Petrol price hits £1 a litre.
The collapse edges ever closer:
As the price of motoring rises inexorably, you would think that public transport would become all the more important. With the underground and buses being targetted in London though, more have actually returned to using bicycles and unfortunately, driving into work.
No country in the world has yet faced up to the disaster of neo-liberal economic policies, that profits and domestic product must show growth every year. With peak oil production likely to be reached within the next decade, and that's being optimistic, our car and transport based economies are faced with terrible consequences. We are nowhere near accepting these facts yet, nor are we effectively planning for the end of cheap oil. The Labour government's transport policies are a complete disaster. The railways show little improvement since the Hatfield crash, which was the death blow afdisastrousastrious decision by the Major government to privatise British Rail. Even worse is Labour's stubborn determination to not even consider renationalising them. The roads get more clogged every year. Supermarkets demand for fresh goods and full shelves means that trucks fill the motorways. Unless we change course now, and start evaluating how our behaviour and economic assumptions are leading towards a global meltdown, we are quite frankly, screwed.
Petrol prices in some areas have now gone over £1 a litre, the AA Motoring Trust warned today.
The average price in the UK is around 90p a litre, the AA said, but some garages in remote areas have been charging over £1 a litre since mid-July.
"Prices have risen 10p a litre since January, because of the rising cost of crude oil, which has gone up from about $58 to $60 a barrel," said the trust's petrol price analyst Ruth Bridger. "We don't expect average UK prices to exceed £1 a litre for a long time."
"But we received information yesterday showing that at least 46 garages are already charging over £1 a litre."
Some garages in the Western Isles admitted today that they had increased their prices to over £1 a litre.
The Uig Community Shop in Timsgearraidh, on the Isle of Lewis, has increased its prices to £1.05 a litre for diesel and £1.02 for unleaded. Elaine Newton, the shop's manager said prices broke the £1 barrier two weeks ago, after a month at 99p. "We're 37 miles away from Stornoway and that went up two weeks ago and we followed soon after," she said.
BP supplies the remote two-pump store in the Outer Hebrides every two or three weeks and according to Newton the price fluctuates at each delivery.
Ms Newton said: "BP gives us our cost price and we put a 10% mark-up on it."
As the price of motoring rises inexorably, you would think that public transport would become all the more important. With the underground and buses being targetted in London though, more have actually returned to using bicycles and unfortunately, driving into work.
No country in the world has yet faced up to the disaster of neo-liberal economic policies, that profits and domestic product must show growth every year. With peak oil production likely to be reached within the next decade, and that's being optimistic, our car and transport based economies are faced with terrible consequences. We are nowhere near accepting these facts yet, nor are we effectively planning for the end of cheap oil. The Labour government's transport policies are a complete disaster. The railways show little improvement since the Hatfield crash, which was the death blow afdisastrousastrious decision by the Major government to privatise British Rail. Even worse is Labour's stubborn determination to not even consider renationalising them. The roads get more clogged every year. Supermarkets demand for fresh goods and full shelves means that trucks fill the motorways. Unless we change course now, and start evaluating how our behaviour and economic assumptions are leading towards a global meltdown, we are quite frankly, screwed.
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