Petrol costs too much - what can be done? (not a spam e-mail repost)

Prompted by some discussion on this BBS, and after working out that out of £50 I spent to fill up my car the other day, £40 was tax , I have had enough of ridiculously expensive petrol and want to do something about it. I think, for the first time in my life, I'm actually going to join the political process.

Is anyone aware of any major parties or pressure groups I could join who are campaigning to reduce fuel tax? If not, does anyone fancy starting one? I for one would be more than happy to help out.

My theory is this: The bulk of the price of petrol is made up of tax. Tax is set by the Government. Governments are voted for by everybody (at least in this country). So, if enough people threatened to vote for someone else, the government would either change its policy or be voted out of office.

I'm sure some of you are there saying "Don't bother, you will never get enough support", but how many motorists are there in this country, for goodness' sake? And do any of them actually think that the price of petrol is reasonable?

On a related subject, does anyone know anything about the Association of British Drivers? They have a handy calculator that tells you just how much tax you're paying on your fuel at http://www.abd.org.uk/fuelcost.htm , but I'm worried that they might be too focused on more contentious issues (e.g. speed cameras) to make fuel tax their key campaign.

Advice, help, or even comments telling me to get lost are all welcome

I've been posting about this on TIF and the GTR forum as well as here, even started bi*ching about it on SF.

So, how about this:

We all do a petition on this thread (c/p name), then once everyone was added who wants to, pass it on to another car BBS. Should be pretty large by the end of it. What you think?

I'm a member of the ABD and they use the subscription money to petition against such things as speed camera's, petrol tax etc. The more people that join, the louder their voice...

Have a look at this link, 1.12p for SUL in London :

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/11080042?source=Evening%20Standard

It's well beyond a joke now and the age old excuse of "it's the price of crude" is ridiculous....try the 86% tax!!!

To be honest I think the only way you'll get cheaper petrol is to live in a different country.

The ABD do have an Anti Tax section... there is a pledge you can print off an send to them. I guess the more people send it in the higher it will come on their priority list!

I calculated that I spend £1700 a year on tax through petrol... thats just taking the p*ss.

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to join up to the ABD then - looks like it's £17 for the year.

I guess if we all do the same and get our mates to do it as well if we ever hear them complaining about the price of petrol, we will be getting somewhere.

Cheers!

Well a petition would be good as well, so lets start:

1. Syed Shah

1. Syed Shah

2. Splurge

1. Syed Shah

2. Splurge

3. Darren Blake

I think real names would carry more weight.

I assumed this would be a list of people who would be prepared to sign a real petition, i.e. an actual paper one, rather than being the petition itself.

I didn't think the UK government acknowledge e-mailed petitions, do they?

Additionally, if you have a big fat written petition, you look much more impressive to the media when you go and deliver it to Downing Street. Plus the fact that there are all those signatures on it proves to the skeptical masses that the people concerned do really all exist.

I might just be getting confused, of course.

Ah I see. My bad

Good on you for starting this thread BTW.

Where abouts can you find the tax policies of all the government parties out there?

All the main parties like Labour, Conservative, Libs etc. don't say that they will actually reduce tax on petrol.

Is there a party you can vote for that actually does say they will reduce tax?

i nkow i'm actually lokonig forward to them knocking on my door this year... last year they started the conversation with 'Nice car'. hopefully they will do the same and I can reply with ' shame I cant afford it anymore'

1. Syed Shah

2. Splurge

3. Darren Blake

4. Supragal

1. Syed Shah

2. Splurge

3. Darren Blake

4. Supragal

5. Patrick Devlin

1. Syed Shah

2. Splurge

3. Darren Blake

4. Supragal

5. Patrick Devlin

6. Steve Wyeth

We should get people in the street to sign it as well. If you could get members canvassing the different areas of the UK that they live in, we could get thousends of names on this bad boy!!

We could always start our own party. The Supra party - the party for the moterist. Might work.

1. Syed Shah

2. Splurge

3. Darren Blake

4. Supragal

5. Patrick Devlin

6. Steve Wyeth

7. Trevor Bourner

Would it be a good idea to appoint someone as the head of the petition organising thingy?

Then we could make a small declaration that we could all print off and sign, and post it to the appointed person.

A huge pile of signed declarations to reduce fuel tax would carry more weight than a petition wouldn't it???

It would also make it much easier to pass to other bbs, just show them the link to the printout and give them the address.

Originally posted by tbourner

1. Syed Shah

2. Splurge

3. Darren Blake

4. Supragal

5. Patrick Devlin

6. Steve Wyeth

7. Trevor Bourner

8. Tim

 

 

 

Would it be a good idea to appoint someone as the head of the petition organising thingy?

Then we could make a small declaration that we could all print off and sign, and post it to the appointed person.

 

A huge pile of signed declarations to reduce fuel tax would carry more weight than a petition wouldn't it???

 

It would also make it much easier to pass to other bbs, just show them the link to the printout and give them the address.

The ABD has a form already, and they are collecting them via royal mail:

ABD Axe the tax page

Go to the bottom of the page click on the link print it out send it to them.

OK, if people are genuinely interested in doing a petition, I have found a couple of useful resources:

Here is the BBC's guide to running a petition:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ican/A2219951

And here is the Houses of Parliament's guide to writing an acceptable petition:

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/p07.pdf

In accordance with tbourner's excellent idea, it would work just as well if everyone printed off the petition, signed it themselves, and then posted it to a co-ordinator before the appointed date. Let's leave this thread around for a bit before doing anything, and see what other useful ideas we can come up with as well.

I urge everyone to sign the ABD pledge as well - it's not quite the same thing as petitioning parliament but it all helps, right?

Based on all this, how does the following sound?

Petition to reduce by half the duty payable by motorists on the purchase of fuel

To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.

We, the undersigned petitioners, do pray your honourable House that in the interests of the liberties and livelihoods of the motorists and their dependents residing in this Kingdom, you do forthwith reduce by half all duties payable on all forms of fuel purchased for the purposes of private transportation.

We remain your humble servants,

Signature / Name / Address / Date

etc

1. Syed Shah

2. Splurge

3. Darren Blake

4. Supragal

5. Patrick Devlin

6. Steve Wyeth

7. Trevor Bourner

8. Tim

9. Geoff Valenti

I'm gonna link the ABD form on some forums.

Who's gonna be the co-ord then?

Do we have an HTML bod who can whip up a nice page with the form to print and sign. Plus an address to post to?

1. Syed Shah

2. Splurge

3. Darren Blake

4. Supragal

5. Patrick Devlin

6. Steve Wyeth

7. Trevor Bourner

8. Tim

9. Geoff Valenti

10. Carl Farrington

Wouldn't an e-partition be more useful given all the people viewing the forums will already have internet access? If I have to print something off, then remember to post it etc it will never get done.

4. E-petitions

 

Posting your petition online will greatly increase its potential reach. You could do this on your own website by creating a petition page. There are two ways of doing this. They are:

 

* A petition for visitors to your website to complete online

 

* A blank petition form which can be printed off by your supporters and used to collect signatures

 

Requirements

E-petitions to the government need to follow the same standards as paper petitions and need to offer access to a full name and address for each signatory. These verification details (including an email address and date of birth) should be collected by the e-petition organiser.

 

You do not have to show this information on the online petition itself and it is best not to do so for security reasons. As with a paper petition, if you want to contact people who sign your petition either by post or by email then you need to get their permission to do so. Again, this information should not be passed on to other people or you could break the Data Protection Act.

 

Spread the word

You could use an e-petition website to host your petition online and increase your profile. They will also provide guidance about the best way of producing your petition.

 

Let people know about your petition by advertising it on any of the mailing lists or newsgroups you use. You could also register it with some search engines, usually for nothing.

1. Syed Shah

2. Splurge

3. Darren Blake

4. Supragal

5. Patrick Devlin

6. Steve Wyeth

7. Trevor Bourner

8. Tim

9. Geoff Valenti

10. Carl Farrington

11. Bryan Cullen

this is where we get to find out everybodies proper name