CM:
Willy Gofar:
One should remember when having a grouse about the high fuel prices just who it was that introduced the automatic fuel price increases above the price of inflation. It was of course our good old friends the Tories, beware promises from the muppets that started it all.Good point well made, Willy Gofar, lest we forget!
i will second that.
Willy Gofar:
One should remember when having a grouse about the high fuel prices just who it was that introduced the automatic fuel price increases above the price of inflation. It was of course our good old friends the Tories, beware promises from the muppets that started it all.
So presumably we should also remember what labour did to this country in the 60s & 70s then?
This tripe is like the poll tax, Yes the tories maybee were wrong to introduce it, although it seems better than what Labour has done to the council tax. But at least the tories admit it was a mistake, do you ever hear of any labour politician apologising? Byers, Mandelson, Blunkett, Hodge, did they admit they were wrong?
Willy Gofar:
One should remember when having a grouse about the high fuel prices just who it was that introduced the automatic fuel price increases above the price of inflation. It was of course our good old friends the Tories, beware promises from the muppets that started it all.
Agreed, the Fuel Escalator was introduced by the Tories. But Labour came to power in 1997, and kept it in place until the Fuel Protests of 2000, because it suited Labour to gather the additional revenue in the intervening period. The fact that the economic climate had changed during the three years of their Government was conveniently overlooked in the interests of revenue. Had they, as I did, been watching the tone of the letters on Ceefax, then they could have foreseen what was coming. When I refuel my car, then and now, I normally half fill the tank. (Less weight = better fuel economy) but in the week preceeding the Protests, I filled the tank, little expecting what followed.
As it happened, I was deemed to be working in an essential sector and would have been allowed to purchase fuel. In the event, I didn’t need to.
As for the Poll Tax. A much fairer way of charging people. Following its introduction, one night a friend of mine, head of a family of four, was bemoaning the fact that he had to pay so much. Living, at the time alone, I explained to him that as a family, they generated probably four times as much refuse as myself. When they went out at night, four people (going in different directions) were benefiting from street lighting, road maintenance, footpath usage. When they used the Library (subsidised from Council funding) then four people benefitted, when they used the local swimming baths or other recreational facilities (again subsidised from local Council funding) then four of them benefitted. He had no answer.
The burden on local services is relative to the population and occupancy levels of individual houses, NOT the intrinsic value of those properties.
answer to whats british… not a right lot anymore.
Whist everyone is entitled to their point of view, the amount of posts on this site about foriegn workers ‘taking the bread out of our mouths’ is getting right up my nose.
A load is a load. Whether its taken by a Pole, Slovak, Welsh or Brit, a lorry is a lorry and a trailer full of stuff, whether destined for the UK or another place, is just that, another load of stuff. What makes people think that a Brit can do the job better.
As for ‘those who help build the industry’, what a load of tosh. Build it up to what? Soon there won’t be an industry to speak of, if there ever was before. Transport is a service, a commodity, which is bought and sold at market rates. And the market is dictacting that the price is being cut.
There’s alot of people who talk about not running to Spain because they’re looking for the 3.5k for the round trip. Why should a manufacturer or broker pay 3.5k when they can pay 2k for the same trip, taking the same time? Who cares whether the guy speaks English when he’s loading. You don’t have to speak the language when sat behind the wheel.
I don’t buy UK fuel because I can get cheaper abroad. I only buy 200l of French fuel at a time, because its cheaper in Spain - where I go every week. Now, I can go through France and not spend any more than a couple of quid on coffee’s, but do I get all this nonsence about stealing French work, and not spending a cent there. Of course not. Its accepted that that’s how things are. I speak pretty good French, and they do moan alot about Eastern European workers, but the way the French deal with problems is tackle them head on. They’ll blockade a port or railway terminal, just to get the attention. Its not easy for us brits, as its in the French culture to rebel.
I don’t pretend to understand the WTD, but if its like other EU directives, we brits will take it very seriously, unlike our European cousins. But I would suggest it won’t change the way most of us put on our trousers in the morning - or skirts if you’re into that sort of thing!
Here endeth the lesson from Oxford.
So far this week I drove through Belgium on Sunday and spent nothing other than 1 days Euro Vignette, 8 Euros, which they don’t get all of as it is shared among the 5 countries in the scheme. Monday spent most of the day in Holland and my total contribution to their economy was a couple of cups of coffee and a days Vignette. The rest of the week so far has been in Germany where my contribution is a bit more as I have had 2 meals, 2 showers a few of coffees and spent, so far, 97 Euros on the MAUT, by the time I leave Germany it will be around 125 Euros. The biggest contribution I’ll make in any country will be tomorrow when I buy 8 or 9 hundred litres of fuel in Luxembourg, I haven’t put a drop of UK fuel in a truck for over 8 years. I guess I must be one of those ‘bloody foreign drivers’ 
Ok, but who pays your wages? Where do you spend the majority of your hard earned cash? Most of what you earn stays in the UK bacause thats where you buy your food, pay your mortgage etc. When there is an influx of people driving for UK firms who are being paid GB£, then they take that money out of our economy by sending it home to their family. Every one pound earned in Britain is actually spent 7 times by the time it goes back to the Bank of England, that is what makes the economy go round. If you then take that money out of the UK the the 7 times multiplier of that pound has gone. So if a imported worker earns £300pw then that is worth £2100 to the British economy. That is where and why our country is going to pot.
Here endith smcaul’s Economics lesson. 
Have your say. Use your vote wisely on 15/05/2005.
smcaul:
Ok, but who pays your wages? Where do you spend the majority of your hard earned cash? Most of what you earn stays in the UK bacause thats where you buy your food, pay your mortgage etc. When there is an influx of people driving for UK firms who are being paid GB£, then they take that money out of our economy by sending it home to their family. Every one pound earned in Britain is actually spent 7 times by the time it goes back to the Bank of England, that is what makes the economy go round. If you then take that money out of the UK the the 7 times multiplier of that pound has gone. So if a imported worker earns £300pw then that is worth £2100 to the British economy. That is where and why our country is going to pot.Here endith smcaul’s Economics lesson.
in my case a german company pays my wages, i drive a vauxhall which is built in the uk, but owned by an american company. my weekly shop is at asda which is also american owned. at asda i can buy a pair of jeans for £3.00 yes 300 pence which where probably made in a sweat shop in india (which was once british owned )
the people who make these jeans earn a pittance compared to me, and then the jeans transported to the uk by foreign truck or a british registered boat owned by china and crewed by polynesians. my mother was the daughter of an english soldier and a german lady (grandad and nan) who met at the end of ww2. my mother was born in germany and lived there till she was 5 years old, and then the 3 of them moved to the uk. i am therefore 1/4 german and a bit of me is welsh (fathers side). according to my passport i am british. and im proud that i am british.
but at the end of the day , does it really matter 
after all we all live in the global village
andymad:
Have your say. Use your vote wisely on 15/05/2005.
too late, Im voting Blur out on the 5th 
dave:
but at the end of the day , does it really matter
That is one of the most sensible comments ever posted on these boards, in my opinion.
Whats British
More than you might think 
… In this part of the world.
Electricity … National Grid.
Fuel … BP & Shell are very big here, so is AMOCO (Owned by BP)
Water … Severn Trent water authority.
Supermarkets … Shaws (Owned by Sainsbury’s) … even has the same ‘God food costs less at’ slogan.
Chocolate … Hershey is now owned by Cadbury, 80% of the Kit Kats say ‘Made in England’
Americas car of the year last year was the British built Mini, this year it’s the British built Landrover LR3.