price of the goods, so oil goes up because of the situation in the gulf, and hey presto it goes up even more because of the resultant duty increase!
Treasury is nice and happy, all this extra cash, no direct tax rise by goverment, in fact Gordon "I'll increase the escalator to 6p per year "Brown can say "ooo no, because of the high price of oil, we won't put up fuel duty", no, because you've already got the extra money needed you git!

Last year I took a ferry to france and filled up with 100ltrs of diesel. The savings paid for the cost of the ferry!

So come on lorry drivers and farmers, get the blockades going and lets use that to oust Labour!

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Oh please let there be blockades and fuel shortages again, pretty please!

And how is that going to make a difference? How will that do anything other than build up resentment against the people running the blockades? I remember back in 2000 queueing up for petrol, cursing the people responsible for the delays who, by their own admission, started off the fuel protests to speak out against the cost of petrol for lorries and transport firms, NOT the average person in the street who needed the stuff for their cars.