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106 comments on One big sigh... (Sarkozy on lowering gas taxes)
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106 comments on One big sigh... (Sarkozy on lowering gas taxes)
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In related news British hauliers are today protesting fuel cost:
And continental fisherman have called an unlimited strike starting later this week, again in protest at fuel cost:
Jerome is right, it seems the voters only (understandably) care about their short term costs. This will translate into tremendous pressure on our politicians to “do something” however it’s hard to see what they can to simultaneously pacify the protestors without exacerbating the long term problem.
I for one canonly welcome th relief to the fishing holocaust. The EU controls nothing it seems. They should fish with sail boats and get what they can that way. Mayb a small portion of the natural fish stock can return after some years. PO can only be good in this sense but probably too late. Humanity has done a horrible crime.
Right on Galactic,
... and I for one quite enjoy my protein as beans on toast, as long as I have a jar of chili garlic sauce to go with it. As far as fishing with sail goes it really can be a gas. As a younger guy I spent much time in a small 10 foot sailed skiff trolling and jigging but wouldn't like to think about doing that for a living under sail most particularly now. There just isn't the stock and the last time I was out in small sail boat, after a twenty year absence, it was so disappointing I don't bother to fish any more, still go out for a sail though. And anyway there is also tortillas and beans which is IMO even better than beans on toast:)
Ummmm.... Tortillas are also rising 18%.
I was saddened to se all those truck drivers out there whinging, There industry has no future and they will be out of a job sooner than later, Its like Sarkozy the clown saying, We will continue using steam engines for the SNCF because it would put boiler makers out of work
They are not simply whinging. their livelihood is being destroyed.
Their complaint is not so much about the overall level of fuel costs, as the lack of a level playing field.
Whilst diesel prices vary so much within Europe truckers from other countries can come in using fuel bought at much lower cost.
We need co-ordination in fuel prices, but not as Sarkozny suggested to lower them, but to have a consistently high level.
This is due to poor political decisions, not just an inevitable rise in fuel prices, and the truckers are right to protest the incompetence.
EuroTunnel offers (last time I checked) a special service for British lorries.
Come down to Dover with just your cab (tractor) and we will transport it to France.
Drive less than 1 km on French soil, fill up with cheap French diesel, come back and we will rail you back to England.
It does not sound like France needs cheaper diesel !
Alan
Consistently high prices are what is needed, instead of inefficiently crossing the channel for no purpose other than those created by varying tax regimes.
The Channel tunnel should be transporting more goods by rail, not lorries to fill up their tanks.
The point is that (eg. in France) the pain is shunted right down to the little man, the fisher, the small independent truck co., the individual poor commuter, farmer, etc. Greek tanker owners pass the cost right down to their customers (though I have heard they are feeling pain as well) and they limp along. At the end of the chain, as the payees or customers are strapped, the goods and services (fish to the incredulous housewife, trucking charges to the on-the-ropes small manufacturer..) billed can no longer be sold / paid for. So they prefer to demonstrate, or give up and shut down.
Besides that, Sarkozy is a grinning bling-bling buffoon.
"...it’s hard to see what they can to simultaneously pacify the protestors without exacerbating the long term problem..."
Unfortunately most governments see the long term problem as not their problem but the problem of a future government:-(
A report on the bbc today says "Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling are set to meet oil industry leaders...He says an increase in the supply of oil would lower the price of fuel and ease pressure on the government over the planned tax increases..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7422802.stm
So there you have it, he is interested in easing the pressure on the government and this is just a delaying tactic to show he is listening or "feeling our pain". Of course a large enough increase in supply would lower the cost but as we know this is not possible.
Even those who should know beter are not helping, Vince Cable the economic spokesman for the Liberals (the third party) and a former economist at Shell says "...It may be that the world oil price will fall very substantially in the intervening months..."
Chris,
"it seems the voters only (understandably) care about their short term costs" the problem is that the voters are not being given a clear and unambiguous message.
They hear the media talking about prices coming down in the future, untapped sources and politicians saying they are going to do something such as Gordon Brown saying "top of the economic agenda for the forthcoming G8 summit in Japan should be a global strategy for addressing the impact of higher oil prices" or free insulation...
IMHO what needs to be said is we are facing a problem such as we have never seen before and we need to take every step possible. These steps should start by making it clear everyone is subject to the same problems, e.g. by completely banning the sale of gas guzzlers within three months thus showing that even rich people are affected.
The politicains best placed to do this are those who will not be reelected such as Bush and almost certainly Brown.
Best hopes for brave and honest politicians.
Well, if the same fishermen had not overfished their fishinggrounds in de last decades, they might still be able to operate economically.
Well, they could be upfront and honest and say fishing is not sustainable, the stock needs to recover anyway and it is an inefficient use of fuel. Then they could provide funding to retrain the fishermen to do something else.
Here in Oz we have the truckies staging a rolling protest (Irony++). This in a country where almost all of the freight is in a narrow north-south route (Mebourne-Brisbane-Cairns) or east-west (Melbourne-Adelaide-Perth), with next to no freight heading anywhere else (Adelaide-Darwin line only carries a few freights a week). There is no logical rationale for the massive long-distance trucking industry to even exist!
(My step-father has raised his prices twice this year already (earthmoving), and is now looking to get out altogether. I've advised him that if he's looking to get out (and he should, it'll wipe away all of his and Mums debts and leave money left over), he should do it soon!)
But in Oz, it seems trucks rule the roost, via the very loud Transport Workers Union. "Without trucks, Australia stops" etc. So we still build huge highway expansions, tunnels, bridges etc for vehicles, but don't bother thinking that maybe, just maybe, the whole paradign is broken and we should be focusing on Public Transport, primarily rail, instead.
Nah, no votes in that.