We keep being told that cars are bad, and drivers are worse than terrorists, so we are encouraged to walk more and use local shops.
How come the government is closing 2500 sub-post offices, most of which are the local village shop as well as a post office?
This will mean MORE car journeys into towns; MORE congestion; and MORE competition for parking spaces.
Do the government want us to drive or not?
Joined up government? Don't make me laugh!
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Colin-E
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It's a vicious circle. The Post Office is now required to be a profit-making organisation (no more leeching off the taxpayers, right?). So the management decides that unprofitable centres have to be closed down. Many of these are unprofitable because people would rather drive to the local Tesbury's for a pint of milk than use a local shop. But Oh Noes! Now petrol is expensive and all the local services have gone! What are we to do? We should have thought that through long ago, but instead we campaigned successfully for more parking spaces in towns, more bypasses, more incentives not to use local services. The turkeys voted for Christmas in other words.
Fuel is still cheap at £1 a litre, incidentally.
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Fuel is still cheap at £1 a litre incidentally.
Would you say that bread was cheap at £5 a loaf if over 70% of it went in tax?
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Would you say that bread was cheap at £5 a loaf if over 70% of it went in tax?
It doesn't matter what the tax take is. The price is set by the market. Fuel consumption won't decrease measurably at the current price. Ergo, fuel is still cheap.
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Its easy...
Pay less tax, buy less fuel. Easiest tax saving I can think of.
Buy a bike ( exercise & transport combined )
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We keep being told that cars are bad and drivers are worse than terrorists
I've never been told that.
How come the government is closing 2500 sub-post offices
The Post Office is closing sub-post offices, not the government.
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Post Office Ltd is OWNED by the government.
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Colin-E
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Just as it was the British Railways Board under their chairman, Dr Beeching, who closed half the railway lines. Nothing whatever to do with the government.
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Post Office Ltd is OWNED by the government.
I am very aware of the ownership structure of Post Office Limited. My brother was a senior manager with POL until being made redundant last year.
The Post Office is independently managed and has received large government subsidies to keep rural post offices open. Taxpayers and other competing businesses (TNT, BusinessPost and so on) do not like to see these subsidies being paid and the so the government is reducing the levels of subsidy. POL has decided that little-used loss-making post offices will have to close. Of course now all the people that didn't previously patronise these post offices (and drove into the local town to do their shopping) are suddenly discovering that they are "essential". Typical hypocrisy from the pubic. We want lower taxes and spending, but better services. We want handy local shops within walking distance but then drive 10 miles to spend £150 a week at the local Tesco. yeah right!
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Fuel is still cheap at £1 a litre, incidentally.
Getting back on topic, remember that the crude is prices in Dollars. Just imagine what the price would be if the $ to £ rate was about $1.40 instead of the $2.00 that it is now. Thanks are due to the strong Pound for the prices being much lower than they would be otherwise.
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Diesel has been 102.9 around these parts for a good few weeks now.
After filling up the Scenic from near dry after the tank drain/flush, my posterior felt somewhat sore it had to be said. It's now sixty-two quid to fill up a family wagon - albeit from an unusually low level.
But we should all remember that fuel prices are good for us say the moral minority, so we shouldn't complain. It's for our own good, and stops us melting the ice caps by decreasing our carbon shoehorn, or something.
Cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 06/11/2007 at 13:40
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The wife and i (my queeny bit) support local business vehemently but we still lost our post office over 2 years ago
we dont all do the 10 mile tesco or whatever supermarket run in our gas guzzlers
as i said yesterday ive found a 99.9 pence per litre diesel garage and im telling no one
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Diesel still 98.9p here in Lanarkshire.
Can't say that it is purely down to price, but I am definitely starting to use the train more when I can, usually taking it a couple of times a week to work if I know I am going to be in office all day.
I also used the Glasgow Underground today to visit one of my shops, rather than drive!
But I think this is more to do with how much I hate driving in stop/start traffic rather than the price of fuel.
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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Tis good value! - Petrol or Diesel about £5 per gallon - will do about 30-40ish miles for most folk, Bitter on the other hand, £2 per pint, = £16 per gallon, and most folk only get as far as the toilets!
Billy
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But the fuel gets burned off, the pint of beer has till a long way to travel...... :)
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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Where do you drink?
At my local bitter is £2.70 a pint and most lagers are around £3.
Its crazy money popping down the local.
Its crazy money fueling two cars, I spend nearly £250 a month on fuel just for the pleasure of going to work.
Mad; I must be!
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At my "local" filling station ;-)
Different grades of "fuel" at resonable prices, Lager 3.5% otcane - £2.05, Dark mild 3.5% octane - £1.85, Bitter 5* - £1.95! On all fuel bought during Happy hour 5-8pm 20p per pint discount.
At a rival "filling station" up the road all draught fuel is £1.40 p/pint 11am-4.30pm!
Billy
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"Diesel still 98.9p here in Lanarkshire."
It's crept up some places here though in the last few days - was 99.9 at Shell Lanark last night up from 96.9 last week. Always makes me laugh that the two BP stations in Grangemouth (one less than 200 yds from the (former BP) refinery gate) are always the most expensive. Gone up to 102.9 I think this morning at Earlsgate...
Watch for the inflation figures going mad next month due to 10% year on year fuel price rises....
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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The 4 garages I pass on a morning are as follows:
Local Garage - 102.9 (DIESEL)
2 miles - 107.9 (
12 miles - 104.9 (Tesco)
15 miles - 106.9
23 miles - 99.9 - just waiting for this to tick over....
Me? I fill up at work in Coventry, generally 2 or 3 ppl cheaper, even better with the 5p off at Tesco.
Thanks to the earlier poster who pointed out the fact that I am now spending about £30 /month extra on fuel with a 10p rise in fuel... !!
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Last Thursday I fille up at 98.9p. Filled up again last night at same station and it was 101.9p.
I have also heard that inland revenue mileage rates for business mileage have not been increased, so more tax collected from this source too.
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Regional variations:
Several garages near home in Nottingham have diesel at 98.9p, it went up from 96.9/ 97.9p in the last week.
Its generally 1-3p more expensive near work in Chesterfield than it is at home in Notts; but I got caught short on my way to the M1 last night and had to pay 103.9p.. So I only put 10 litres in, that'll teach em! (not).
:o(
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 06/11/2007 at 15:08
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dont care how much it costs I am still going to take the car.
took a train on the w.e for the first time in years, and I really cannot plan ahead so I bought on the day. £27.60 for about 80 miles works out at 34.5p a mile.
As my car is 7yo and depreciation is not such a factor in the price per mile, I think the car is far cheaper. It will do c.36mpg so, calling diesel £5 a gallon, fuel would cost £11.11 and depreciation and other bits and bobs would not be that much.
Also the old chestnut of not getting EXACTLY to where you want on the train and I quite often need to hump about 100kgs around.
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If all motoring taxes were tranferred to fuel it would concentrate everyones mind about their milage. It wont happen, the govermnent would loose out, and who would pay for the welfare state we live in (the NHS has saved my life and it didnt cost me a penny directly). I knew people who have died through lack of funds in foriegn lands. And what would Swansea do witout its government subsidy, (DVLA payroll).
Edited by Old Navy on 06/11/2007 at 18:05
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"other competing businesses (TNT, BusinessPost and so on) do not like to see these subsidies being paid"
So when do we see a TNT local depot that sells newspapers, eggs and milk, provides pension money, family allowance, stamps, parcel weighing and collection, etc? Never, of course, because they only want the most profitable elements of delivery services, and because they helped cream those off, the PO is now less profitable and has to be propped up by the government that deregulated the business in the first place! As with rail and all the PFI schemes, commercial operators are only in it for the money, while the government is supposed to be in it for the common good. On the one hand, they are trying to persuade us to drive shorter distances, and on the other, they are pushing the facilities further away!
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