Fuel the big issue
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Fuel. There's just no getting away from it—certainly not for the thousands of hauliers who have to live with the injustice of Britian's fuel tax. And not for the UK government, either, criticised this week by OPEC secretary-general Rodriguez Araque for Britain's taxation system.
The government, of course, blames the cost of fuel in Britain on oil prices, and further news of record profits for Royal Dutch/Shell will certainly lend weight to that argument. But as we all know, it's the 8c)% tax in the cost of a litre of fuel that's doing the real damage, so let's not pretend any different.
Hardly surprising, given this, that the People's Fuel Lobby are among those contemplating further protest action and that hauliers like Stanley Fernyhough, this week awarded an TS-month suspended sentence for running on red diesel, seek any way they can—legal or otherwise—to cut operating costs.
All of which goes to show that the government's efforts to put an end to the debate over high fuel prices with its recent Budget concessions have failed. Fuel is still on the agenda for the transport industry, and the government would do well to remember this, given that we are now less than a month away from a general election.
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