UK Petrol - The most valuable in the world?

In the UK we currently pay upto 97.9p per litre of petrol!
That's $1.47 per litre ($5.55 per gallon) for you yankies!!

Support our plight and visit the websites below:

http://www.boycott-the-pumps.com (They use vBulletin :D )
http://www.dumpthepump.com (The Official Site)
http://www.enoughisenough.org.uk
http://www.fuelprotest.com
http://www.lowerfueltax.co.uk
http://www.petrolbusters.com

And if you're in the UK then DON'T BUY ANY PETROL ON MONDAYS!!

While you're at it...how much is pertol where you are?

[Edited by matthewralston on 08-02-2000 at 05:25 AM]

[Gary.Lowe]

Matt

Ours is between 79p & 84p per litre up in Manchester.


Did you know the goverment made £36,000,000 from road users last year(Mainly petrol)

How much went back into the roads and public transport?

£6,000,000

So where did the other £30,000,000 go?

Yeah :( A lot of ppl have been asking that very same question!

[Crypt]

well before we went Australia went GST it was around 80 cents a litre but since the gst it has gone up to around $1.05 Australian (well where I am any way can't accont for the rest of aus), I don't know whether that is the gst's fault or whether its just gone up on its own?.

don't know how much that is in the uk probably 50p or less or something.

[Edited by Crypt on 08-02-2000 at 08:55 AM]

[Nathan]

I guess I've got it good over here... in winnipeg mb canada it's about 69cents canadian per litre.

$0.80 (AUD) = £0.30 (GBP) = $0.46 (USD)

Geez! 30p a litre!!!! That's like Britian's prices before I was born!!! 1978ish the ppl in my office reccon! Geez!

For a good currency converter goto: http://www.xe.net/ucc

[Crypt]

so lol what is 1.05 = in u.k?

[Crypt]

by the way Matt I've been tryin to send u an icq message for the last 10 minutes, I am not being a snob lol it just won't send.

[Tainc]

Over here in southeast US we're pating about $1.50/gallon

[Tainc]

I'll go ahead and post the conversions.

$1.50(USD) = $2.55(AUD) = £1.00(GBP)

Cheers,
tainc

[Sam Finch]

I was about to accuse you of lieing because your petrol was 2p more than the most expensive sttations in Britain.


Then I realised you were talking in Galons not Litres.


Actually I can't complain because I can't drive. And I might decide to stay like that if something isn't done

[Sophtware]

Here in the western part of the u.s. the price for
87 octane(cheapest gas you can get here) is 1.75$ a gallon.
1.87$ a gallon for 89octane and 1.93$ a gallon for 91 octane.

I dont know the difference in pounds..put in any currency anywhere the damn gas prices are still too much!.

[Juan Carlos Rey]

Hi, Sopht, be aware that a gallon = 3.85 litres so you are paying your gas at half our price (in Argentina, we are EXPORTERS of gas, and still are paying it twice as much your price: 1.04 per litre, 95 octanes, that is roughly 4 dollars a gallon). We are getting robbed!

[parksie]

I've noticed a pattern here...the petrol manufacturers get their price, and the various governments get lots of money - that really can't be fair. Maybe something should get sorted before I invest in driving lessons... :eek:

[parksie]

If anyone has the dti booklet "UK Energy in Brief December 1999", then look at page 25. Meanwhile, I'll try and find a picture of the graph in question...be back later.

[parksie]

Just finished scanning:
http://www.parksie.uklinux.net/petrol.jpg

[HarryW]

Well my opinion on this is that the tax is slightly too high, I think the government here in the UK get about 80% of the cash paid for petrol. I think petrol should be taxed pretty highly, because it is a big pollutant, and also a soon-to-be-scarce natural resource. In my ideal (well not exactly ideal, you know what I mean) world all the other countries of the world would raise their taxes on fuel so that the economic implications for the haulage industry and other heavy consumers of fuel were not so bad.

We do pay a bit too much tax on petrol, I would rather pay a higher rate of income tax because although I agree with discouraging people from wasting fuel, it is preventing some people on lower incomes from being able to afford to drive anywhere.

I saw Greenpeace's stance on the subject on telly, and they want the prices to stay high. I think that's being a bit blind to the other factors involved though.

You know it really, really annoys me when I see people in their car with the engine running, for 10 or 15 minutes, just so they can have the radio on, or the air-con or the heater or something, or just because they're rich bastards and they can afford it. And when I see someone in a city centre driving a bloody Jeep or a Land Rover with massive heavy bars on it, and just one person inside. Yeah, off-roading in a city centre doing about 3 miles to the gallon in traffic jams (literally). Damn that gets my back up.

*Calms down* Anyway sorry about that. Erm.. yeah, tax on fuel should come down a little. But not that much.

I've noticed a pattern here...the petrol manufacturers get their price, and the various governments get lots of money
Yeah, I've noticed a pattern too... everybody thinks their petrol prices are too high but none of them come close to ours!!! :(

Nasty lookin graph that, parksie, I think they had that on Channel 4 News on Tuesday too (or somebody's cheesey animated recreation of it! :D )

Geeze! We've gone up like 22 pence in the last year!!!

Hey! See what Sainsbury's are doing? Only 79.9p per litre! Good on them!! :) Only trouble is that they'll prob bankrupt the competition and then become a monopoly who can charge even more!! :(

94.7c per litre standard non-leaded...it goes up from there, except for diesel which is an even worse pollutant.

Ok thats approx, (todays exchange rate US $1.58 UK $2.87) per litre.

If the Government put the billions that get in tax from petrol into the environment and roads, then it probably wouldn't be too bad, but it ends up in general revenue which goes to pay all their lerks and perks.

Here in Oz,

Taxes have gone up, (just introduce GST)

Health spending down

Education spending down

Almost all Government departments have had staffing levels halted or reduced

What exactly are these turkeys doing with the extra tax, spending it on the friggin Olympics and John Howard making a dickhead of himself in the UK.

Manchester praise the lord you didn't get the Olympics!

[HarryW]

Jethro, I think you have your exchange rates inverted, try the reciprocal. 97 Australian cents is going to be a lot less than 97 Sterling pence.

:) Hum...all this fun with exchange rates, ladies... :D
You know where to go:

http://www.xe.net/ucc

[Apocalypse Dude]

Hmmm...You people are all highly paid programmers so stop whining and leave your WRX at home and take public transport!

Anyway its gonna be great when the world runs out of petrol man, cause the world will turn into a place like MAD MAX.

[parksie]

Our public transport system is rated poor to laughable :(. The trouble I have just getting between school and home by train every day causes no end of trouble.

[ttingen]

People here in the southeast US complain about high gas prices but they aren't even near what you'll pay in other countries. Right now we're paying $1.39 - $1.65 per gallon.

I lived in Brazil for two years and gas prices there were between $4-5 dollars a gallon! That's outrageous!

I'm just glad I'm not paying that. I go through a tank and a half during my weekly commute.

[Harrild]

US petrol is cheap cos its crap - only 87 octane
Aussie Petrol is damn near the best being 98 octane or something ridiculously high
Pommy petrol is 100/99 octane i think.

In my opinion Aussie petrol is the best cos its excellent quality and its fairly cheap compared to the slightly better Pommy petrol which is too bloody expensive.

By the way the petrol near me is about $0.90 a litre

[HarryW]

UK petrol isn't expensive because of its quality, it's because 80% of the price is tax.

[parksie]

If you take a look at the graph I posted, you'll see that the petrol itself has got cheaper, but there has been a hell of a lot more tax on it.

[Nathan]

Hey UK! Your gas prices made the news here in Winnipeg (Canada). I pity you and I'm not going to complain about our prices as much anymore...

[Joacim Andersson]

?????????????

[parksie]

Hey. We're famous...

Yay! Fame! :)

Oi!!! Apocalypse Dude! Most of us are very low paid gofas!!
Take a look at: http://forums.vb-world.net/showthread.php?threadid=5567

I'm a Modern Apprentice and get paid less than the minimum wage.

Anyway. Enough bitchin. Shall leave that for bitches. :)
So who's boycottin BP? I've got mixed feelings about this cos I have a close relative who works for BP. Can't we boycott Shell instead? :D

[Michael]

The reason petrol prices are so high is because of government incompetance. The duty that the government gets not only on petrol, but booze and baccy, is a soft option to raise extra revenue to balance the books.

It's not just the current Blair government thats to blame for this - its been happening ever since I can remember, although I read somewhere that the Blair government has introduced around 600 other "stealth taxes". Perhaps it should be the "Blur" government

With all the ******s on the roads these days, I would be happy to use public transport, but until we get a cheap, reliable and co-ordinated public transport system I can see me driving my car until I depart this world in my box.

[alex_read]

I totally agree with Michael about the incompetence! In Hertfordshire (just North of London), we can pay between 69p & 89p.

Think you were a bit harsh with the cigs though Micheal, I way bump them up & lower the booze!

[HarryW]

I wish I could see myself driving a car right tile my final years, but I don't think it'll happen, cos by the statistically likely age of my demise, there'll be no fossil fuels left.

Maybe I'll be driving a milk float or a golf buggy ;)

Then they'll put 200% tax on the leccy! :mad:

[Michael]

Alex: Let's not get into the smoking/anti-smoking argument here. I like a pint and a *** - OOPS - CORRECTION for our US friends - I like a pint and a cigarette. I was using those just as other examples of the soft option of excessive duty due to many Chancellors' lack of imagination and inability to balance the national books.

Harry: I am 47 (probably an old man compared to most of you guys on here - but I still have all my own teeth and hair and wits) so I shall probably expire at around the same time as the fossil fuels!!! Perhaps we will have something like Star Trek's "Beam me up Scotty" by then. (Dream on ......)

Matthew: Probably - they will always find something to tax - perhaps a tax on too many replies to a vb-world posting.

[parksie]

Oh dear. I replied. TAXES FOR EVERYONE!!!! :D

[Apocalypse Dude]

Sorry for accusing you people of being rich programmers

Taxes are good cause without them will be driving on crappy roads, have poor infrastructure, no health funding, education etc..

Any way I think high income earners and corporations should be taxed more.

[alex_read]

dead right Apocalypse Dude. Who knows, within the next 10 years we may all have hoverships or something like that running on air & doing away with the car (if we get a new government ....)

[Harrild]

The bad thing about taxes is that the politicians (dickheads liars, winging bastards more like) have finally figured out that GST/VAT is a better way of making money than the INCOME tax cos then everyone has to pay it (including the foreign gits).

My perfect country - A place WITHOUT
- politicians
- taxes
- annoying TV presenters
- soap operas
- badly designed vehicles
- FRENCH (see http://forums.vb-world.net/showthread.php?threadid=22856 for more details)

any other suggestions i'll be glad to hear them.

driving on crappy roads, have poor infrastructure, no health funding, education etc..

Excuse me Apoc... that's EXACTLY what we have now. Maybe you've never ridden on the crap pot-holed roads round where I live, skidded off and had to spend 5 HOURS in the crappy hostpital waiting room, get forgotten once, get pointed in the wrong direction once then return 3 weeks later only to be told that they have lost your x-ray!!! Well I have. :mad:

I really would like to know what exactly they do with the cash they tax off me! :confused:

:) Right on Harrild...they should ban the TV commentators form Americal Cop documentaries. They have such annoying voices and are soooo condescending!!!! I hate them!! Tax them! :p

[rino_2]

Sure here in Britain to cost of petrol is the highest in the world but what you must remember is in other countries they have to pay all kinds of road tax which we don’t. That especially applies in the rest of Europe.

[Sam Finch]

I think they should put a huge tax on being prime minister. and possible one on being called Tony.

[HarryW]

I think they should make the national lottery non-profit-making. The wages those people take is horrendous.

It's voluntary taxation anyway, it's more or less government business. In fact it's not just a voluntary tax, it's a tax on the poor, because they're the ones who need the hope that they might get rich one day.

[rino_2]

Tony isn't that bad, well, he is better than Willy!

[Sam Finch]

point taken, anyone up for forming a new party?

[rino_2]

Yeah, lets call it the VB Raving loony party

[HarryW]

V(ery) Basic for Prime Minister!

That should keep things entertaining :D

Sam Finch for President...I mean Guru...I mean Prime Minister!!!! :D

Nah...I vote for me. :)
Can we make VB a compulsary language in schools and scrap French an German? :p

[parksie]

Hehe. Although keep German, it's good. (Hours of fun tormenting tourists with school German that has no relevance to the actual language ;)).

[HarryW]

'Do you have a box of beans?'
'Would you like a slice of carrot?'
'All offenders shall be shat on from a great height'

Just a few of the things we used to say to any passing Germans ;) Random bollocks really.

[Michael]

To get back to the original question - after much consideration I will NOT be joining the "Don't buy petrol on Mondays" campaign for 2 reasons.

Firstly, if we need to make a journey then we will make it anyway. If we were sympathetic with the "Dont buy on Mondays" idea then all we would do is buy on Sunday or Tuesday. If we need petrol then we need petrol. (Can you see anyone with a company car telling their boss that they refuse to see a particular client on Monday because they are low on petrol? I think not!!!)

Secondly, our gripe is with the government, not with the petrol stations who to a large degree are small businesses - just like some of the freelancers on here - who operate on fairly slender margins. Not buying on Mondays will upset the cashflow of some of these small businesses possibly forcing some of them to close, giving the "big boys" even more clout.

I am not being negative here - just realistic. Surely we want to get our point across to the government without hurting local businesses. I fear that the only way to do this effectively is wait until a General Election, but this won't have any immediate effect.

This is a tricky one!!!

[Tainc]

...but some very exciting things are appearing that may lean toward making petrol prices irrelevant.

1) New cool cars, like the Honda Accent. Something like 30km/litre. (I hope I did the conversion right from 71mi/gal) It's a gas/electric hybrid.

2) Cars that run on air aren't too far off! At the Virginia Poytechnic Institute, some buddies of mine are working on one right now. They've obtained from the US Dept. of Defense a hydrogen cell, and rebuilt the propulsion mechanism (since it doesn't have an 'engine' per say anymore) to use it. The car has a max velocity of about 180km/hr and has a single biproduct. No pollutants or noxious gasses. The only thing the car makes is pure, drinkable liquid water. To prove that's what it was, they had to drink it for the judges. ^_^

Cool huh?

[Sam Finch]

by the sound of it is doesn't run on air it runs on hydrogen, I'm sure we'll have a huge tax on that if these things come out.

[Tainc]

But at least hydrogen is easy to get yourself. It wouldn't be too tough to set up an electrolysis tank in your garage. ^_^

[Sam Finch]

They'd make it illegal to make without an obscure hard to get licence. (saying it's to prevent explosions but really to get money)

[parksie]

Cool. Everyone's garages simultaneously detonate. That's better than fireworks... :)

[HarryW]

I think it was Toyota that made a car a while ago that ran on gas/petrol/some kind of fuel and electricity. Or... maybe it wasn't electricity, but a big flywheel... or maybe that was another car... *Confused already*

Anyway this car had partially electromagnetic brakes, and when you braked you actually got most of your kinetic energy back as electrical charge rather than wasting it as heat. The fuel engine was used for speedy acceleration but an electric motor was used for maintaining high speeds.

Possibly in order to be true you might have to replace the electromagnet concept there with the flywheel concept. I've heard of both I think, can't remember which was Toyota.

[Michael]

If anyone's going to come up with a revolutionary new design for a car then they had better make it a genuinely practical proposition. Does anyone here remember the short-lived but long-mocked Sinclair C5 (except for Clive Sinclair)???

[parksie]

Vaguely.

Yeah...was an ugly PC coloured triangle on wheels.