Petrol Duty or Higher Income Tax (UK Petrol Prices)

Member Name: leviathan

Product:	UK Petrol Prices
Date:	30/08/00 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lower income tax

Disadvantages: fewer journeys

The wails of anguish over UK petrol prices need to be tempered..Sure we pay more than most European,and |US drivers ,but they face added costs in road tolls, etc..And pay much higher rates of income tax..
We all claim to want a better NHS, better Schools, better public transport..We demand more policemen,bigger prisons to house the miscreants, and yes more by-passes, motorways and dual-carriage ways..So how do we pay for all these improved public services if not through taxation..
Cheap petrol in the US sounds great, but ask the average American what health care costs them, and you will find our petrol prices far more acceptable..
None of us want to give up our cars..But fossil fuels will not last forever..unlike the damage they have inflicted on the planet.We should stop moaning about the price and start campaigning for better, cleaner forms of public transport.
I am not actually 'changing' this opinion..Rather I am adding to it for two reasons..
1)Shell Petroleum announced it had made profits of 2.2BILLION in JUST THREE MONTHS..And the other big oil companies are expected by the City to announce similiar gains..The 2.2 billion is an increase of 80% on the last quarters profits.. Hardly surprising when crude oil prices have risen by a similar percentage..
Time these greedy polluters 'shelled' out to improve the environment their product is destroying..
2) From Yorkshire to Wales to Kent, East Sussex, and Devon thousands of people have had their lives devastated by floods..And it looks as if worse is to come..Whilst in Southern Europe forest fires have destroyed homes due to record temperatures .We cannot go on polluting this planet ..We have to use our cars less, and to do that we must have a far better public transport system.. This will take vast sums to achieve..And it seems only right that we, the petrol guzzling polluters pay..

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