BLAME ANYONE BUT ME, SAYS GEORGE

It’s nothing to do with me, says George Osborne, referring to the price of petrol which is at record levels in the UK.

He says that motorists are paying the price for mounting oil prices, and his friend at number 10 has said non-tax factors were mainly driving the cost at the pump.

The comments were in response to OPEC chairman Abdullah al-Badri who had told motorists to blame their governments if they thought they were paying too much for the fuel in their cars.

It is virtually the same message as King Abdullah gave to Gordon Brown, when at a conference a few years ago, Brown hit out at OPEC, which seems to be largely controlled by Saudi Arabia, asking them to control the price of oil by increasing production, and promising to increase production in Scotland.

The king pointed out, whilst looking straight at Gordo, that the price of oil was, in fact, quite reasonable, but that some governments chose to tax it more highly than others, thus causing greater strain to their citizens.

Prices of petrol have hit record levels at the pumps this week in Britain, despite falling in other European countries, including France and Germany.

So why’s that then George, if it’s all down to the oil producers?

Number 10 said that if the oil price goes up then that’s clearly going to affect the prices at the pump. Jeez, now we know why these people got to where they are.

But with petrol in the UK the second most expensive in the world and over 60% of that 2nd most expensive in the world fuel is tax, which has increased twice in the last two months, it’s a little disingenuous, to say the least, to blame the oil producers.

Pics: Our George: Have you ever wondered how much he understand of all this economics malarkey; Opec controls 40% of oil production; King Abdullah with some funny old bloke in a weird outfit inspecting troops; Breakdown of petrol prices based on 126.9p per litre.

U-TURN IF YOU WANT TO: OH THANK YOU I SHALL

Sooooooooo...as I understand it, when Dave was in opposition he thought that the SNP’s idea of a sliding petrol tax in line with the ever changing price of oil was a good idea. It offered the motorist some stability. So when the price of oil, and therefore petrol, went up, the tax would be adjusted downwards so that the Treasury, whilst still making more money than they had anticipated, would not “make a killing”. And the poor motorist would manage to fill his car.

Then when he got in to Downing Street he did a U-turn on that policy. Well no surprise there, there are a bunch of U-turns to chose from.

Then he was put on the spot by Andrew Marr on his Sunday morning programme and he kinda did a U-turn again: “ It is something I have asked the Treasury to look at because when you are filling up the car and it's £1.30 a litre, it's incredibly painful for families up and down the country and I understand that." quoth he.

Love it. Can I tell you Dave, that it’s painful for single people, couples, families and anyone else at £1.30 a litre. Families have no exclusive right to the pain. It will soon be cheaper to use Vodka to fill up your car “up and down the bloody country" (where did they get that phrase), and possibly across it as well!!!

He went on to blame Labour. It was their tax and the government wasn't able to stop it. What? Even after two budgets Dave?

Anyway, fear not, he made another U-turn yesterday and said that he didn’t want to get people’s hopes up....

Ha ha ha ha ha ha . Get people’s hopes up.... I think not Dave, we have abandoned hope, all who have entered here. Well, except of course for the royal family, who seem to be doing very nicely out of this government. (Sir david Cameron, maybe?)

U-turns seem to be his stock in trade, but this is a hum dinger, as my granny would say. A U-turn, on his U-turn on the U-turn on the pledge... Only a highly trained U-turner could do that without getting very dizzy and falling off their polo pony, and poor old Mrs Thatcher must have fallen off her broomstick.

So don’t worry Dave. It was a pledge before the election, we expected you to break it. Our hopes never left the ground.

So what was today’s U-turn?

Put A Chrysler Sunbeam in Your Life for 30p a Gallon: Never Again, says AA.

According to the AA, petrol prices are unlikely ever to go below £1.10 a litre in Scotland again, even though costs are on their way down and we are an oil rich nation. The reason is a combination of increasing fuel duty from London, and Opec’s measures to keep oil prices reasonable high, usually by restricting its supply. The organisation argues that we will never see prices fall below £1.

History shows that petrol in this country has, allowing for inflation, kept normally within a fairly narrow band price wise. But today, at an average price of around £1.20 a litre, the cost is about 40% higher than the long-term trend.

There have been two periods in the past 108 years when prices have been so high. In the mid to late 50s, shortly after a post-war period of petrol rationing ended, they were as high as today. And during the First War they were the equivalent of about £1.90 litre. Of course as only the aristocracy could afford cars at that time, it wasn’t a huge issue for the likes of you and me.

Since the end of the 90s, crude oil has doubled in price, making this the main cause for fuel increases for the past decade. However, ten years ago, a government report found that, between 1990 and 1999, the price of North Sea oil fell 30%, yet fuel prices rose about 30%, and this was partly attributed to taxation. Today, 75p of the £1.20 that we pay for unleaded goes to the London exchequer.

So it's a combination of both plus greed of the oil producers that has caused our rapidly growing prices. This year we've had all of these. On 1 January 1 VAT went back up to 17.5%, which added a couple of pence to the cost of petrol. An increase to fuel duty and a scrapped subsidy has added about 2p extra from the beginning of April (with more due to come later in the year). Plus, according to the AA, wholesale prices went up 17% this year so far, which has put another 5p on top.

Petrol here is probably the most expensive in the world. I wonder if anyone reading this has noticed any country where it costs more...

As we couldn’t let a whole week go by without a wee bit of Petula, I thought that it might be an idea to look at how much petrol cost back in the late 70s.... well in this ad for a Chrysler Sunbeam, it’s 30p a gallon... about 7p a litre......

Oh happy days....


...........

PS: Pic for Brownlie (nice legs, huh?). Promise I'll do Peggy Lee soon!

THE EVER GROWING COST OF FILLING UP YOUR TANK

Life just goes on getting better and better in this country, doesn’t it?

Despite the fact that we are told there is no inflation at all and that our money in building society and bank accounts earns no interest to speak of, it’s interesting that the cost of petrol in the UK has risen by 26% over the last year. In short it costs a quarter more to fill up your tank than it did last year.

Petrol is expected to reach £1.10 a litre before Christmas, an astounding £5. 0s. 0d a gallon for those who prefer old money and imperial measures. The blame is being laid on the increased cost of oil and the falling value of the pound (thank you Gordon).

The amazing thing is that, the last time that petrol cost this much, the cost of crude oil was $100 a barrel; at the moment it has remained between $75-$80 a barrel, prompting criticism that oil companies are fast to raise prices when the cost of crude goes up, but slow to reduce them when it comes down.

Interestingly BP has just announced bumper quarterly profits, during this recession, of £3 billion, a rise of 60% on the previous quarter. I wonder if the two are connected.

As if all of that wasn’t enough to put a damper on your evening, the VAT reduction that Darling introduced last year in a desperate attempt to encourage Christmas spending, will disappear in early January, adding on average £1.50 to a tank of petrol.

I find that strange in an oil rich country. One of the benefits of the union, I guess.