Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms July 4th travel alert !

This will waste even more fuel and inconvenience masses of people trying to earn a living or taking a holiday, be warned it could be country wide.

Sounds like we're trying to be more European and not take everything the government throw at us lying down. I think I read somewhere that protests in France, Italy and Spain have prevented further fuel price increases?

To be fair, any CX owner won't be affected..

Haven't seen or heard of any protests down here.

Just a very quick scan of google gave me details Yellow Vest fuel protests in Nov 2018, Dec 2018, Oct 2021 and March 2022......

Some even resulted in deaths. Censorship must be very good in France!

Fuel Protests in France, Italy and Spain

I'm all in favour of people getting off their arses and showing their displeasure, but I can't help thinking anger at the government is a bit misplaced.

Crude Oil prices at the moment are in the $95 range, but Petrol is like £2 a litre. In 2005 crude oil was in the $130 region, but petrol was around £1.20.

This, together with the failure to pass the duty cut on to consumers, all smacks to me of naked profiteering by fuel companies, so rather than block roads, why don't the protestors organise some consumption strikes? If everyone in the UK stopped buying fuel from say Shell, they'd bloody soon cut their prices. A rolling programme of consumption strikes would sort it out permanently.

We're very used to the notion that companies collude informally to raise prices, but we've not really learned how consumers can organise and unite to force them down. Once people feel sufficiently strongly about something, they will unites and co-operate. Ever tried buying a copy of the Sun in Liverpool?

Tim,
Excellent proposal, I maintain a full time boycott of the petrol companies......saves me about £140.00 a month!!

My Cynic-O-Meter has just bleeped, Peter...

A lot of this is due to the weak pound against the dollar. Oil is bought in dollars, in 2005 the £ bought a lot more $ than it does today so the comparision isn't really valid

Fair point. Exchange rate 1.8 today compared to 1.3 in 2005, so c. 40% weaker. Fuel Duty 47.1p in 2005, 53p today.

So I suppose blaming the government is reasonable if you hold them responsible for the weakness of the pound against the dollar, and for increasing the fuel duty. It also lets the poor struggling fuel companies off the hook.

The worst thing in my view about these type of disruptive protests is that they are diversionary, taking focus away from issues like food, energy and accommodation inflation which hit the poor so much harder than the rest of us. After all, if someone is moaning that it costs them £100 to fill their car with petrol it still means they've got a car and £100.