Better fill those tanks -Fuel protests are coming back!

Jonners · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:12

I'll believe these protests when I see them, we as a nation have gone too soft.

Jonnycoupe · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:13

[TW]Fox;18274682 said:
I was wondering how long that would take. It's irrelevent - fuel prices are going up long term irrespective of my personal circumstances. It doesnt change what I am saying. I don't expect people to want to agree with me, but I bet if we look back on this thread in 10 years time I'll be proved right.

Long commutes are unsustainable. They will be the exception not the norm and the preserve of the wealthy only in the future.

It will just make more economic cars more sensible short term but I agree with your sentiment. Working from home etc will be more common as it should be for some of these number crunching jobs.

With regard to personal circumstances - Compared to my Integra I could view my effective fuel costs as 62.5p rather than £1 I paid when I had it. My rate has also gone up a couple of quid an hour aswell so commuting has actually become more affordable.

We all just need to get used to the idea of driving VW L1s

Biohazard · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:14

Jaymond said:
I'll believe these protests when I see them, we as a nation have gone too soft.

It's a bit hard to throw that accusation when the charge now levelled at you for protesting at a refinary is one of terrorism.

(Yet I've never seen any violence??)

DM · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:15

[TW]Fox;18274730 said:
So anything we can do in the short term future to head this off from a personal point of view in the long term is surely a good idea. Think about the next job you apply for - do you really want to work long term somewhere thats 100 miles from home? Think about the next house you buy. You might drive now but just how far is it from the train station? How far is it from major employment centres..

Changing your habits before its too late will avoid you ending up in a spiral you cannot escape from.

Change his habits to what? THERE ARE NO LOCAL JOBS, and he cant afford to move.

Well my bad, he could sign on and get a council house somewhere in the back of beyond a hill.

[TW]Fox · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:17

Jonnycoupe said:
It will just make more economic cars more sensible short term but I agree with your sentiment. Working from home etc will be more common as it should be for some of these number crunching jobs

Absolutely - it is ridiculous that a lot of people drive hundreds of miles a week in order to spend all day at a desk in front of a screen when they have both a screen and a desk at home. Many people would happily take a pay cut in return for being based at home.

Looking at a typical 100 mile a day commute in a 40mpg car - at £1.30 a litre this is an annual commuting fuel only cost of £3600. You'd need to earn almost £5k a year extra before tax to cover the cost of doing this. Therefore if you currently earn £20k a year and commute 100 miles a day at 40mpg even if you got a job paying you just £16k a year but without fuel costs.. you'd have more pay left!

[TW]Fox · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:18

DiamondMark said:
Change his habits to what? THERE ARE NO LOCAL JOBS, and he cant afford to move.

We are having a discussion about people in general not some guy you happen to know in the Welsh valleys. I even said previously that for some people, there genuinelly is nothing they can do*

*or at least nothing I could argue they could do without it turning into a personally motivated flame war or something.

Jonners · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:19

Biohazard said:
It's a bit hard to throw that accusation when the charge now levelled at you for protesting at a refinary is one of terrorism.

(Yet I've never seen any violence??)

Couldn't them spotty college students who kicked up a fuss about university fee's shooting through the roof been done under the terrorism act, due to some of the shenanigans they were getting up to?

I heard about the 'terrorism' thing for fuel before, but that's some grubby idea from Labour :rolleyes:

Would the Tories use it? Why dont people go out there and find out

But then on the flipside, I think any form of protest could/would make them punish us more... :confused:

Lum · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:20

[TW]Fox;18274730 said:
So anything we can do in the short term future to head this off from a personal point of view in the long term is surely a good idea. Think about the next job you apply for - do you really want to work long term somewhere thats 100 miles from home? Think about the next house you buy. You might drive now but just how far is it from the train station? How far is it from major employment centres..

Changing your habits before its too late will avoid you ending up in a spiral you cannot escape from.

I don't think you quite grasp the situation or the scarcity of work right now, neither of us are in a position to pick and choose. The only other lead was a job in Cambridge which would have meant lodging with friends all week for at least the duration of the probationary period.

My other objection to the train is that I have to take immunosupressant drugs so public transport is a great way to ensure that my sickness record gets me sacked before the probationary period is up, though I accept that for most people this isn't a problem.

edit: I'd love to see them try electric cars around here! Lets see how far that 100 mile radius drops when you have to negotiate the local hills.

FWIW I can afford to move, but to move closer to one of our jobs would make the other job untenable, then we couldn't afford to live.

[TW]Fox · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:22

I'm not talking about you Lum, mostly because getting into an argument about your personal circumstances will turn nasty.

I'm talking about society in general.

What does your girlfriend do thats so hard to find, anyway?

DM · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:27

[TW]Fox;18274797 said:
We are having a discussion about people in general not some guy you happen to know in the Welsh valleys. I even said previously that for some people, there genuinelly is nothing they can do*

*or at least nothing I could argue they could do without it turning into a personally motivated flame war or something.

Im never going to flame you Fox, i think you are outstanding and i mean that

Lum · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:30

Don't really want to talk in two great detail about someone else's job, but it's a very specialised area of IT that involves almost no contact with Microsoft products other than the workstation used for basic paperwork.

I usually end up on IRC telling her how to work around various bits of stupidity in Office 2010, since I'm the Windows person in this household.

Biohazard · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:30

Jaymond said:
Couldn't them spotty college students who kicked up a fuss about university fee's shooting through the roof been done under the terrorism act, due to some of the shenanigans they were getting up to?

That comes under the Riot Act with twelve or more persons involved iirc. Although, governments don't like to read the Riot Act. It reminds too much of bad history from the past...

Jaymond said:
I heard about the 'terrorism' thing for fuel before, but that's some grubby idea from Labour

Would the Tories use it? Why dont people go out there and find out

Afaik it's still on that statute books.

It's a good present for the Tories. Labour are unpopular for doing it, the conservatives will benefit from not having to deal with fuel shortages.

Jaymond said:
But then on the flipside, I think any form of protest could/would make them punish us more...

Hmm, if government started to become vindictive towards protests then I think we'd have a god given right to storm that **** hole of a Parliament!

Biohazard · 20 Jan 2011 at 17:31

DiamondMark said:
Im never going to flame you Fox, i think you are outstanding and i mean that

Get a room!