UK Diesel Hits $9.84 a [US] Gallon
While you contemplate the full misery that this sad state of affairs inflicts upon the average UK motorist, eating into what's laughing called their after-tax income, consider this factoid. At various times in the last three years, the UK was an oil exporter. So why the masochism at the pump? Hey, you try running a socialist country– whose population's roughly equal to California and Texas combined– on just £552b per year. The bottom line: taxes. Pistonheads reports that "Duty on both petrol and diesel is now 50.3p a litre – around 40% of the total cost at the pumps. The duty on champagne is said to be £1.87 a bottle, which means that on a £20 bottle the duty makes up roughly less than 10%…. Polls have shown that more than half the population now blame the Government for the spiralling cost of fuel." So what's a government faced with disgruntled (disgruntled I tell you) motorists to do? Raise the fuel duty by .2p per [imperial] gallon. PH commentator 109 Bob shows how cynical UK subjects have become. "What bloody difference will it make by scrapping the 2p increase that is planned. What difference would it make if 10p was to be taken off duty, absolutely no difference what so ever to me our you. The decrease in price would just get swallowed up & prices will continue to increase." Yes they're mad as Hell and they're gonna take it some more.
More by Robert Farago
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I am not sure why Americans delight in their lower taxes. Isn't that the primary reason so many people drive SUVs and the such, even when it damages the state of your nation? I hope the price of oil triples so I don't have to deal with the proles taking up valuable bumper room on the highway.
Presumably if the US had something equivalent to the NHS, the shrinking 2.8 wouldn't have to take care of their employees healthcare.
Carshark We take our status as a capitalist country seriously, I think. Oh puh-leeez! Do Capitalist economies bolster their steel industry by imposing illegal (under WTO rules) tarrifs against foreign steel? Even now, people are thinking about bailing the big 2.801. The United States are Capitalist when it suits them and socialist when it suits them.
That huge hi-tech Military you all seem to be so proud of - who pays for that? The War Fairy?