WDB
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Post by WDB on Mar 24, 2022 7:59:42 GMT
A piece of Sun-pleasing by Sunak that accounts for 6p of the change. At £1.20 a litre, the government was taking ~78p in tax. At £1.80, it was 88p and is now 83p.
What he won’t tell you is that this is another item that comes with a Brexit cost. The dollar appreciates in times of international stress but the pound has been consistently weaker since the referendum. Before the invasion a dollar was 72p; now it’s 76p but in May 2016 it was only 68p. (And in 2008, when the dollar price per barrel last went this high, it was closer to 50p.) At the wholesale level, everything traded in dollars costs UK buyers more than in 2016.
A barrel of crude yields about 110 litres of road fuel, so at today’s prices the wholesale cost is about a dollar a litre. So Brexit, which Sunak campaigned for, adds about 4p, plus margin, to the pump price. So Sunak’s duty cut yesterday is really just using public money to alleviate the damage his own government’s policy has caused. We’re paying twice.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Mar 24, 2022 9:15:17 GMT
Only those who did not vote for Brexit are paying twice. Those who voted for it knew what they were voting for and have factored it in to their monthly accounts already.
You just need to read any comments section in the Daily Express to see what a marvelous, self-congratulatory, gloating, self-centred group exists. Pull the rope up, I'm alright Jack and get me another G&T peasant.
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Post by EspadaIII on Mar 24, 2022 10:59:54 GMT
£1.569 at Sainsburys this morning for U/L. Down 5ppl - is that coincidence?
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Post by EspadaIII on Mar 24, 2022 11:02:27 GMT
Only those who did not vote for Brexit are paying twice. Those who voted for it knew what they were voting for and have factored it in to their monthly accounts already. You just need to read any comments section in the Daily Express to see what a marvelous, self-congratulatory, gloating, self-centred group exists. Pull the rope up, I'm alright Jack and get me another G&T peasant. Except many of those who did vote for Brexit were not the wealthy, comfortable people you (rightly) decry. Many were low waged or unemployed who possibly did not understand what they were really voting for. It is those I feel for. |
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Mar 24, 2022 11:06:15 GMT
There may have been some irony in BPG’s remark. Since the Leave side couldn’t agree among themselves what Leave would look like, not even they ‘knew what they were voting for’.
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Post by EspadaIII on Mar 24, 2022 13:47:46 GMT
Well that's true as well! It's just a little uncomfortable having a dig at some people who through no fault of their own are in difficult circumstances.
There was an interesting graph in the Telegraph today. Fuel prices were last this high in 2012 and dropped to about 100ppl for a short time in 2015/16 before dropping again to just above 100ppl in 2020. Overall, fuel costs in real terms have not risen anywhere near as much as people think; it is the very sharp rise in prices in the last few weeks that has caught the attention. The government should have also increased the mileage rate for business users from 45ppm to say 50ppm but I doubt that will happen.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Mar 24, 2022 14:37:18 GMT
The 2020 dip was linked to a pandemic and no one going anywhere. They needed to sell what was in tanks under forecourts.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Mar 24, 2022 14:46:40 GMT
Well that's true as well! It's just a little uncomfortable having a dig at some people who through no fault of their own are in difficult circumstances. Wasn't doing that. Leave was a dishonest proposal from the start. This is just one adverse consequence among many. Overall, fuel costs in real terms have not risen anywhere near as much as people think… I’ve made that very point here. £1.80 today is about equivalent to the £1.30 we were paying in 2008. |
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Post by EspadaIII on Mar 24, 2022 16:07:24 GMT
Exactly.
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Mar 24, 2022 18:50:44 GMT
As expected at the Tesco, down 6p a litre. If it was only 5p then that would be wrong because there is VAT on the 5p to knock off.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Mar 28, 2022 15:53:41 GMT
Still found myself paying £1.83 for Shell in Reading on Sunday. It was 3-5p less around Southampton and much less (£1.71) at Sainsburys in Oxford today.
£128 for a tankful! I’ve had to widen the the column in my fuel record spreadsheet. Small mercies: the long, steady York trip at least let the car equal its consumption PB, so this was only my second-highest pence/mile return.
But even at £1.71, the next one will probably show 24p a mile, which is enough to give me pause about using a car to which I usually have a viable alternative. And that highlights the fine mess we as a society have gotten ourselves into in our dependence on fossils. I wonder how much further on we’d be with renewables but for the disinformation and obstruction of the climate deniers — the same papers that are now demanding we make fossils more affordable.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Mar 28, 2022 16:18:16 GMT
The point you make then leads to people having to prioritise.
They only have so much disposable income therefore does it not make more sense to first convert the house then worry about the car later? For most families I'd guess the house electric and gas/heating oil bills are higher than the car fuel bills. Target where the greater savings are made first.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2022 16:42:27 GMT
>>And that highlights the fine mess we as a society have gotten ourselves into in our dependence on fossils.
Have we? I'm not sure that the price of fuel justifies that. It increases in price, we drive less, demand drops, price goes down. Not really a mess.
The difference between mileage which has to be done in a car and mileage that people really really want to do in a car is two entirely and considerably different things.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Mar 28, 2022 17:28:10 GMT
Agreed, if I meant only affordability, but as BPG points out, we use fossil fuels for multiple purposes and the only one that’s made any serious progress towards renewables is electricity generation. Vehicle fuel and, especially, home heating are stuck in the fossil era.
Yes, it needs the kind of investment and joined-up thinking that we’re not really very good. Insulating old homes, building new ones properly and in places where people can — and will — get to school or the shops on foot, not in a car. All expensive options compared with sticking with what we’ve always done — but what we’ve always done has brought us to this.
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Post by EspadaIII on Mar 28, 2022 18:47:48 GMT
So many wasted opportunities in the Spring Statement... Where were the incentives for mass national balanced power so that individual households don't need to prioritise carbon or solar; heat or light; hot food over a hot shower. No UK government has had a decent energy policy since the 1950s.
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