Fuel Protest

[Kezzer]

In guernsey, you pay half the price for fuel than you do here. I think it's 82p per gallon/litre in england? whereas it's 41p per litre/gallon in guernsey

[Timmy!!!]

Yep it sure is cheap over there. Btw kezzer where are you from in Guernsey, my mum is from there and I have loads of family over there so I'm a regular visitor.

[Kezzer]

Originally i lived in st sampsons about 9 years ago but now i live in st peter port (about 5 mins from town)

[Fox]

My mistake.

Having said that, this argument could be applied to pretty much every product in the UK. It's not the government's fault that oil prices are rising. .

No but you don't just pay VAT on the petrol part of the price, you also pay it on the duty as well. So, you pay a fixed rate of tax AND then you pay tax on the tax!

[DaBeeeenster]

No but you don't just pay VAT on the petrol part of the price, you also pay it on the duty as well. So, you pay a fixed rate of tax AND then you pay tax on the tax!

Where do you suggest the money comes from instead?

[DaBeeeenster]

Why can't the government be more efficient with OUR money. Do more with less. Why should they continue to increase the tax burden (as a percentage of GDP) year on year?

I want the government to do less not more. People are much more efficient at spending money than the government. Pick up a copy of The Guardian and look at all the non jobs being advertised in the Employment section -that's where the money goes.

All governments attempt to drive efficiencies in the public sector. Unfortunately there is no magic bullet. People want more police on the streets, a more well equipped armed forces, better roads, more hospitals blah blah blah. Do you want smaller government? What sectors would you be happy making reductions in?

[Konan555]

Where do you suggest the money comes from instead?

errrr

Well they can start with Shell and BP. Who, last year, turned enough over to be eligable for a government 'supertax' but where let off.

[5lab]

so they tax shell and bp, who in return up fuel prices to cope with the profit loss.. and we end up paying the same. point being??

[DaBeeeenster]

errrr

I agree that in theory this is a good idea, but it has potentially painful ramifications. What do you think the oil co.s might well do if they are suddenly sent windfall tax invoices by Mr Brown? What do you think it will do to oil companies that are thinking of increasing their business in the UK?

Most importantly, where does the money come from when they do not have a bumper year?

[Fox]

Where do you suggest the money comes from instead?

Lets have some more tax on smokers, perhaps. Or the licensed drinks trade. Or we could cut down on wastage, like spending millions on beurocracy.

[Konan555]

so they tax shell and bp, who in return up fuel prices to cope with the profit loss.. and we end up paying the same. point being??

The point being they make a ludicrous amount of money and should run at a lower margin.

[tom deloford]

With both the government and oil comps having the ability to adjust prices when one drops their price (by a penny or so) the other simply puts it back on, this way they make more money and no one notices, this has meant that both are very reluctant to "waste" a penny.

The consequence of that over the years is a petrol price creep which the British public has meekly accepted until recently. Its only now that it is so extortionately expensive that business are finding it hard to survive and so people are forced to act.

btw shell made £9.3bn last year.

[Tifosi]

Originally Posted by DaBeeeenster
Where do you suggest the money comes from instead?

More tax on ciggarettes, infact double the tax.
Legalise drugs and whack a huge tax on it, cut back spending n drug law enforcement.
Legalise brothels and tax that, not quite sure how you'd tax it.
Increase the tax on fast food like McD's, Burger King, KFC etc.
Tax the voluntary unemployed for being unemployed make them look for jobs. (Tax them after paying their benefits and increase the tax as their out of work period increases).

Introduce phone ringtone tax to stop annoying ringtones aka Frog & Birds
And perhaps best of all a Chav tax, just for being a Chav. (so they'd end up paying nearly all of them).

[iranu]

Do not forget that an awful lot of pensions portfolios have stock in BP and shell. As soon as you start throwing windfall taxes around (just because people are jealous of successful corporations) then you hit the MILLIONS OF ORDINARY PEOPLE - YES YOU AND ME who have pension funds.

Lots of corporations/businesses will spread their pension liabilities through the stock market. They like people like BP and Shell because they are reliable.

As for smaller government -

How about not getting involved with dogs like MG Rover (forcing BMW to sell to the "Pheonix Four") and later chucking £6.5m of mine and your money down the pan.

Look at what happened when Stephen "Bozo" Byers put railtrack into administration. Costs have soared and we are no better off. Infact there is a legal dispute where railtrack shareholders, ORDINARY PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND ME, are taking the government to court because they believe the government acted illegally.

Railtrack share price was over £9 yet the government bought the shares COMPULSORY for £2.50 leaving the average joe £3000 worse off.

Look at the way John Prescott is pushing ahead with his Pathfinder schemes. He's looking to knock down 400,000, mostly sound Victorian terraced, homes in the North at a cost of £17,000 a time and build new homes for £60,000 (what out of cardboard), which will destroy the character of these cities.

Most of these houses would go for £200,000 in the south so why is he knocking them down. Why not spend the £17,000 on doing them up or better still why not address the real problem of lack of work and opportunity for those people in these run down areas by giving business incentive to move/set up there. He's making the same old mistakes they made in the 60's. Let the market decide what needs to be built and where for what price.

WAIT FOR IT IT'S A BOMBSHELL which is gonna ignite this thread, like a fireworks factory,

I would like to see Health and Education removed from government control. Just for a start. They use them like political footballs and don't really give a monkeys about the people that have to use these services.

[DaBeeeenster]

Lets have some more tax on smokers, perhaps. Or the licensed drinks trade. Or we could cut down on wastage, like spending millions on beurocracy.

Maybe you can point out exactly where the millions of "beurocracy" (sic) could be saved?

[Rave]

How about not getting involved with dogs like MG Rover (forcing BMW to sell to the "Pheonix Four") and later chucking £6.5m of mine and your money down the pan.

It's hardly been chucked down the pan- it's being given to workers who have suddenly found themselves unemployed.

Look at what happened when Stephen "Bozo" Byers put railtrack into administration. Costs have soared and we are no better off.

Figures to prove that costs have soared?

Infact there is a legal dispute where railtrack shareholders, ORDINARY PEOPLE LIKE YOU AND ME, are taking the government to court because they believe the government acted illegally.

Railtrack share price was over £9 yet the government bought the shares COMPULSORY for £2.50 leaving the average joe £3000 worse off.

The Railtrack share price may have been £9 at it's highest, but that company was brought down by bad management and utter greed and I have precisely no sympathy with people who lost money. If you invest in a bad company that's your lookout. Put your money in a savings account if you don't want to take any risks.

Look at the way John Prescott is pushing ahead with his Pathfinder schemes. He's looking to knock down 400,000, mostly sound Victorian terraced, homes in the North at a cost of £17,000 a time and build new homes for £60,000 (what out of cardboard), which will destroy the character of these cities.

Prescott is a t*sser and that scheme is a disgrace, I wholeheartedly agree.

WAIT FOR IT IT'S A BOMBSHELL which is gonna ignite this thread, like a fireworks factory,

I would like to see Health and Education removed from government control. Just for a start. They use them like political footballs and don't really give a monkeys about the people that have to use these services.

Boom! Er...not

Maybe you can point out exactly where the millions of "beurocracy" (sic) could be saved?

I dunno- maybe a wholesale cull of the 'delivery managers', 'diversity managers' and £200k a year council 'Chief Exectutives' would be a good place to start. In fairness though, the government are at least doing something to cut back on bureaucracy, my £16k junior admin job ceases to exist in 6 months time. Just gotta find a way to hop on the consultancy gravy train now. Maybe I'll specialise in 'delivering diversity'.