I was told recently by a bank official that if I were to present a cheque showing decimal parts of a penny, that it would be considered invalid, even bordering on illegal, as it was not, in effect, using a "coin of the realm". This confirmed my long held belief that the petrol companies were (as well as insulting our intelligence) offering a product for sale using a currency which does not exist, and I have often wondered how they get away with it. So I was absolutely amazed when, on the 8th of April, the Government joined in with this farce by increasing the fuel tax by 2.12 pence. Are they intending to bring out a new coin to the value of 0.12 pence? "This should be interesting", I thought, "that means that the price of petrol at our local Texaco station should increase to 92.11 pence". But no. In their insane desire to continue to insult us, the price became 92.9 pence, an increase of 3p.