Well, it’s finally happened. After years of looking across the Channel in envy as French protesters get away with bringing their own country to a standstill seemingly every other week, a group of people in the UK have thought to themselves, “Gee. We could do that.” And so they have.
The Group: Lorry drivers, farmers, fishermen and haulage companies.
The Method: Blocking off oil refineries and fuel depots, and stopping all supplies and shipments to petrol stations and to companies.
The Reason: Tax levels of 80 per cent on petrol. Petrol prices hitting 84p a litre ($5.00/gallon)
The Response: Nationwide panic as drivers attempt to buy all the petrol while there’s still some left.
Situation so far: All nine oil refineries in the UK shut down. 1/3 of all major-chain petrol stations out of petrol. Another 1/3 of stations running low on supplies. Some petrol stations deciding to raise prices even further, to as high as £2/litre (that’s $16.50/gallon–US Dopers can pick their jaws off the floor now). Even my e-mail server doesn’t work (it’s so antiquated, it may just run on petrol).
My verdict: Time to sit back and watch. This could get fun. Or nasty. Or both. Let’s watch Blair spin his way out of this one, huh?
I just heard about this a few minutes ago from astrangefish. If I were you, I’d think about blowin’ the dust off my bicycle.
What do you suppose companies are going to do when their employee’s cars are all run out of gas? Is public transportation still up? I understand that taxis are down, deliveries are down, and all the petrol that’s left is being rationed for emergency vehicles. Keep us updated…I think “funny” might only be a good descriptor for about another five minutes.
It’s about time! We’ve sat and taken shit from the goverment at every turn. Our country will be brough to a standstill.
Buses run on petrol, Taxi’s run on petrol. Goods delivery lorries run on petrol.
No public transport and no supplies. Anywhere. It’s gonna be fun.
Plus it’s a good excuse for not working for the rest of teh week. We’ve already had a fax from our suppliers at work. They’ve cancelled all deliveries until they know how this is gonna shake out.
Fuck the goverment, it’s about time we had our say.
Once it doesn’t harm anyone I’m all for public protest. I love the way Blair is blaming the oil suppliers . It’s the tax on the petrol that’s the problem .
I sure hope they’ll resolve this… my GF lives in London and works late. She needs to take a taxi home at night, because the underground stops too early. I don’t want her walking the streets of the City at 1 am!
Then again, I’m all for the principle of the thing. We have outrageous fuel taxes here too. It’s time we became outrigth assholes, just like the French have been all along
In the famous words of Corporal Jones: DONN’TTT PANNICCCC !!!
Excuse me for being contrary but I really don’t mind the price of oil – in fact, it has to be a good thing in a city like London. The pollution is causing an epidemic in asthma – especially in children, if screws up the ozone, is probably causing the ice caps to melt and the weather to change permanently.
Fact is, the increase in oil taxation has been part of both Tory and Labour policy for several years and for good reason (along with tighter restrictions on parking, company owned cars, the soon to be introduced road tolls into central London). The idea is totally right, IMHO but the problem has been in not introducing effective alternative public transport options quickly enough.
IHMO, we’ve stuck our heads in the sand long enough, deal with the new reality. If you want to pollute, cause illness in kids and screw the planet, then pay for it.
London, your argument would be valid if all those 80% of taxations on fuel would be spend developing cleaner solutions as alternatives to fuel. But I’m sure that’s not the case.
This is one aspect of French and now I guess UK culture that I do not fully get. The secondary strike, which is technically illegal in the U.S. For Example, if bus drivers have a grievance and go on strike, fine, but what the fuck business is it of people who work at any place other than that company. Should cab drivers go on strike to show solidarity? Should bus drivers from the city 30 miles away go on strike just to back up their “brothers”? Bullshit! It is not your fight. If you want to support the strike, fine. Say what assholes the management of the company are. Refuse to ride the bus from the scab drivers. Give dirty looks, but don’t threaten, bus riders during the strike.
I am not anti-union though. My father is, but just because he was an engineer at the refinery he worked at and had to risk his health and property to get to work during strikes, as well as work 12 hour days. He tried walking in once instead of driving, got clubbed with a picket sign by the wife of a striker. Another very unethical move, using relatives to fight your battles.
Personally, I dream of the day I get the balls to call the Teamsters to send a few goons to my company. Union workers get more money. But if that ever happened, I certainly do not expect workers at similar companies to do it just because we do.
I’m really worked up now! It’s off to the Pit for me.
I agree guys, as I said in the previous post. The solutions have been slow in coming - if at all. But it has to be the way forward, IMHO. Get rid of the damn cars in city centre’s, provide meaningful public transport alternatives nationwide and change the car dependent culture. At this point, anything else is utterly daft.
Agreed, London_Calling. At least here in Oxford they have taken some steps by pedestrianising the city centre, cleaning up bike lanes, kicking the two warring bus companies on the backside, etc. But still…as an earlier poster mentioned, buses run on petrol (there used to be an electric bus tootling around Oxford, but it was dropped–because it was too expensive!), commuter trains run on diesel, companies run on diesel.
I hope this will wake people up and make them realise how over-reliant they are on petrol. But it won’t, unfortunately.
In passing: Blair hasn’t helped himself at all during this protest. He refused to talk to the various industries, many of whose members are now protesting, about tax relief on petrol. His first response to the protest was “So what? I’m not changing my stance.” If he had valid reasons for keeping the tax on petrol, he didn’t restress them; he only lambasted the protesters. And for however valid or invalid the reason for a protest, Angry Protesters + Dismissive Government = Protest[sup]2[/sup]. Blair hasn’t been around long enough to remember strike math.
Duke – I am also surprised at the way the Government has not spun this into an environmental issue. I suspect it’s because they haven’t yet provided meaningful alternatives even though transport policy is geared to do just that.
Interesting that oil companies are proving to be very easy prey for the protesters. Seems all you need to do is wave a couple of placards outside a refinery and everything grinds to a halt. The companies wouldn’t also be keen to see a change in Government policy (lower tatation), would they ?
Sorry to hear waht’s happening over there. I’ll have to remember this when I bitch about prices over here. $5/gal is one of the most horrible things I’ve ever heard. If you have a good bike, this would be a good time to get into shape. Oh, and it’s not petrol, it’s gas.
Is the tricky little political world between the Euro and the Dollar becoming any clearer yet ?. A “crash” is relative, the £ has been far to high for too long.
