Fuel Protest

[bwfs2003]

Link also posted on forums on several Courier/Light Haulage trade websites.

[JOSH_IOU]

thanks for doing that bwfs

[IS IT ME?]

Hi All,
I dont wish to be rude but your car only takes £65.00 to fill a lorry takes a good part of £600.00 so the haluage compines know only to well what is going on.
Thats why so many of them are closeing and trying to cut corners at every turn.
What is all this money being spent on is what the question should be and if they say they are trying (lol) to cut co2 gas then why oh why does most of the trains stop when people need them stop runing on weekends and holidays.
I think driving around the M25 would do far more you can drive at 50 or 40 without breaking the law, do that on a friday or monday and see what happens,
I for one would join just say when.

[JOSH_IOU]

Cheers is it me?.

You make a good point but £65 to someone that is on benefits is a lot of money. Just like £600 to a haulage company is.

your offer of support has been taken into account.

[JOSH_IOU]

Its appreciated as well.

[iwgunter]

Originally Posted by IS IT ME?

I think driving around the M25 would do far more you can drive at 50 or 40 without breaking the law, do that on a friday or monday and see what happens.

You'd probably crash into the person in front of you. Have you driven on the M25 on a weekday before ?

[JOSH_IOU]

hi iwgunter.
Do you have any suggestions?

I think at this stage it may be worth posting a few however i hope our link to the above forum brings support.

No reason why we cant do both if there is enough support.

[iwgunter]

I have read through here and TA'07 and entirely agree with the people who say that nothing we do will get the Government to reduce the fuel price to a sensible level.

The Government keeps creating pointless jobs and the public owned sectors get bogged down in paperwork. I'm sure this is to reduce the unemployment level for their figures only. To afford to pay these poinless wages, the Government must increase taxes on us and the best way is through guilty pleasures. Driving, drinking, smoking, holidays, etc.

To be honest, I don't think there is a way out of it, other than following the example one Mr Guy Fawkes showed us all those years ago.

I wouldn't mind paying out £1.15 per litre at Sainsburys if there was another way to travel. I would need to get 3 different buses each way to/from work and it'd take me over an hour and cost £2 each way, whereas driving in my car takes 15 mins and costs me about £0.60 in diesel each way.

I'd love to buy a hybrid car or own an electric one, but I'm not in a position to be able to buy a new car, so I guess I'll just have to continue bending over and taking whatever the Government want.

I keep saying Government becuase it's not down to G. Brown but every Government there has ever been, pretty much.

[JOSH_IOU]

Wish I could say I'd love to buy a new car.
I cant ive never been able to aford a new car.

Due to my family life when i was at school i never really got much out of school. Looking back i wish some of the help that there is in schools these days were available when I was there.

Purhaps I would be able to form better sentences without having to look at the bbc webwise.

Maybe I would not find it hard to keep a minimum wage job if I did not have memory difficulties. But we have to look at what we have and what we can do with it.

You no CAG is a great tool if only it was used to its best advantage.

We could maybe perhaps given the right support influence government workers and a few of the grassroots Labour Party supporters into lobbying there mp's and Gordon Brown.

They are scared of the power of the internet and we are not using it to our advantage at the moment and we should be. This is the first step though.

[duntisdave]

Originally Posted by dave

Yeah, he's going to hold off the 2p rise for 6 months, THEN he's going to raise it 2.5p. "Oh thank you oh wise one - I'm truly stupid and I truly believe that you are helping us out."

Bah!

The one think I can't stand is to watch the stupidity of people who applaud the raising of fuel duty in the name of 'the environment'.

If raising the price of fuel ACTUALLY got people off of the roads then all fine and dandy - but......IT DOESN'T - now, in my job, if I continually do something that doesn't work, and then keep doing it, I would be sacked (quite rightly). Usually, if I try something that doesn't work, I try something else, and so-on until I find something that DOES work.

There are more cars on the road year on year DESPITE the stupid rises in fuel costs. It therefore does not work. Now, either we are being lied to (my prefered assumption) or we truly do have dunces in the cabinet.

I, for one, do not believe these people to be stupid.

The problem is people HAVE to drive! I don't know any one who drives just for pleasure any more. Therfore, the more the chancellor raises fuel duty, the more income he will raise. He will not prevent any one driving, because ther isn't a viable alternative. This governments answer to everything is to try and make it more expensive. All that happens is the working class man(woman) is being priced out of existence. I have had enough of being treated like this by people who are supposed to have our best interests at heart. All MP's are in it for themselves. As recent news items have proved, The government are as crooked as thieves. We need to get them out of office now!

[petethemanc]

The French have the right idea, if the government are taking the proverbial, then they let it be known. I for one would be for any protest, in any way shape or form.

[IS IT ME?]

You are right in one way, to drive slowly around the M25 is not against the law nor is driving along the sea front at dover.
I for one would do this as I have had enougth now.
So lets see.
tried to post some thing on the transport web site.
let me know when and where, as if no one did any thing were would this site be??????????????????????? ????

[dave]

Originally Posted by duntisdave

The problem is people HAVE to drive! I don't know any one who drives just for pleasure any more. Therfore, the more the chancellor raises fuel duty, the more income he will raise. He will not prevent any one driving, because ther isn't a viable alternative. This governments answer to everything is to try and make it more expensive. All that happens is the working class man(woman) is being priced out of existence. I have had enough of being treated like this by people who are supposed to have our best interests at heart. All MP's are in it for themselves. As recent news items have proved, The government are as crooked as thieves. We need to get them out of office now!

Quite right - that's why it annoys me when people believe the rubbish about high fuel costs being good for the environment. It could be 15 quid a litre and we'd still have to buy it - there would still be more cars on the road year on year.

[dave]

I think there needs to be a huge, well co-ordinated fuel price protest - go slows, blockades etc...

Would starting a forum for just this issue help do you think? (it probably won't be here on CAG though)

[fergal71]

I think disturbances of whatever form should be regional, then people can support easily and I think it would have greater effect....especially if it was publicised through out the country... if anyone has friends in the media...

driving slowly means nothing too people if we have template a4 posters that we put in car windows so people know what we are doing maybe... they will support also.. the masses can change things if they all want for similar things... all people need sometimes is a leader...

let us regionalise various protests, come up with when, where and how(legally) and publicise for maximum effect... I am all for marching on government but we need a comprehensive list of proposals we want them too look at immediately or we take action in to our own hands... it seems as has been discussed this is all they listen too... 10,000 marching on no 10 downing street would make people sit up and see things need to change...

[Castlebest]

If anyone is in any doubt about the false British political claims about transport and the environment all you have to do is look to America, where are all of our "green" government led initiatives? at least Bush is now playing catch up with the rest of the world and we will no doubt have to buy the technology off them.

White House explains Bush's hydrogen car plan | Science Blog

[rvar]

I'm pretty incensed by the cost of fuel (and Road Tax). Here in rural Devon the public transport is poor. The nearest train station is 10 miles away and single carriage dirty trains run every two hours and take forever !

But I do not think this type of fuel protest will work. Potentially motorists are a very powerful political lobby, even if just a small percentage were active it would make a huge difference.

I am an ex Civil Servant who spent 25 years in Whitehall, 15 of them at the Department for Transport ! Ministers are interested in one thing, votes. The best way to get rid of the current mob is to elect someone else. In the meantime, I would target Government MPs with small majorities. You only need maybe a hundred people to write to an MP in this position to get them to put pressure on the Government. If enough MPs get worried about their seats the message will get through.

At the end of the day, the Government has to pay for its spending, it has promised not to raise the basic rate of income tax so it has to find the money from somewhere. They will claim if you cut fuel duty you will have to raise some other tax to pay for hospitals, schools etc.

What gets me is this Government wastes so much money, I wouldn't mind so much if they actually used our money wisely.

Best regards