if this has been posted before my apologies

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Lowerduty30/


at last an official petition on fuel tax

I doubt they'll listen but we have to try

you'd be better off organising a petition / mass country wide protest on facebook

look at the hassle it caused on the underground when they banned drinking.

thats gonna get more people involved, be more effective, and actually get press attention

Already done!!

Nice but it won't work

That site is really simply to reduce the number of letters MP's receive by making most disgruntled voters think they have already made their point by joining a petition.

I'd like to see one single petition on that site that has changed even a trivial policy far less one on fuel duty. What would be more effective and very annoying to those in parliament would be for car drivers and truck drivers to continually blare their horns when ever passing the commons building. Right through the day blasting away and what could the police do, probably very little.

I'm going to start a petition stating that any petition which gets more than 5 million 'signatures' should automatically become law (at least to the 5 million who signed it).

Who's in?

quote:

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Originally posted by 82 Locost
I'm going to start a petition stating that any petition which gets more than 5 million 'signatures' should automatically become law (at least to the 5 million who signed it).

Who's in?

---

But I wouldn't sigh that and I doubt 4,999,999 other people would too.

However, something like 'The rate of taxation on fuel should be managed such that it costs no more than £1 per litre for the next 5 years' probably would get supported.

As would, 'any Prime Minister with a popularity rating of less that 40% can be run over by anybody signing the petition'

I'd happily sign both.

Too late for petitions in my view... time to run riot and burn London down.

No other ways to them listen, there's nothing left in this country worth saving, burn it!!

Hands off London
I'm the daddy of this manor

I can't believe people are so gulliable - these petitions make didly squat difference.

tell me of the hundred, if not thousands of petitions how many are acted up on?

all this petition business was started up to make you think the government listens and cares about what the poplace thinks. wrong" the only result it that your name is added to the book.

when the sh%t hits the fan, those in the book will first up against the wall!

THE FACTS ARE:
1. PETROL COSTS MORE TO PRODUCE AND IS COST NOT GOING TO GO DOWN.
2. GOVERNMENT WILL NOT LOWER FUEL DUTY

petition, protest and blockade all you like, those two facts will not change.

I still sign these petitions, but all your doing is giving your details to the gov't who in turn sell the details on to mailing lists for some money

Daft question ....

what tax do you want?

Petrol is taxed, ok, so lets lower the tax.

The gov. now needs to fill a hole in its finances by raising a tax somewhere else. So what do we raise???

I love this "must lower fuel duty" without someone suggesting what replaces the revenue stream.

At this point i usually expect a "make rich people pay" type comment or even "the MP's". Ok at which point all the rich people & MP's leave ........ now who pays??? At the end of hte day its you and me who have to pay. Now it can be via direct taxation or indirect. Its up to you, at least with indirect taxation via fuel, in theory its helping the planet as people move to more efficient vehicles / live closer to work etc.

As a more construtive debate it might be worth looking at where the government could maintain their revenue.

There are lots of things that could be more heavily taxed without it affecting the average punter, for example, governments througout the world impose "windfall" taxes on excessive profiteering. Despite what's been said about the cost of fuel, all the oil companies have made record profits, billions in fact - there's one way.

The other thing could be cost savings, as an example, do we need to fight a war thousands of miles away when there is no direct threat to our country? We really don't need another 50, £40 million pound aeroplanes, we do need the disabled to have affordable transportation.

It's all a question of priorities, this country needs transportation, in fact it runs on transportation - even the biggest tree hugger in the world needs to eat, where do they suppose the food comes from - the food fairy?

I'm all for those with a choice choosing to cycle to work or catch a bus - most of the people without the choice have low incomes and the rich don't care, a little more tax doesn't really affect them. So while you might think that you're "helping the environment" what you're actually doing is social cleansing, ridding the roads of the poor.

Not in my name

Chris

[Edited on 6/6/08 by chrisg]

In most ways I agree with Chris but I would ask
1)What are excessive profits?
2)Is your pension based on investments in the stock market? If so this most likely makes you in effect a shareholder in these companies and benefit from these "Excessive profits".


[Edited on 6/6/08 by Schrodinger]

The last time a windfall tax was imposed in the UK was in 1997 when the newly privatised energy companies were juged to have made excessive profit from the privatisation, the tax was used to fund social programs for employment, single parents and the disabled. The imposition of the tax is at the government discretion but, as ever, these things are steered by public opinion, especially this close to an election. There have been calls for a windfall tax this year because of the spiraling cost of domestic energy when the utility companies are making massive profits and for the oil companies doing likewise, causing hardship to the lower paid.

In short windfall taxes are usually imposed where there is a perceived imbalance of private profit versus the common good.

At the moment Algeria is intending to impose a windfall tax on the oil companies they feel have exploited their country.

This is a matter for the government to decide, but, as I said, public opinion counts.

As for the pension issue, there's no direct correlation between the amount recieved by pensioners and company profits, the only effect could be if the company got into financial difficulties and couldn't meet it's pension obligations. I don't think this is likely with the oil companies.

One possible group that could be affected are the shareholders, but it's the risk you take when you choose to buy shares in a company. It's a risky business and for the invidiual to assess when they buy the shares.

Cheers

Chris

At the moment petrol is going up at least 1p a week it seems as well as diesel.

Surely this is the fuel companies upping their prices, ok oil prices must be rising, but by this much?

Surely we have to target the oil companies as the goverment only raise the tax once a year? Or am I completely wrong?