Fuel Protests

[TwoIfBySea]

For those of us who don't have a choice, for those of us who don't live anywhere near a place with public transport that is reliable and frequent. For those of us who don't have a lorry to drive into London to join the protests against the ridiculous cost that will hit the lowest waged and not the section of society it is aimed at and who have enough to see the current fuel price as inconvenient.

There are petitions of which that is one, so while I doubt government will give a hoot it is at least something. There were 59k signatures when I signed earlier and, like the fuel prices it has shot up!

Sorry, I fueled my car today, and am still feeling like I got mugged. Diesel has gone up far more than unleaded yet is more "efficient" so lets have none of that environment talk.

If we think the situation in the UK is bad, spare a thought for the poor in countires like Nigeria, where the price of their staple, rice, has doubled in a few months. When you live on a dollar a day, starvation is beckoning.

Fuel price rises are crp, but while people are still willing to pay £3 for a pint of beer* I think there's still way to go before the coffers are empty.

I am in favour of a kind of "essential user" scheme for car use by the general public. Those people in rural areas or areas not served by effective public transport, like me, Expat, the OP etc. should pay a lower rate of tax on the fuel.

It's fine to impose punitive taxes on lazy types who use their car to drive everywhere when they could take a bus or walk, but where I live there a two buses a day into town. And I live two miles from the bus stop down a single track lane.

And before you all jump up and down, I do actually get the bus to work and back everyday. But I'm afraid DH does take me and pick me up from the bus stop otherwise I'd nearly double my commuting time from 40 minutes each way to well over an hour each way.

Our local shop is 7 miles away and the buses are not exactly regular. The bus goes nowhere near the supermarket. Many areas round here don't get Tesco home deliveries. Just what are we supposed to do? As for local work, where exactly? There are around 20 houses within walking distance of us - not much work to be had there then.

Incidentally I'm lucky that I work flexi-time. If I didn't I wouldn't be able to use the bus.

I'm fed up of Whitehall types imposing their sheltered London-centric lifestyle on the rest of us. GRRRR.

Highland Council's fuel bill for school transport and social care has increased by over 40% in one year.

here

So Hunker, not only are we paying taxes twice, when you consider the necessary council tax rises we're actually paying three times over!

This food diary of a Cairo family was in the Guardian yesterday, suedonim

They have just barely got enough at the moment but have given up so many little treats; the eldest son has had to give up university to work to contribute to the family budget; and where do they go next?

We are in Argyll and Bute Council and their bills are causing serious worry. Especially because transport here is essential.

They're bound by law to provide transport for children who live 3+ miles from their school.

Well, that's mostly everyone around here, with smaller schools having been closed and amalgamated due to costs.

Then there's NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde/NHS Highland.

We have many elderly here who rely on visits from healthcare professionals - in cars so they can maximise the number of patients they can see and carry equipment - for their very survival.

So we're all suppposed to go fuck ourselves and freeze in the dark because the government doesn't give a toss about anyone outside London?

I.don't.think.so.

No need to post about a family in Egypt. I've no doubt that is also the reality for many families in the UK.

But this isn't Egypt.

And whilst I have every sympathy for people there, this is here. This is now.

This is our version of the same problem.

Oh, right, screw the rest of the world then

Where do you get that idea that no one cares about the rest of the world, Wendy?

But I thought we were all talking about fuel protests in the UK and price of fuel here and impact it's having on the population here.

Amen to expat for pointing out that public transport is bad because it was de-nationalised and seen as a profit-making business - rather than the essential public service it is.

I rather fear that the privatisation of the rest of our public infrastructure - chiefly the utilities - will come back to bite us, too.

My post about Egypt was responding to suedonim's about people struggling in Nigeria.

Also, earlier in the thread there was a post about the effect of sky high food prices on poorer nations as well as the UK.

Most of us still have enough to eat.

Well, actually, I have started skipping some meals because I can't afford food, clothes AND petrol for all of us. I'm not expecting sympathy for this, but it's true. And I don't get benefits.

DH now has a part time job so that's going to help a lot. It does involve car use though - should I be apologising for that d'ya think?

I don't think there should be a different fuel tax rate for people in rural areas vs urban.

First of all, it would be impossible to administer - open to too much judgment and arbitrary linedrawing.

Then, many people who have moved out of town have done so precisely to save money, so additional transportation costs are not totally out of line.

If we are valuing fuel efficiency above all, then it's a lot more efficient for people to huddle together in towns.

Wendy - I totally agree. we were in Egypt recently and the poverty there was a real eye-opener - this is the reality in most of the world , where on here we have the luxury of being able to whinge that our idyllic rural lives might cost us the equivalent of a few extra pints so beer.
Anatole Kaletsky has a very apposite article today in the Times - his premise is that the fuel escalator, abandoned by GB in his fist panicky encounter with big tough hauliers in 2000 should be reinstated and that we need to re-align our expectations and get used to a world where we don't expect to just jump in the car bacuse it is raining.
He also says - rural dwellers - you have the uxury of living in the countryside - you must expect to pay more for it.

Oh, yes, Mrs Guy, what lives of luxury everyone in the countryside lives - sipping beer and watching the scenery.

ROTLMFAO.

That post has got to be the funniest thing I've read since I read Gordon Brown's last speech in full.

Typical attitude: oh, the poor of the world, but the ones right in our own backyard are deserving of nothing but a kick in the teeth.

Carry on!

I do think it's a myth that public transport was wonderful before de-nationalisation. As one who used it a lot in those days, I can tell you it was mostly cr*p. There were constant strikes on the trains and if you did manage to buy a ticket from a surly man in a booth and board a train, it could well have been overdue and was most likely filthy dirty and crowded. Same for buses and the underground.

I know public transport leaves a lot to be desired and I think the wholesale privatisation was wrong, but please let's not believe there was some halcyon day of transport.

I feel that privitasation of ANY essential service is short-sighted because in the long run it leads to waste, inefficiency and vaste inequalities.

The US healthcare system is living proof of that.

but suedonim - the trains were cheaper and less crowded than they are now, and also the service was more coherent - now you don't always get told about certain trains if you ask someone from the wrong company.

they weren't perfect, but they were better.

Yes, I agree, there are issues about trains today such as ticketing and overcrowding, but my point is that there never was a golden age when the trains ran on time etc. I went to school by rail for years in the 1960's and spent lots of hanging about on platforms because the train hadn't showed up or when it did arrive, sitting on the edges of the seat due to the squalor inside, sometimes in the dark because the bulbs were all broken. And the wrong sort of snow also existed back then - it's not a new invention!

I agree Sue.

My schooldays included many hours of waiting for buses. Then they would be filthy, smoky and overcrowded. In my city, there were two bus companies, who hated each other. Nowadays, with deregulation, the bus service is amazing.

When I was growing up, there was no train station in my town. They closed it down in the 1950s. They opened up a new one about 15 years ago.

Where we are now, we have a really good train service to London. It's crowded at rush hour, but they also lay on as many trains as they could safely fit on the tracks. Off-peak, you can always get a seat and the trains are efficient and clean.

st - if there were 2 bus companies, that would have been after deregulation. creating more than one bus co was what deregulation was all about (except now the big companies have taken over the little bus companies anyway. isn't the free market great?)

2 companies - one for the city, and one for the country

oh right.

well where I lived, there were 2 companies who hated each other afyter deregulation, but then the smaller one went out of business and now some places don't have a bus (or they have a very infrequent bus).

they could have simply got some bus/train inspectors rather than hand millions of pounds (in extra fares and subsidy) to private companies, some of whom have made a terrible job of it.

expat, I like the cut of your jib (sp?)

nametaken, the winter fuel allowance is an insult to the pensioners of this country. My parents are elderly (mum in 70s, dad in 80s, I was born when my mother was 39 so have always had to deal with having parents older than everyone elses.)

My dad worked for over 40 years with Scottish Gas, before that he was in the RAF during WW2 dealing with events I could not imagine the horror of, he joined when he was 18.) His pension is not very big, just enough to survive on. However it is just above the cut-off for the fuel allowance, so tough luck dad and turn the heating off even though you are constantly cold as up in Scotland we tend to have chillier weather.

My parents, like a lot of elderly people, do not like asking for things, do not want to beg from the government. It was not their way of doing things.

My dad has early onset alzheimers. He collected by a mini-bus for an old folks club once a week - shall I tell him to stop this as it is a luxury and there are people starving in the world? It gives my mum, who is now his carer, a break - shall I tell her she doesn't matter either as she obviously isn't suffering enough?

I cannot get a bus from where I live to where they live and they won't move to us, despite my asking several times. So once a week I go out in my CAR to buy their shopping, take them out for an afternoon and spend some time with them. I am such a bad and selfish person I should be put in the stocks and have the left-over veggies thrown at me by people who can't plan menus and waste food.

My car is a necessary evil, it is the most efficient I could buy at the time and I can't afford to change. I have to drive my sons to school as it is 7 miles away and unfortunately up and down very big hills or we would actually bike it. I cannot afford to move closer and long for the day I get to walk them to school. However, I recycle, have all energy saving light bulbs, I don't have a great amount of left-overs as I use everything but I have a compost bin outside for the rest. I don't buy tons of clothes made by children in sweat shops and clothes I, or my sons, no longer need are either made into cleaning rags or if good enough, passed onto the charity shop.

Selfish is people driving three streets to drop the kids off at school. Selfish is people flying back and forth to their second home every weekend. Selfish is people condemning others because they live in an area without public transport - how dare we! Selfish is people lecturing other people how to live without actually knowing their lifestyle other than the fact they have a car.

I swear sometimes I think this country is full of the dinner party guests on Bremner, Bird and Fortune.

Oh and just to add I sometimes take my dad to visit his older sister in a home.

This home is in Balloch, next to Loch Lomond.

How selfish that her daughters put her in the best place they could afford, forcing her family to drive many miles to visit her.

Bad cousins. Naughty, naughty.

I should stop this luxury too, as why should two elderly siblings get to spend time together - this being the only time the two of them actually remember people they knew and giving me especially, a family history lesson. Time slips on so this must stop as the great know-alls have said so.