yankeesiter Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 This relates to a previous thread about petrol prices. While I had some sympathy with contributors who complained about the tax on petrol, I noted that not many had much venom for the oil companies, who while they say they only make 2 or 3 pence per gallon on sales, manage to show eye watering profits at the end of each quarter. The other group I think deserves attention are commodity traders who gamble on oil and other everyday essentials forcing up the price of everything you and I buy. What can we do? Well, I received a circular e-mail you might be interested in. This email has been passed to me in Hexham, where we are paying £139.9 a > litre for diesel and heading towards £1.50 per litre. So here's the idea: > > It makes much more sense than the 'don't buy ANY petrol on a certain day' > campaign last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that > because they knew we wouldn't continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to > buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem > for them. But here's a plan that could really work. > > For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest > oil companies (which now are one) i.e. ESSO and BP. > > > If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their > prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to > follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach millions of Esso and > BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!! > > I am sending this note to a lot of people. If all of you send it to at > least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)....and those 300 send it to at least ten > more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on. By the time the message reaches the > sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION > consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten > friends each, then we've deprived Esso/BP of 30 million customers > > If each of us forwards this email out to ten more people within one day of > receipt, all 30 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the > next 7 > days!!! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to > you, please pass this message on. > > PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES It's easy to make > thishappen. Just forward this email, and - if you have a choice - buy your > petrol/diesel atShell,Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Jet etc. Boycott > BP andEsso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNABASHED Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 that email has been doing the rounds for at least 5 years - does nothing other than irritate me everytime i read it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chesterfield Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Yup - its been around for years - it wont happen, and even if it did the proportion of income from petrol derivatives in the UK from these two companies is minimal in their global scale. Also the overwhelming majority of the cost of fuel is in taxes and duty, so its the wrong target in the first place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Just face it, we're screwed. Get out there and get the gas guzzler you want now and be happy that one day you can recall owning one. Thats why I got the 370z, and when thats gone, may do what Sarnie is planning and sign up for a year at Supercar club, just so I can have a play in those cars before they are all taxed to death and we all end up whizzing around in leccy cars Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbs Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 that email has been doing the rounds for at least 5 years - does nothing other than irritate me everytime i read it +1000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The G Man Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Most of the supermarket stuff comes from either Shell Stanlow, BP (formaly BP, I think the Chinese own it now!?!) Grangemouth and Fawley, puts paid to hurting the oil companies. Old, old e mail, and not a very well thought out one at that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Just face it, we're screwed. Get out there and get the gas guzzler you want now and be happy that one day you can recall owning one. Thats why I got the 370z, and when thats gone, may do what Sarnie is planning and sign up for a year at Supercar club, just so I can have a play in those cars before they are all taxed to death and we all end up whizzing around in leccy cars i think you might be right; think f*ck it and get the car you want Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 As I said the first time I saw that - They are missing 'issued from Shell PR dept.' at the bottom of it. The small profit on the price of fuel at the pump goes to the petrol station owner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I swear to god if I see that irritating piece of spam chain letter mail one more time I'm going to go postal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I swear to god if I see that irritating piece of spam chain letter mail one more time I'm going to go postal. what like postal bomber letters with dog poo in to the CEO's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Close Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yankeesiter Posted January 19, 2011 Author Share Posted January 19, 2011 Guess you know what to do. Shut up and pay up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 if you want it to change you'd need to target the government. only thing i can think of is when the poll tax came in; loads of people refused to pay it so it ended up being scrapped. if you could get enough people to refuse to pay their road fund licence that might have the desired effect; but you'd need the majority of the driving public to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 If EVERYBODY bought and drove a G-Wiz that would show the government! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATTAK Z Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 If EVERYBODY bought and drove a G-Wiz that would show the government! I have one that's been converted into a lawn mower ...... works a treat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 i cant stand the G wizz, if i had machine guns i would mow down any **** in a Gwizz with a hail of .50 cal rounds. god aweful pieces of junk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spursmaddave Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 i cant stand the G wizz, if i had machine guns i would mow down any **** in a Gwizz with a hail of .50 cal rounds. god aweful pieces of junk. Not a fan then.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cesc Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 There's some fool who has one in Catford, and he charges it at night using an extra long extension cable out of his bedroom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choptop Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 They say a car represents the owner's personality.......................so if you own a G Wizz you have the personality of an offensive looking pile of manure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT4 Zed Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 There's some fool who has one in Catford, and he charges it at night using an extra long extension cable out of his bedroom you know what to do! don't you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 it would be interesting if someone with half a braincell actually came up with some smart campaign to affect petrol prices rather than all the garbage that we all get emailed. Something like doing your absolute best and not buying petrol for 1,2 or 3 days right at the end of the Financial year and waiting until afterwards could be rather amusing given that a number of government metrics, borrowing arrangements and rating agency classifications, etc, etc are done on Financial Years and while in the long run this won't impact the amount of money the government generates in tax, vertically, there could be some major issues. I'm sure there are other much smarter ways of having a real impact rather than boycotting one particular petrol station. As many mentioned before, 75% of the price of petrol is made up of the fuel levy & vat. The remainder is chiefly split into a number of contractual and other overhead costs, staff & profit. Profit gets taxed for Corporation tax, wages get taxed with Income Tax and there are a number of levies and associated charges with the types of contractual arrangements these companies make as well as all other forms of tax that they pay on refineries, road tax on tankers, taxes on ships & mooring, etc, etc. All in all, in one cycle of the monetary turnover of an Oil Company selling Petrol in the UK, somewhere around 85% will go straight into the Government's pocket. Given all this, the huge bashing one of my beautiful rims received in a monster pothole on a dual carriageway makes me pretty annoyed as I believe that given the above + road tax + tax on the insurance we pay + etc, etc, etc, you would only have to spend a fraction of this amount of money on the roads to keep them in a condition like a number of European countries. Afterall, it is the roads which generate the tax in the first place. [/rant] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 The Scottish Government is lobbying westminster just now to cap the price of petrol. The fuel duty would vary depending on the oil price. They reckon it won't affect the net amount taken in by the government however I'm unsure how good the Scottish Goverment is at maths.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chesterfield Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 if you want it to change you'd need to target the government. only thing i can think of is when the poll tax came in; loads of people refused to pay it so it ended up being scrapped. if you could get enough people to refuse to pay their road fund licence that might have the desired effect; but you'd need the majority of the driving public to do it. The problem is the majority of the people affected by the taxes on fuel are those who work hard for the money they make. The majority who rioted against the poll tax were those that popped kids out like shelling peas and were then asked to pay for their share of public services. Effectively asking people to pay per head in the house rather than how large/expensive the house was. Of course that didn't fly as it actually meant trying to instill in people a sense of paying for what you use and taking responsibility for your own circumstances. It was of course much easier to put that cost onto hardworking types like you and I, as we just put up with it and moan on forums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewan221 Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 The Scottish Government is lobbying westminster just now to cap the price of petrol. The fuel duty would vary depending on the oil price. They reckon it won't affect the net amount taken in by the government however I'm unsure how good the Scottish Goverment is at maths.... Pretty poor I would guess I did here on Radio yesterday that a promise to do something on fuel prices in the north and Islands has not been met (theres a surprise) and in Orkney the unleaded price is up at £1.59 a litre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerry3167 Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Petrol is set to get worst with prices, 1.90 a litre is next.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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