I wouldn’t start panicing just yet, as the most public opinion sensitive PM in history i suspect the Dear Leader is just waiting until public sympathy tilts from the courageous pickets fighting for our right to cheaper fuel and they become the sods who are stopping us getting to the shops.
Just so long as the brewery lorries continue to be able to supply the pubs…
I have heard more than once that electric cars would be the norm if it wasnt for the $$$ that govt’s and oil companies, and car makers are making off fuel guzzling monsters.
Its time that alternate powered methods were made available.
I dont forsee any releif either - they charge too much, because they can! There is no protest that can be made that will fix this - and it IS a worldwide collapse… think about it, the increased cost of fuel will effect all aspects of consumerism. Truckers like to say: the only thing we dont deliver is babies! shudder
My point is that the constant steady increase in fuel prices will push prices up everywhere. ACK!!
Riding a bike isnt an alternative for most people… how do you fit 2 small children on a bike with groceries?
Kells: Horse-n-buggy?
You fit two small children on a bike with groceries by bringing back the corner store and killing the supermarket.
Flip, I know. And I apologize. But if we’re really want to look at the end of the car culture we also have to look at the end of the suburban and ex-urban culture. If the people can’t get to the goods the goods will find an option to get to the people. Mail order? Corner general stores?
Telecommuting?
That said, it would be a disaster for me. I live 50 miles from my place of work and there is NO mass transit in rural Virginia, USA.
But at least we’re seeing hardcore economics in action instead of theory for a change. How strange that it gets more attention in the US when it’s the Brits and not the French who are at it.
Although I cringe a little to see the panic the protests are causing for some people, I am glad to see the public here do something about it. After that petrol station boycott that flopped so miserably several weeks ago, I shook my head and thought the people would just sit back and take it. It’s good to finally see some action.
That said, I’m glad my hubby and I scrapped the car last month and that all places I need to get to are within walking distance. My husband’s company flies him in a helicopter to work, so if worse comes to worse and he has to stay on the ship longer than expected, he’ll be paid a s***load in overtime.
If I had something (like a daily commute in the car) to worry about, I probably wouldn’t find the crisis so amusing and interesting.
Duke, didn’t it used to be like that before Margaret Thatcher? Who was PM before her? I was under the impression that the UK in the 70s was like that with everybody on strike all the time etc. Maybe you would know better and tell us.
Ah, you’re talking about Jim “Crisis? What crisis?” Callaghan, who seemed incapable of doing anything while everything fell to pieces around him. At least that’s the Tory line…but in truth I’ve spoken to people who were around at the time (I’m a US ex-pat) and they tell me the late 70’s were a difficult time. For a while the UK was actually working a “three-day week” because of energy shortages. From what I hear, it wasn’t much different than France is now, although I’d like to hear from some Dopers who were around in the UK at the time before I say anything else.