Dear FairFuelUK Supporter
With less than a week to go to the Budget, we are now seriously concerned that the Government may stick to its plan to increase petrol & diesel prices by adding a massive 16p a gallon (3p/litre fuel duty and VAT combined) increase in a few months time. We urgently need you to help us stop this. Petrol & diesel prices are already at record levels and are still rising. We know that this increase will push many families and businesses over the edge.
What makes this situation even more frustrating, is that we have supplied the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and every MP with independent research that shows that CUTTING fuel taxes would not actually cost the Government any revenue. Even a modest cut of 2.5p per litre would create 175,000 new jobs and boost the economy by 0.33%. The taxes generated from this economic growth would balance out any lost revenue from the fuel duty cut.
Please, even if you have done this before, send a message to your MP by clicking on the participate link http://action.fairfueluk.com/CutFuelDutyNow.
We have studied the replies from MPs to our earlier emails and it’s clear that our central campaign message is not getting through. Given the seriousness of the fuel price scandal, and the little time left before the Budget, we have to do all we can to make sure that our voice is heard.
In recent weeks, our number of supporters has grown dramatically – but we need more. The more people we have behind us, the more powerful our voice. Please ask all your family, friends, customers and contacts to sign up at www.fairfueluk.com. Every sign up (and it’s free!) really helps.
Much of our campaigning is done across the internet which enables us to keep costs down whilst reaching out to tens of thousands of people. The best way you can help us have a visible presence as a campaign is to get a campaign sticker. A huge showing of these on the roads and motorways of Britain helps keep this vital issue in the eyes of the media and of the politicians and it helps fund the campaign … get some here …
Thanks for your support as ever…
Quentin Willson & the FairFuelUK Team
Please email your MP for a cut in fuel duty now
As a supporter of the fair fuel campaign for the last twelve months (at least) I find it both annoying and embarrassing that in a club with 6000 odd members there seems to be little support - when we could help to make a difference. When I posted about the previous campaign , apart from a couple of supporters, the rest that replied scoffed at it, with comments like “It won’t make any difference” and “Seen it all before”.
It DID make a difference as you are all now aware, so lets have more support for this one - without the negative approach the previous campaign was greeted by. I’m surprised (or not) that STHT did not make some comment, so that all members were aware of what we are trying to do - or are some happy to pay ever increasing tax on fuel?
Wait for the toll road charges - - - - - 
A while ago I suggested that the owners’ club might like to adopt an official charity. And the answer I got was this wouldn’t be fair to members who didn’t support that charity.
I think the same logic also applies here. If individuals want to support a political campaign, then they are free to do so. But the club has to stay neutral out of respect for the members who don’t agree.
Including me.
Which sounds like “Cutting off your nose to spite your face”? While the campaign is aimed at changing a possible political decision (to increase the tax) it’s hardly political in itself, it’s relevant to any motorist/haulage contractor or small business, when we are trying to boost the economy . If you wish to disagree, so be it, but you’ve obviously got more money than some of us who are struggling to afford running a car. Charities are one thing, tax is entirely another - - - -
Hi Gerryn,You are so right on this some one has to take the fight to the politicians (tax bandits) I work in the haulage industry and so many large & small companies are going to go to the wall and so many car owners as well have to stand there cars up or worse still sell there cars.Everything we touch buy is delivered by a truck/van and the cost of fuel will be passed on the us the public. The government needs to listen to the Fair Fuel Lobby but when do the government ever listen to the voter the economy does need a big kick start even the building trade relies on the HGV to deliver bricks and building materials too kick start the building industry, even down to car delivery so come on guys do your bit please vote
Alan
Let’s see, it goes a little like this …
The Government raises taxes to pay for the services that it provides, like the armed forces, the national health service, the benefits system and repairing the roads. Taxes aren’t evil. The money isn’t hidden away in a giant piggy-bank somewhere. It is being used for stuff that you want and need. The Government takes our money and does (mostly) useful stuff with it. If you don’t like what they do with it, vote in a new government.
At the moment, we have an ageing population. That means that we are all living longer and needing more support from the state - both in terms of healthcare and pensions. We are also in a recesssion. That means that consumers buy fewer goods, which means that the Government receives less income from VAT. And everyone who is made unemployed costs the Government even more in benefits. Recessions are bad news because it’s a downward spiral - less spending = less taxation income = more people unemployed = less spending.
The bottom line is that the cost of running the Government has gone up and the income from taxes has gone down. We now cannot afford to run Britain. If we don’t do something about it, we will end up like Greece which is effectively bankrupt. If Britain was a family, we would be massively overdrawn and our salary would not be enough to pay the monthly bills.
One way to make up the difference is for the Government to borrow money. But that is just storing up problems for later, because we need to pay interest on that borrowing. And the more we borrow, the more interest we have to pay in the long run. If our credit rating falls (as it is doing at the moment), we have to pay higher rates of interest to borrow because investors do not have the same level of trust in our ability to pay back the loans. Not good.
Another way is to reduce spending. That means the massive cuts that we are seeing in all types of Government services. Have you complained about the pot-holes recently? Or congestion? Or the NHS? Defence cuts? What you are seeing is the net result of successive Governments trying to run the country’s services on the cheap. We need to get used to it, because there is much much more to come.
Or we need to pay more tax. It doesn’t really matter which tax gets increased - income tax, VAT, fuel duty. Or even Cameron’s latest wheeze of tolled roads. It all ends up in the same place - in the exchequer to pay for all the services that the Government provides.
This is when some people go into denial mode. They point to an item of spending that they don’t agree with, such as Trident or benefits cheats or top boss pay. If only we could deal with that, everything would be okay? Sorry, nope. Our finances are in such an awful state that tackling these doesn’t really make much of a difference.
Successive Governments have lied to us. Not one has been honest about the depth of the financial mess we are in. Each political party has promised to increase spending and reduce taxes. Which, if you think about it, is fundamentally impossible. It’s like an “eat all you want” diet. It just doesn’t work. Of course, each Government has claimed that they will make the sums work by making services more efficient. And there is something in that - the civil service has lots of inefficiency. But unfortunately nowhere near enough to get us out of the pickle that we find ourselves in.
I saw one estimate that the banking crisis has cost the country the equivalent of £32,000 for every man, woman and child in the UK. Imagine all of your existing debts - loans, mortgage, overdraft, credit cards. Now add in a new debt of £32k for everyone in your household. Because the Government’s debts are our debts. They have no-one else to pay it back apart from us.
So, sure, you may be tempted to protest about the cost of fuel. You may even be successful because Governments are afraid of massive public protests. But all that you would achieve is that they would need to raise another tax somewhere else to pay for any concessions they make on fuel.
I’m sorry if this sounds a little bleak, but it’s about time that we were honest about what is going on. This is far far more complicated than complaining about the cost of fuel because you don’t like how much it costs.
With respect I really can’t understand this attitude.
Are you really happy to pay these ridiculous levels of tax on fuel when the government won’t even spent a fifth of the money they collect from our licence fee on maintaining the roads? Can’t you see the damage it’s doing to our industries? Not just the transport industry which is battling against ever increasing costs and ever decreasing profits but every other industry as well from the plumber who has to fuel the van he carries his tools around in to the food industry who has to get everything we eat on to our table.
I assume you haven’t looked at the Fair Fuel website so I’ll just share with you the actual cost of 10 gallons of fuel as broken down here
- If you buy 10 gallons of unleaded, the actual cost of the fuel without tax is only £25,
- and that includes the profit made by the refinery and the petrol station.
- With fuel duty and VAT it will cost you over £62.
- However, that is from taxed income.
- To pay £62 someone on the basic rate of tax would have to earn £91.50
- Furthermore, your employer would have to pay a further 13.8% National Insurance,
- So the total tax collected on £25 of petrol is a whopping £76.43 (more than 300%)
Do you really think that’s reasonable?
Thanks Once - you save me some typing.
TBH I never even look at the price at petrol stations as petrol is such a small proportion of the cost of owning a car.
Now we know who writes those speeches for TRH George Osborne 
Once - I thought you didn’t want to get involved in politics??? When Englishmen were men - we went to war (a civil war) over increasing taxation, now we are so traumatised we wouldn’t say boo to a goose (shades of TRH Chamberlain.) You ask us to be realistic, but your opening statement was anything but - reminiscent of the cry baby who couldn’t have a lolly - so threw his toys out the pram. You claim the government needs more taxes, to pay off debts which we - joe public - weren’t asked to approve (what happened to Democracy and the voice of the people?) Meanwhile we’ve just got through a major debacle where MP’s right left and centre, were milking the public (taxes) for all it was worth - you want to be realistic? Don’t get me started - - people can get arrested these days for less.
'Nuff said.
Now we have two of them! - - - Time this club had entry requirements (LIke "shouldn’t you be in the RR owners Club?)
Ha ha - but this isn’t rich versus poor.
If it were, then I would be the one who bought their car new, wouldn’t I Gerryn?
Now there’s a contradiction in terms - you can’t afford a new car, but you never look at the price of petrol - apparently it’s peanuts. I don’t watch the litres, I keep my eyes glued to the mounting cost. 
Yes - I bought a new car - in 2002, when I was 68 - a semi retirement present from me - to me, with the thought “this is the last car I shall ever buy”.Were I more ‘with it’ then I would have bought a second hand one, but a workmate bought a S/H Mk1 in '99 and paid £12 grand for it, so the cost of the Sport in 2002 was a bargain in comparison. I wasn’t even aware of the Club at the time -a search on the Net revealed it, but there was no Forum until later in 2002, and that was with one topic only, till I asked if we could have a members dicussion area (one additional topic!).
Seeing as I was made redundant twice (Once internal politics, and the second time thanks to Ms Thatcher) before I went self employed - and in which occupation I still work part time as my DSS pension doesn’t foot all the bills - ( down to increased taxation and self inndulgent local councils.) I need a car for part time work, and to get to the shops, and the hospital (frequent visits these days) we have no public transport nearby, even though where I live is in the outer suburbs of Nottingham. I could of course stagger down the hill to Tesco, but I would have to die there, as I could never walk back up the steep hill that constitutes the backbone of where I exist - as opposed to live. From this you will gather I’m still angry, the difference is, I’m not alone, anymore than I was in 1957. I have given up on nearly all Club activities as I can’t afford either the petrol, or the meal that often goes with an area drive. Essential motoring only for me - now imagine if the cost of petrol actually came down - I could buy more fuel, - pay more taxes and start enjoying life again by driving more - I’ve worked so far one way or another since I was fifteen, so I don’t deserve it?
You never bought a new car in your life? You should have emigrated. like wot I did - - - - - BUT - as Canada is now so liberal you aren’t even allowed to wish anyone a “Merry Christmas” anymore I guess I’m stuck here, unlike wot Geoff is. 
My advice would be to make fewer assumptions, as the ones you make about me are all wrong. I don’t mind being mis-represented too much though as I’ll put it down to your anger.
Good luck with the petition but, having explored both sides, I prefer to oppose it.
@Betty_Swallocks
What you are talking about is called hypothecation. That’s when all the money raised by a tax is spent solely on the activity connected with the tax. It happens very occasionally in the UK. I can only think of one or two small examples.
Between 1920 and 1936, motoring taxation was hypothecated. Motorists paid into what was then called the road fund license. 100% of this money was supposed to be used to repair and improve the roads. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work that way. The fund generated surpluses which the Government spent on other things.
This was changed in 1936. From then on, the pretence of hypothecation was droppped. The Government said quite openly that the taxation income from motoring would be adding to the exchequer - in other words it could be spent on anything.
So when people say that motorists pay far more in taxes than is spent on the roads, they are absolutely correct. When I was dealing with this at the Department of Transport back in the late 1980s, car taxation exceeded its share of roads costs by more than three times.
Next you’ve got to ask yourself where that taxation income goes. The Government doesn’t keep it for themselves. They spend it on services - body armour and equipment for troops on the front line, nurses’ salaries, unemployment benefits, medicine, flood defences, and so on.
Of course, that’s the bit that the fuel price protesters don’t tell you. Because it’s convenient for their argument to pretend that the income just disappears or that the nasty government spend it on a massive party that we don’t get invited to. The reality is this - if the government didn’t tax motoring to the extent that they did they would have to raise an equivalent amount of tax somewhere else - say through higher income tax or VAT. Whatever happens we end up paying somehow.
If motoring taxes were lower, income tax would have to be higher.
Do I think all that is reasonable? Well, yes and no. The Government needs to collect taxes and that means it needs to put a tax on things which cost it money. That means that motoring should be taxed. But I think there is a basic level of dishonesty going on here. Lots of people are confused about this - including the fuel tax protesters - because the Government is hiding the amount of taxation it needs. In order to keep income tax and council tax low it puts other taxes up. They are trying to make it look as if they believe in low taxation but the reality is that they need money to run the country.
See? Not quite as simple as the fuel tax protesters would have you believe.
Okay, there’s a few points in this one. I’ll take them one at a time.
I didn’t say that I didn’t want to get involved in politics. I work in a political environment, but this is me in my free time. So I’ll very happily have a political discussion with you. I’m just saying that whether to support the fuel price protest or not is a personal and political decision. If you choose to support it, that’s fine. If I choose not support it, that’s also fine. That is what a democracy is all about. But it’s very difficult and dangerous for the club to take a position on one side or another of an argument which will divide its members. This is most certainly not as simple as you say it is.
Am I being a cry baby? I don’t think so. I’m taking a stand for something that I believe in, just as you are putting forward your case. I could have stayed quiet. That would have been the cowardly thing to do.
You asked about democracy. Our version of democracy (there is more than one) is that we elect a group of people to run the country on our behalf. If we don’t like what they are doing, we can kick them out at the next election. And public opinion can bring down Governments. The poll tax riots effectively brough down the Thatcher government, even though it staggered on for a little while afterwards.
But we don’t have a government where every decision is made by referendum - that’s when the Government asks us to make a decision. Referendums are very rare because they are expensive and time consuming. So when the banking crisis happened the Government had to act quickly to prop up the banks. Otherwise we would have been in far deeper doodoo than we are in at the moment. That’s when we need the Government to act on our behalf.
If you would like, I’d also be happy to explain the banking crisis and why we had to bail the banks out.
Next you bring up MPs pay and the expenses scandal. Let me tell you what really happened there. There is a scandal, only it is not the one that the public have been told about.
MPs are in a fairly unique position of being able to determine their own salaries. But, they can’t go mad and give themselves massive pay increases because the public would be (rightly) outraged. So they fudged the issue and tried to pull the wool over our eyes. They kept their pay static for long periods and there was a gentlemanly understanding - a quiet nod and a wink - that they would make up the difference through their expenses. The House officials helped them to do this by encouraging them to claim for all the rubbish that we have seen. This only came to light when a journalist used a freedom of information act request to ask for details of the expenses.
For me the scandal is not so much what the expenses were being spent on (although that was bad enough), it was the collective decision to try to hide what was really a pay increase through hidden means.
But all of this is a smokescreen. MP pay is a tiny proportion of the state finances. It’s just convenient for some to focus on it to hide the real issue - that the nation’s finances don’t really add up.
Am I a speechwriter for George Osborne? Nope. I did make my early career writing speeches for Government ministers, but way before his time. What I am trying to do is give you the facts as I see them. Some of the things that governments do are sensible even though single issue protesters (like the fuel price guys) would have you believe otherwise. And some of the things that governments do are frankly barmy. The trick is to decide which is which.
del
There is an alternative to protesting about fuel prices, well, more than an alternative - you can do this as well as protest.
A second hand Citroen AX Diesel can do 100mpg, and can be bought for less than £1000. To be fair to the old flimsy Citroen - they are fun to drive, and the insurance rating is very low too. If you are driving anything else for personal transport your fuel bill is a luxury item. Certianly two seater sports cars are a luxury item, although some of them will do over 50mpg.
At least with fuel taxes I can choose how much I pay - in fact with nothing more than a change of driving style I can reduce my fuel bill by 30%. Moving closer to work slashed my fuel bill by 80%. If I drove the right car my fuel bill would drop another 60%. Although, in a way, my saving has increased costs for everyone else. Also I squander most of my saving to pay to drive silly cars in a way I enjoy.
I don’t like political debate, because there are no right answers. It’s not like anyone is ignoring the easy simple solution - there just aren’t any easy simple solutions.