its finally happend

[Craig.]

Well the day many car owners dreaded has happend in Birmingham. The cost of a litre of petrol jumped over the

[Saitek]

Thanks to the weather in the US.
Here  is a couple of links you could include Craig.  :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4217554.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4215996.stm

[Craig.]

Thanks:)
I didnt really want to include anything to do with the smaller stations in the little country villages because they have always been much higher in price.
those will do though:)

[loomex]

[quote] Well the day many car owners dreaded has happend in Birmingham. The cost of a litre of petrol jumped over the

[Craig.]

national average is now

[Hagar]

I know this has been done to death but I don't think there's any way of comparing UK & US petrol prices. The whole pricing system is different, not to mention the fluctuating exchange rate, difference between Imperial & US gallons & the fact that petrol in the UK is sold in litres. A one penny per litre price increase at the pumps might not sound much until you realise that there's 4.55 litres to an Imp gallon. Just thinking about converting that at this time of night makes my head hurt.

Bear in mind that a large percentage of the UK price is tax so the Chancellor is happily raking in vast amounts of extra revenue with every increase in the price of oil itself. It's not likely to happen but it would help a great deal if an upper limit was set so that no tax applies when the price of the product reaches a certain level.

I expect the price to increase steadily over the next few months before it levels out. It's not likely to come down so we have to get used to it. From past experience, motorists will pay the going rate. They don't have much choice. I can remember a 'temporary' emergency tax increase of sixpence per gallon in 1956 to cover the Suez Crisis. It was never removed & nobody really expected it to.

People tend to forget that increased fuel prices affect almost everything you can think of so this is bound to have a knock-on effect on the economy.

[H]

In the U.S.there are Federal taxes and each state has its own tax system (I believe all 50 have a tax on gasoline).. Now there is talk about a consumption tax-upon-tax. We may soon have forgotten what that little tiff was about at the end of the 1700's

[Hagar]

We may soon have forgotten what that little tiff was about at the end of the 1700's

It was a long time ago & I forget what all that was about now. I don't think the objection was in paying tax itself. It was who they were paying the tax to & apparently getting very little benefit from it. The British settlers among them had presumably come to the New World to get away from all that.

No country can survive without some sort of taxation system but a tax on tax, as we pay on petrol in the UK, is beyond a joke.

Meanwhile, I heard about this on BBC radio last night but couldn't find any more about it until now. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4221296.stm

[quote]Further fuel protests threatened

[H]

It was a long time ago & I forget what all that was about now. I don't think the objection was in paying tax itself. It was who they were paying the tax to & apparently getting very little benefit from it.

The main cry was, "No taxation without reprsentation!" Tax laws were being passed that affected the colonies but colonists had no one of their own to represent them in Parliament. It wasn't, however, the lone reason -- and it may not have been the main one.

They've tried this before http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4221296.stm & it simply made things worse, causing widespread disruption & bad feelings. It made not one jot of difference to the petrol companies, the government or the price of the petrol. I can't see how these people think it will do any good this time.

Normal supply and demand theme. If the supply decreases and the demand doesn't, prices increase according to the demand. It's rather like going on strike for higher wages: the company starts paying higher wages and charges their customers more to compensate. Wiithin a couple months or so, everyone is paying that much more for the things they were wanting the raise for, anyway. .

[Hagar]

"No taxation without reprsentation!"

Precisely.

Normal supply and demand theme. If the supply decreases and the demand doesn't, prices increase according to the demand. It's rather like going on strike for higher wages: the company starts paying higher wages and charges their customers more to compensate. Wiithin a couple months or so, everyone is paying that much more for the things they were wanting the raise for, anyway. .

It's actually more far-reaching than that. As I pointed out before, the price of fuel affects almost everything you can think of. The same applies to fuel shortages. If the delivery companies can't get the fuel to run their trucks it causes shortages of essential supplies like food. People start stockpiling food they will never have any use for making a bad situation worse. The same with fuel itself with big queues outside the petrol stations that still have supplies. All this leads to inconvenience for the general public, bad tempers & general pandemonium. It's already been shown that this achieves nothing as motorists will still need the fuel if they wish to carry on using their vehicles. They will get it when it becomes available so causing shortages has no effect at all on the petrol companies or the prices. It might have the reverse effect as petrol stations with supplies can charge what they like for it. The demand will still be there when normal supplies are resumed. The only people to really suffer are the tanker drivers & other employees who don't get paid if there's nothing to deliver.

I can't help but wonder what would happen in the case of a real emergency.

[Craig.]

can't help but wonder what would happen in the case of a real emergency.

i'd say new orleans is a good example of how people react in a crisis.

[Hagar]

Slightly off-topic but while we're on the subject; I copied this from the BBC website.



Now I know that what we refer to as petrol (petroleum spirit) is called gas (gasoline) in the US but this is a sign somewhere in the UK. Can somebody explain to me what Gas Oil is. I travel around a fair bit but must confess to not seeing that before.

[Sytse]

I thought the prices dropped a bit again, after the US gave free some reserves...

[-sam-]

Well it

[Souichiro]

Prices in Hollland are over 70% Taxes.. That's quite a lot!