Apparently, if you belive the spin, the cause of the coming 5p petrol price rise is due to nothing more than market ‘speculation’. The vultures are growing fat on the corpse of the economy.

If a 5p rise offends drive something more economical.

It’s not going to come down anytime soon.

People making money from a finite resource that’s massively in demand the world over? Surely not? 😉

mikewsmith – Member
If a 5p rise offends drive something more economical.

It’s not going to come down anytime soon.

I for one drive a frugal vehicle and I find the rise a piss-take. So what then?

Drive more slowly. It’s amazing how much less petrol you use at 50mph on A roads. I have empirically and scientifically tested this.

Drive less get more economical ride more. Just saying it’s not going to get cheaper until magic energy is invented.

So you mean we just need to suck it up? 😡

When is this 5p increase again?

pretty sure it was 129.9 last time I looked, wasn’t it that price 12months ago? (i don’t buy petrol very often) See what binners said, only going to go up long term.

Since scrapping my car, I find the price of petrol no longer bothers me, in fact I have no idea what the current price is……

But fuel costs impact on the cost of transporting the goods and services that you buy.

People are already driving more economically and less often. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why the powers to be are jacking the prices up yet again.

We typically pay 20-30% more for diesel in the UK than in the majority of European countries already – too much tax.

Too much tax stifles the economy. EG Take Stamp Duty on house purchases; above £250k and tax jumps from 1% to. 3%, so people stay put. Tax take: ZERO. People don’t like being robbed!

Lower taxes would yield more for the exchequer, but for some reason, no chancellor ever really understands and acts on this fact. There was a Scotsman governor of Hong Kong many years ago, who made an astonishing success of the economy there, by slashing taxation.

Perhaps these people who make the decisions for us, regardless of how clever they are, are all out of touch with real people, but this is ripoff Britain for you!

Motorbikes are cheap to run too, sadly not so practical where I stay in winter, but the car gets a good rest over summer.

But fuel costs impact on the cost of transporting the goods and services that you buy.

Fully agree, still doesn’t bother me in the slightest though….

I for one drive a frugal vehicle and I find the rise a piss-take. So what then?

This pretty much sums it up. There are dozens of things drivers can do, but they don’t. Petrol is still cheap enough for the vast majority to just carry on.

It ought to.

This is not a new story.

Any commodities can be ‘speculated’ on; you or I could do it. The worst offenders are hedge funds who can bet on the future price of a barrel of oil without actually having to spend any money. Because the ‘bet’ is made on the future price the speculator is in a position to withdraw from actually buying the oil before the transaction is due.

It’s pretty poor but most governments seem happy to let the practice go on.

Not always easy to say the oil companies are blameless but in this case they are

Some of you seem to be struggling with the basic concept of this

Drive more slowly. It’s amazing how much less petrol you use at 50mph on A roads. I have empirically and scientifically tested this.

Hels ..tru dat

Back when there was all the panic about garages running out of fuel(some did),I was car sharing twice a week with a person who had been a bit heavy footed.
He altered his driving a lot and his fuel savings were mentioned every day .
Then I convinced him to try and cycle half his week with me ,and he has stuck at it 🙂

I for one drive a frugal vehicle and I find the rise a piss-take. So what then?

Drive something less frugal for a while. You’ll soon come to appreciate your current costs.

I’m ambivalent about fuel prices. Oil is running out. In the grand scheme of things a 5p rise is nothing. I’m saving all my whinging for when it comes to civil war.

Be interesting to see what the office of fair trading report will say later on this week as to whether the drop in crude crude oil prices are being passed on.

Well they’ve never really said anything else when it has been investigated. Looking at the price of oil though it has been relatively stable over the last year (+/- 10%)with the last six months showing very little change. Bearing in mind that this variation in oil price would only change part of the cost of a litre of petrol the actualy effect on the total price is likely to be relatively small, crica 3-4 pence.

Not really noticed drivers going any slower. I still seem to be the slowest on the road in among the lorries with most cars travelling above national speed limits screaming past.
And in the city it is all hard right foot/hard left foot. Is fuel still to cheap?

butcher – Member

I’m ambivalent about fuel prices. Oil is running out. In the grand scheme of things a 5p rise is nothing. I’m saving all my whinging for when it comes to civil war.

we like to think that oil is running out, and soon it’ll be all like totally Mad Max and that, because it appeals to our inner anarchist. But we’ve got loads of oil.

homework: google: alberta, oil/tar sand/shale, bakken formation, green river, etc. etc.

i’m not sure we’ll ever run out of oil – prices will slowly rise, slowly forcing us to find alternatives. This process has already started and we haven’t even run out of easy sweet crude yet – never mind the hugely more abundant difficult dirty stuff.

Lower taxes would yield more for the exchequer, but for some reason, no chancellor ever really understands and acts on this fact.

it’s not (supposed) to just about earning money for government coffers, it’s (supposed) to be about making you think before you grab the car keys. We drive too much, lower tax and people will drive even more. And if petrol still seems to be cheap enough for all those leaving their engines running while they nip into the shop, see plenty of that round here.

Seemingly the majority have got to have a car, so they need to drive it all the time (to the corner shop) to justify having it. Moan on tinterweb about fuel prices but don’t actually bother to reduce consumption.

Seemingly the majority have got to have a car, so they need to drive it all the time (to the corner shop) to justify having it. Moan on tinterweb about fuel prices but don’t actually bother to reduce consumption.

True to a degree, but we learn better through positive re-inforcement than we do punishment.

Maybe if all that dosh the government is making went into a good public transport network we’d get somewhere?

mikewsmith – Member
Drive less get more economical ride more.

Not possible. I drive because I have to to earn a living. How rad is that?!

Still too cheap IMO. It shouldn’t be as cheap as Cocacola.

Lower taxes would yield more for the exchequer, but for some reason, no chancellor ever really understands and acts on this fact

Lolz.

Because the ‘bet’ is made on the future price the speculator is in a position to withdraw from actually buying the oil before the transaction is due.

Futures have a lot more value than just speculation, options as well. Think of them more like insurance contracts.

Maybe if all that dosh the government is making went into a good public transport network we’d get somewhere?

hell yes, +10000, BTW i think building repairing roads make a good dent in those millions, repairing the people injured on the roads, fixing pollution effects and tackling sedentary induced obesity probably take another big chunk.

Oil prices are a bit of a double whammy for us in the UK, becasue it’s priced in dollars. Back when £1 could buy you $2 petrol was lot cheaper, despite oil being at record levels.
.

Any commodities can be ‘speculated’ on; you or I could do it. The worst offenders are hedge funds who can bet on the future price of a barrel of oil without actually having to spend any money. Because the ‘bet’ is made on the future price the speculator is in a position to withdraw from actually buying the oil before the transaction is due.

Not quite sure what you could do though. Heard a suggestion that to stop speculation on wheat prices it should only be sold to people who could actually take delivery of it. Hey presto, you have just created a seconday market in warehouse futures. Market forces are an inevitable part of any trading system. In the case of petrol carbon-rationing is the only viable option (but very difficult to implement)

Butcher makes a valid point it wont be long before folk are literally fighting in the streets for petrol. as for electricity its life expectancy is greater however as the only fuel the price will be so high that many will not be able to access it.. another 25 yrs i reckon

Thanks to the Tesco cartel, fuel prices round my way are 5p/l more expensive than anywhere nearby anyway. It’s cheaper for me to fill up at the motorway services on the M25.

binners – Member
Some of you seem to be struggling with the basic concept of this

Nah, not when most of it’s tax.

People are already driving more economically and less often

Evidenced how? People are talking about driving less, and driving slower. But in the world outside my door it seems like people are driving as often as they used to and in the same way as they used to.

yep have a look here – around 60% of the price is tax etc to uk gov, that is 80p of the 130 odd ppl

and teh gov have the cheek to say they can’t do anything…

http://www.ukpia.com/files/pdf/understanding-pump-prices-april-2012.pdf

we like to think that oil is running out, and soon it’ll be all like totally Mad Max and that, because it appeals to our inner anarchist. But we’ve got loads of oil.

homework: google: alberta, oil/tar sand/shale, bakken formation, green river, etc. etc.

i’m not sure we’ll ever run out of oil – prices will slowly rise, slowly forcing us to find alternatives. This process has already started and we haven’t even run out of easy sweet crude yet – never mind the hugely more abundant difficult dirty stuff.

now google the ROI on shale, not good!

not good? – it’s terrible, but we’re already doing it.

patriotpro – Member
mikewsmith – Member
Drive less get more economical ride more.
Not possible. I drive because I have to to earn a living. How rad is that?!

In that case pass on the costs.

Currently living in a country where fuel is considerably cheaper than the UK and there are more 3-4l cars than I have ever seen mostly just chugging round burning fuel. Economy is hardly ever mentioned. Europe looks refreshing with the choice of good economical cars easily available.

It must be nearly 13 years since the last full scale fuel protest. I remember back then the idea that fuel would be over £1/l was a joke. It just keeps rising. It will take a behaviour change on a large scale with public transport investment (remember Manchester – accept congestion charging but get massive investment in Public transport first – clear No vote with people happy to sit in their cars for hours)

Congestion, pollution etc has a cost too that needs paying for. The answer isn’t more its better use of what we have (roads, fuel etc) waiting for more hard to get oil to continue the oil dream isn’t going to work well.

I’ve just realised the price of fuel per mile I’m paying now is the same as it was I was paying 90p a litre.

Not really a bonus more of a 😐