Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Dec 2004
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- 11,372
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- Knowle, Solihull, UK
That's true - I can claim it back. It's still a large increase though and it just seems to be another expense
Fuel tax up again 1st April
- Thread starter [TW]Fox
- Start date
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Which, long term, it wont if you are doing huge miles with ever increasing fuel costs!
[TW]Fox;16170637 said:
At the time as long as had food on table, bills paid etc i would have been happy.
£60 a week or whatever it is instead of 50k a year does not make me happy.
But i know what your saying, its a balance, and would have got worse and worse
Yea, I did firstly 45 miles a day and then later 86 miles a day on my placement. It was hugely annoying and the car became a critical tool rather than a fun luxury.
I now drive 4.5 miles and its loads better. I'd want at least £30somethingk rather than £20somethingk if I was going to do any sort of proper 'commute' again.
Without the 10p tax rise in the last 20 months, we'd be knocking on the door of 110p not 120p.
The value of Sterling against the dollar is now no worse than it was in Winter 08/09 and the small currency changes will not drastically change fuel prices.
[TW]Fox;16170501 said:
Absolutely! Long commutes in inefficient cars are just daft. The problem isn't fuel tax it's the choice of car and commute.
If Sir Richard was to be believed on the TV last night, these small hikes in fuel duty will pale into significance compared to what's going to happen in the next 5 years.
He's predicting that world demand will outstrip world supply at that point, at which point the world will be an interesting place. Given China is reported to haved used 28% more oil in January 2010 than 2009, I'm surprised this break point is even going to be that far away. At that point we will no doubt see some very rapid advances in alternative fuels, driven I suspect by the US who's population is not geared to pay $5/litre +.
Look on the bright side, our government has the foresight to make our fuel expensive now - maybe it'll start to curb our dependence on it. We didn't used to travel half way across the country for a forum meet for example, and yet we still had relatively happy lives
He's predicting that world demand will outstrip world supply at that point, at which point the world will be an interesting place. Given China is reported to haved used 28% more oil in January 2010 than 2009, I'm surprised this break point is even going to be that far away. At that point we will no doubt see some very rapid advances in alternative fuels, driven I suspect by the US who's population is not geared to pay $5/litre +.
Look on the bright side, our government has the foresight to make our fuel expensive now - maybe it'll start to curb our dependence on it. We didn't used to travel half way across the country for a forum meet for example, and yet we still had relatively happy lives
Good point Bluelion. As the UK is a net importer of oil, anything that reduces out use and therefore imports of it is a good thing for our trade balance and economy.
High prices through taxation now reduce demand now (compare Europe with America) and reduce the rate of increase we see at the pump as the oil prices climbs (again compare Europe with America). We are in a much better position for the future thanks to our long term high fuel taxation.
High prices through taxation now reduce demand now (compare Europe with America) and reduce the rate of increase we see at the pump as the oil prices climbs (again compare Europe with America). We are in a much better position for the future thanks to our long term high fuel taxation.
Fox referred to 2 years.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=GBPUSD=X&t=2y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=
Pretty big difference.
Anyway, as you've acknowledged, currency exchange rates will make a difference. I certainly agree that the difference in recent times is marginal in comparison to tax policy though, but saying it is down to tax and nothing else is simplistic and incorrect.
Taxation makes up the bulk of the cost of fuel in the UK, and has made up the bulk of rises in the last two years. Furthermore, there is no real benefit to raising fuel taxes, it doesn't increase overall revenue.
We really need a complete refund of the state's ability to apply random taxation that goes into general coffers to products and services...
While I hate the fact there is so much fuel tax if the goverment suddenly dropped it they would need to raise council tax or VAT... so we'd be no better off. It's going to take a hell of a long time to fix the underlying issues (waiting for the pointless wars to end, waiting for bank shares to raise enough so we can sell them off and cut debt etc).
Should we all migrate over to electric cars, it's going to be interesting to see how they claw back the lost 'revenue'.
Should we all migrate over to electric cars, it's going to be interesting to see how they claw back the lost 'revenue'.
Only if you assume that the money currently spent on fuel would not be spent on other taxable purchases. Overall tax take doesn't vary that much when you vary taxation rates so I'm far from convinced this would be a problem.
There is also the question of whether 'sin' taxes should go into general coffers at all and whether the government should be permitted to attempt to alter behaviour via taxation...
I doubt batteries will ever be a good source of power for a car - hydrogen maybe, then there would be tax on that.