boycott-the-pumps
Matt Wicken
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http://www.egroups.com/group/boycott_the_pumps
Fact
If you live in the UK, you are taxed at 340% on your petrol.
Petrol is now approaching £0.90 per litre. That's £4.10 a gallon.
For every £50 fill-up, you're just giving the government £37 out of your
own pocket.
Fact
For the average family, a 1p increase per litre in the cost of fuel means
an extra £46 a year out of their pocket.
Fact
Fuel duty has little to do with the environment.
Leaded petrol was supposedly taxed highly for environmental reasons. Why
then, when it was replaced with LRP did the price not come down?
Diesel fuel, although potentially renewable by using vegetable oils, is no
longer substantially cheaper than leaded petrol. So although it's
technically cleaner (low sulphur etc), and potentially a renewable
resource, it's taxed at near enough the same rate.
LPG is the cleanest fuel there is but the government aren't actively trying
to get you to convert.
Fact
£36 billion is sucked out of motorist's pockets each year in tax.
You buy the planet's most expensive petrol, but do you see that money going
back into the roads? No you do not. A recent study pointed out that most of
Britain's roads are up to 15 years beyond their structural refurbishment
date. More to the point, your council tax and new car tax is supposed to
pay for this, not the petrol duty!
Fact
Gordon Brown taxes the motorist more despite what he says. According to the
Association of British
Drivers, in the last budget speech, Gordon Brown stated that fuel duty and
pensions would rise in line
with inflation, seeking credit for an end to the fuel duty escalator which
had previously put petrol
prices up above the inflation rate each year. Yet it has emerged that the
figure he used for pensions
was 1.1%, while 3.3% was used to raise the price of fuel.
In effect, Boycott The Pumps suspect that the reason the fuel duty escalator
was abolished was
because it was placing an upper limit on the tax increase available on fuel
duty. By scrapping the
escalator, Gordon Brown removed this upper limit and was free to increase
tax by as much as he saw
fit.
Fact
Freight companies are suffering - so is our trade with the EU.
When a haulage company has to fill it's tanks with diesel taxed at such a
ridiculous rate, it's running costs become so expensive that companies take
their business to haulage firms based on the continent. That in turn means
a loss of income for our country.
Fact
Public transport is not an option.
Buses and coaches become more expensive again because of the underlying
cost of running them.
The privatised rail and bus companies continue to slash services and close
branch routes because running them is not "cost effective." i.e. the
shareholders aren't getting their dividends. And the government are doing
nothing about it. Rail companies have been underperforming and missing
targets as stipulated by their contracts ever since privatisation. Yet
they're all still in business. And again, your council tax should be paying
for public transport. The petrol tax goes straight to the government
instead of to local councils where it could be used to make some
difference.
Would you pay this much tax on anything else you buy and not complain?
If other consumer products were taxed at 340%:
*2 pints of milk would cost £2.14
*a loaf of bread would cost £1.58
*a first class stamp would cost £1.13
*a cinema ticket would cost £21.94
*an no-frills evening out with dinner for two could cost £175.58
*a pack of batteries would cost £21.89
*a personal CD player would cost £566.26
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So Act!
There is no major organisation that represents the British driver when it
comes to matters of fuel duty. The government are bleeding motorists dry.
Why? Because they can. As long as public apathy continues, and we keep
paying ludicrous prices for our petrol, the government will keep laying on
the tax.
Tuesday, August 1st 2000, BOYCOTT THE FORECOURT PUMPS. THEN FROM MONDAY
AUGUST 7th, ONCE A WEEK - EVERY MONDAY UNTIL THE GOVERNMENT ACTS AND CUTS
THE TAX. Don't buy any petrol or diesel.
Spread the word and force the government to listen. For once, let's stand
up with a unified voice and make them understand that we will no longer be
quietly steamrollered into a transport system that's crumbling under our
feet whilst we pay for it through the nose. Tell them you have had enough
of Rip-Off Britain.
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If you're now thinking "Ooh that sounds a bit too much like hard
work........"
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....then you have no cause to complain when petrol reaches £1.00 a litre,
or £4.56 a gallon by Christmas 2000.
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Read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
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Write to your MP
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If you work in a petrol station and support us:
I suggest you start printing on the receipts how much your punters just
paid in tax. If people start getting receipts that read £50.00
(£37.00=tax), then they'll start to take notice.
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(Sources : Petrol retailers association reports :
http://www.rmif.co.uk/html/price_report.html)
--
Read it again more carefully, it might make more sense.
Matt Wicken
Djimbo
Matt Wicken <ma...@mwicken.spamfreeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:8k9jru$aoh$1...@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk...
<snipperty snip>
> Diesel fuel, although potentially renewable by using vegetable oils, is no
> longer substantially cheaper than leaded petrol. So although it's
> technically cleaner (low sulphur etc),
I think there are now a few worries about the carconagenic properties of the
unburnt hydro-carbons produced by diesel engines, so perhaps they aren't the
ecological marvel they were once hailed to be. I must heartily agree with
the rest of the post, the diesel prices particulary have knock on effects
throughout every avenue of comerce, trade and industry through road
haulage/delivery costs.
djimbo.