Fuel Prices Debate

[Parksy]

Supporters of FairFuelUK recently petioned the Government to hold a debate on the issue of UK motorists and the transport industry here in the UK being charged exhorbitant prices for fuel, including sky high excise duty and vat.
Bowing to the pressure applied by over 100,000 of us who signed the petition and who wrote to our MPs, and the 200,000 FairFuelUK website followers a Commons debate on this issue which affects most of us is scheduled to be held on Tuesday 15th November.
This is just before Parliament has another break so it's very important that MPs attend rather then slope off on holiday or on expenses funded jaunts, an empty chamber would be a major setback for the campaign.
You can encourage your elected MP to attend the debate by clicking here

 

[ann willson]

Dear Parksy
Thanks for the heads up I have followed link and sent email so easy! So come on everyone start to make your MP attend this important debate and see if we can get cheaper fuel (one can live in hope)

 

[Parksy]

Well done!
If we can bring pressure to bear there should be no need for fuel protests that harm vulnerable people.
The only thing that ever scares any politician is the prospect of losing their place at the trough and 300,000+ is a lot of voters

 

[DianneT]

Thanks Parksy have done it. Cheers

 

[RogerL]

I'd love to see fuel duty reduced but I hate to think what other taxes would be increased to make up for the Treasury shortfall - VAT, Income Tax?

 

[DavidKlyne]

To reduce fuel duty there would have to be a quid pro quo elsewhere in the motoring budget. One way round this would be to introduce tolls on motorways or revisit road pricing. I doubt either would be popular.
David

 

[Parksy]

What about introducing punitive taxes on those who drive up the price of fuel by gambling on the futures market.
Ship owners who moor supertankers offshore whilst waiting for pump prices to rise should be shot!

 

[Dustydog]

When petroll hit £1.00 a litre in 2007 the cost breakdow was as follows:-

• Petrol Fuel Duty - 48.35p
• VAT (17.5%) - 14.9p
• Refinery Petrol Costs - 31.75p
• Forecourt Costs - 3p
• Forecourt Profit - 2p

This means that the forecourt is 5%, the oil cost is ~32% and taxation ~63% of the total cost :

With the Eurozone crisis, the chance fat cat Civil Servants may have to retire earlier to preserve their gold chipped pensions, it's hard to see any Government willing to handback the fuel tax .The above figures are old and today the taxation is worse as VAT is 20%.

Anyway I've followed Parksy's request and "lobbied" my MP.

 

[otherclive]

Done it thanks Parksy. Our local fuel prices for diesel can vary as much as 3p in a day as garages use demand pricing a bit like budget airlines. So at peak times it is higher and then at other times it goes down until after the evening peak when it stays high. Also paraffin which I use for keeping the frost off the green house is now £1.75 per litre and that has no PFD and only low vat, now looks to be cheaper to bin the beloved plants and beetle off to a garden centre in spring for new ones. Tried diesel in the heater but it burns too dirty, perhaps give unleaded a try soon!!!!

 

[RogerL]

Done it thanks Parksy. Our local fuel prices for diesel can vary as much as 3p in a day as garages use demand pricing a bit like budget airlines. So at peak times it is higher and then at other times it goes down until after the evening peak when it stays high. Also paraffin which I use for keeping the frost off the green house is now £1.75 per litre and that has no PFD and only low vat, now looks to be cheaper to bin the beloved plants and beetle off to a garden centre in spring for new ones. Tried diesel in the heater but it burns too dirty, perhaps give unleaded a try soon!!!!

Try some AVGAS - in it's lower ratings it's also known as kerosene which is of course the Yankee term for paraffin - downside is you might need to buy a tankerful BUT it is used illegally by some petrolheads in their high performance cars, particularly the Japanese imports.

 

[Surfer]

The fuel system needs to be heaviy modified. When Britain imposed sanctions on our country in the sixties many people converted their cars to run on paraffin. Now that the price is going up old cars in that country are getting popular again as you can convert them to run on paraffin.

PS Not South Africa.

 

[Parksy]

PS Not South Africa.

Apologies for my earlier error Surfer
Rhodesia or to be correct Zimbabwe

 

[RogerL]

Presumably in Southern Rhodesia, petrol engines were converted to run on a mixture of petrol/paraffin - but engines were much lower compression in those days and could run on almost anything.

 

[Surfer]

Presumably in Southern Rhodesia, petrol engines were converted to run on a mixture of petrol/paraffin - but engines were much lower compression in those days and could run on almost anything.

Correct. It wasn't down to cost as despite sanctions the cost of petrol was cheaper in Rhodesia than it was in Britain. You could smell those cars a mile away. I used to get 4 coupons a month which was the equivalent of a gallon of fuel for each coupon. A lot of trading used to go on with coupons.

PS Parksey wrong again as Zimbabwe did not exist at the time.

 

[starlightdj]

Hi Parksy

Just emailed my MP.
Anything we can do collectively, can only help.

All we need now is a seperate sitting to look at the unfair pricing of tax discs.
Now thats wishful thinking

Cheers
John

 

[Parksy]

Further to my comments about asking your local MP to apply pressure for a debate on fuel duty to be held in Parliament -
My MP, Mr Adrian Bailey, has been good enough to reply to my emailed request by letter this morning.
In the letter Mr Bailey, who is a Labour MP, said that he agrees that we need a debate on this important issue and he also agrees that action needs to be taken to help consumers which is why they ( presumably the Labour Party) have called for a cut on VAT.
Mr Bailey went on to say that the Conservative led Government control the time allocation for debates on the floor of the House of Commons but he is pleased to inform me that the Labour Chair of the Backbench Business Committee has pushed the Government on this issue and has been able to secure time for a debate on fair fuel for the 15th November.
Mr Bailey has assured me that he will read the fair fuel prospectus and follow the debate closely.

My thanks go to Adrian Bailey MP for taking the trouble to reply and well done to the FairFuelUK who will continue to reflect the concern of motorists regarding the spiralling cost of fuel in the UK.

 

[David_L]

Thanks Parksy
Done it

 

[Dustydog]

My MP Mr James Gray Conservative has replied , by return in fairmess and says he supports the debate. He didn't actually say he would be present. But then most Politicians tend to word their letters carefully. At least he seems on board.

 

[Parksy]

Well done!
The main thing is that people who form 'the silent majority' who take the trouble to contact their MP with regard to this issue are reflecting the genuinely held concerns of us all and I'm sure that Parliament will have to bear in mind this groundswell of public opinion which before the advent of instant mass communication was easily ignored or dismissed.
Because so many of us now have access to the internet the genie is out of the bottle and it's not too difficult to form lobby groups which will influence the way that we are treated by Governments in the future.
Just one post on a caravan forum has led to several people in different parts of the country becoming aware of the FairFuel Uk campaign and contacting their respective MP's about the issue.
Imagine what could be achieved if every member of every internet forum who had an interest in fuel prices wrote to their MP to express outrage at the rip off fuel prices, fuel duty increases and ever spiralling cost of car ownership when general election time came around!
It would concentrate the minds of those hoping to be elected if nothing else

If you want to urge your MP to attend the debate go to http://action.fairfueluk.com/page/speakout/debatefairfueluk and follow the instructions to send an email to your MP

 

[Sproket]

Well i wonder if they are saving some money on postage, either that the stamp licker has gone on strike

*AUTO RESPONSE*

Thank you for your email message.

Ed is always keen to receive email messages from people locally and from across the country. He reads all these emails and replies to as many as he can.

However, strict Parliamentary protocol dictates that Members of Parliament can only take up specific individual cases on behalf of their own constituents.

If you want Ed to take up a particular case on your behalf, we need to confirm that you are a constituent. So please ensure that you have included your full name and full postal address. If this is not included with your email, please could you resend with a full postal address. Then we will be able to deal promptly with your query.

If you are contacting Ed in his role as Shadow Chancellor, then he will look at your email and may forward it on to a member of his Shadow Treasury team.

If you have already sent your address, or emailed Ed before, then please accept our apologies for the inconvenience of this email.

Because of volume of emails, we cannot acknowledge emails directly - but if you are a constituent and have included your name and address we will respond by post as quickly as possible.

Office of Ed Balls
Member of Parliament for Morley & Outwood
Shadow Chancellor.

 

[Parksy]

If you included your name, address and postcode you should get a postal reply from Ed or his underling then Sprocket.

 

[Sproket]

That was included, but i suppose with a bit of luck they will be over whelmed

.......
Will they be able to claim all of the postage back on there expenses ????

........

 

[Parksy]

My reply came in an envelope marked House of Commons and the printed 1st class stamp was franked and marked postage paid

 

[Martin24]

Almost missed this one!! Still just about time to do it, hope fully as our constituency is next door to Swift and Coachman he may listen to my reasoned letter about supporting local businesses, and the prohibitive cost of running the 4x4 on a day to day basis.

 

[carper2]

This is the reply I received, I hope it is on TV so I can watch it.

Les

Thank you for your email to Mark. Mark is intending on speaking in the debate and shall be expressing the concerns of Rugby residents on this matter.

Once again thank you for getting in touch.

Kind Regards,

Yousef Dahmash
Office of Mark Pawsey MP
Member of Parliament for Rugby