Would this work?

[parkmoy]

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the market place

not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not

purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:

 

For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP.

 

 

If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's

really simple to do!!

 

Now, don't wimp out at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

 

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the

message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and

pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it... ..

 

THREE HUNDRED MILLIONPEOPLE!!!

 

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.(and not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt,

all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8days!!! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes

sense to you, please pass this message on.

 

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 69p aLITRE RANGE

 

It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol at Shell, Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons Jet etc. i.e. boycott BP and Esso

 

 

[chas]

Hi -David, While I agree that fuel prices are a rip off, myself personaly would not blame the oil companys totaly, I have always believed that the taxation put on by goverments, particulary our own , is the root cause of the price that we pay at the pumps . If you see what the petroleum companys make from a gallon of fuel its only a small amount of the total price. So what else can we do, well blocking the refinerys was tried and did worry the goverment, but I dont think it will work again. My only thought is to write to our M.Ps and let them know that come the next general election our votes will go to a goverment that takes off this high rate of taxation on fuel, but then again where will the money come from to fund all the silly spending thats considered vital to this country,and others who have hand outs from the British tax payer.

[CliveH]

 

 

Agreed Chas - all targeting one company does is to put that companies employee’s jobs at risk – and they should not be the target! – Government spending and taxation should be the focus..

 

This a stupid naive and potentially vindictive idea best confined to the dustbin.

 

The only way to get fuel prices down to a sensible level is to reduce the burden of taxation.

 

With the real cost of a Litre of petrol or diesel being about 30p, and the level of taxation being about 70p, the only way fuel prices will come down to 69p a litre as muted above WITHOUT a reduction in taxation is for the oil companies to give the ruddy stuff away for free!!!

 

Think back to the concept of £2000 road tax - the Lib Dems were advocating that and lost votes by the shed load.

 

If we as the voting public stopped voting for the main three parties and chose an independent suited to local needs then the status quo will be disrupted. And if that local independent candidate makes fuel taxation part of their platform then so much the better!

 

 

 

[Tony Jones]

Sorry guys, I'm not with you on this one.

 

Since many people need to have a car available, even if they don't use it very much, and since there are such high fixed costs to keeping a car on the road (depreciation, road tax, insurance, MoT), the financial incentive is to use it as much as possible to make it earn its keep - which is bad for congestion (hence other drivers) and for the environment (hence all of us).

 

Depreciation is already partially related to mileage, but I would abolish road tax, provide free MoT tests (just the test, not the remedial work!) and

free 3rd-party insurance to low-risk drivers. The cost of all this to be met from a combination of higher fuel tax (yes, HIGHER - what planet do YOU live on?) and road tolls where appropriate. Additional insurance costs (for fully comp, or higher-risk drivers) should be costed by insurers on a "per mile" basis not a "per annum" one.

 

If as much of the cost as possible were converted into "cost per mile," the incentive would be to own a car (and a scooter, and a M'home) for when you need it, but only to use them when necessary, and then only the smallest of your "fleet" which could do the job. Many more journeys would become economical to make by public transport.

 

A bonus would be: no more untaxed or uninsured vehicles on the road, and fewer without MoT.

 

Whaddya think guys and gals?

 

Tony

[CliveH]

Some sensible concepts in the main Tony – but to be fair I can see some huge pitfalls!

 

And I do not mind paying taxes and yes I want to save the planet but :-

 

a) The ACC = Catastrophe new religion is just the old communist weirdoes we always put up with just changing tack now that Communism has been proved a blind alley. These sudden converts to "green" issues are well known for using any trick they can to try to destabilise society. They are known generally as the "watermelon environmentalists" - green on the outside - red on the inside.

 

So b) given the above why is it that France for example has done away with its Road tax system because it was unfair on the low user and the system itself was very expensive to administer - as indeed is ours. France put the cost of road tax onto they cost of fuel!

 

And their fuel is still about 75% of what we pay and they pay no road tax!

 

So as I say - I am all for saving the planet but do we UK motorists have to pay for the rest of the world as well?

 

And as we seem to be paying more than our fair share than the rest of the EU certainly and the world in general in seems - what truly planet saving ideas is this Government of hours actually using all this extra money they tax us?

 

Our haulage industry is crucified by other EU operators with extra tanks for a fill up on the other side of the channel and of course they pay no road tax when they are here.

 

I do not think the UK motorist gets a fair deal.

 

All I would like is a level playing field.

 

All these "freebies" you advocate - like free Third party insurance - who would actually provide such cover and who would pay into the scheme so that the inevitable claims can be met?

 

Same with the MOT - who pays the garage for its time. They do not do what they do for recreational purposes - they do it as a business. You seem to have lost sight of economic reality here Tony. (lol) (lol)

 

But I am right with you on the conversion to cost per mile!

 

I emailed my local Lib Dem guy a while back and showed him that my Discovery on LPG did just over 5000 miles between MOT's and asked him why I should pay £2000 whereas a sales rep in a Ford Escort can do starship mileage each year and yet pay a fraction of the Road Tax under their proposals.

 

 

As I say - it is about time we as motorists let those in power who wield unfair taxes EXACTLY what we think!