Are petrol prices too high for our weak economy?

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UK petrol prices set official record

Do you believe that petrol prices are far too high and are now damaging our weak economy?
Diesel prices are also at a record level
Petrol price reaches record high
Oil price dips from fresh highs
Campaigners call for fuel duty cut
The average price of unleaded petrol has hit a record high, according to government figures.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said the average price of unleaded in the UK was 137.3 pence per litre on Monday 5 March, which was 1.1p higher than the week before.

The previous record of 137.05p was set on 9 May 2011.

Last week, industry analysts Experian Catalist said petrol had hit a record high of 137.44p a litre.

The average diesel price is also at a record high, government figures show, at 144.7p a litre, up 0.8p from the previous record, which was set last week.

Petrol has been pushed up by oil prices, which have risen in recent months due to tensions over Iran's nuclear plans and unrest in the region.

Prices have also been buoyed by the exchange rate.

Although the price of crude oil - measured in US dollars - has yet to rise above the peak it recorded in 2008, the dollar is more than 25% stronger against the pound than it was in 2008, meaning that oil prices are much higher when measured in pounds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business

I have a feeling Supper may be served cold tonight.

Hot Tongue and Cold Shoulder Dearest?

oftenwrong wrote:I have a feeling Supper may be served cold tonight.

Any good? Enjoy it. Apologies to Mrs Oftenwrong

Supper was hot and most delicious.

Mind you, I had to accompany Mrs H to the pub to achieve that happy state of affairs...

Government right about fuel shortage
29-03-12

GOVERNMENT warnings of a fuel shortage have proved to be uncannily accurate.

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Does Francis Maude have a secret time machine? Or is he just a wizard?
Within hours of Francis Maude telling everyone to put a gun turret on their garage, petrol stations reported long queues of terrified people offering their children in exchange for a fill-up.

Mr Maude said: "I got a right load of shit from everyone yesterday but it turns out I was absolutely spot on.

"But will they apologise? Will they eff."

The cabinet office minister admitted his fuel shortage prediction was based on an educated guess, but denied strongly that it was a fluke.

He added: "Watch this.

"I think there's going to be a milk shortage."

Mr Maude was then forced to dive out of the way as four million people stampeded towards the nearest Asda, stripping it of milk as if it was a goat in a piranha tank.

As the dust settled, Mr Maude continued: "It's weird isn't it? It's like I'm totally in the 'zone'.

"Let's try it with pasties."

More Women Having Lunch On Petrol Forecourts
11-02-08

RECORD numbers of women are having lunch on petrol station forecourts after filling up their cars with fuel, new research reveals.

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Nikki also likes to chat to friends at the other pumps
The average time each woman spends parked next to the petrol pump after refuelling has risen from 45 minutes last year to an hour.

The only group staying longer are pensioner couples, who have just voted the petrol station their favourite picnic destination for the fifth year in a row, according to Saga magazine.

Nikki Hollis, 26, said she liked to lunch at her local petrol station because she could park without having to do any reversing and it sold three different sizes of Dairy Milk.

She said: “You can flick through a Heat magazine while you are eating, down a glass or two of Zinfandel, and there's still plenty of time to touch up your make-up in the rear view mirror.

“And if you forget something, it's okay, because the shop is right there.”

Elderly driver David Jackers said he discovered the joys of sitting at the petrol pumps after waiting an hour for his wife Enid to come back from the toilet and a browse in the shop.

He added: “They are lovely spots even if they do get a bit busy sometimes.

“But everyone is so friendly, they honk their horns at us and wave, and at our age the toilets are a godsend.”

Tom Logan, 43, a photocopier salesman from Dundee, said: “What are you waiting for? What THE eff are you waiting for?”

He added: “Move. Move. Move. MOVE! effing. MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!”

In the hiatus, I have always been puzzled by the title question, "Are petrol prices too high for our weak economy?"

Prices are what they are. Decided by the law of supply-and-demand. Whether "our weak economy" can deal with them or not will never affect the cost of production.

For myself, I think Ferrari prices are too high before you even think of putting petrol in one, so I shall not be buying.

quote oftenwrong.

For myself, I think Ferrari prices are too high before you even think of putting petrol in one, so I shall not be buying.

Very wise. Could be mistaken for a Tory toff Oh. You are:oops:

Fifth Column, it used to be called.

The copy paste merchant is back. Nothing changes.

This must be the only fuel crisis in History where then Union has yet to strike.....how amazing is that?

News that the wholesale price of Oil has fallen by nearly a half since a year ago will gladden the hearts of motorists and conveyors of goods by road. Who's going to complain about cheaper petrol?
Well perhaps the Green Party. Research on alternative sources of (renewable) energy will become less urgent. Perhaps the ScotNats, whose ace card of North Sea Oil will be trumped by disappearing profits. Possibly too the Labour Party, whose current emphasis on the unaffordable cost of living may not seem quite so relevant to voters next May, if they were to find that life had become a bit easier with lowered transportation costs. Hopefully too though, those destructively greedy frackers, whose potential market will have dwindled if not disappeared.
Who else should be unhappy about cheaper oil? Potentially all of us, since we are not insulated from the Global Economy as was demonstrated forcibly by the credit crunch of 2008, and the probable cause of lower oil prices is a general reduction in the Industrial and Financial activity essential for growth. Oil-producers such as Venezuela will import fewer goods, Europe is stagnating and China slowing its previous expansion programme. As an individual you may not feel over-concerned about falling Stock Exchange values, but that is where most pension funds and personal savings are ultimately invested.
We live in interesting times.

A very interesting point OW, pardon the pun, but apart from the supermarkets slashing their prices in their war for your xmas custom at the moment, will it stay that way with the cost of transporting goods getting cheaper for them do you think?

Supermarket prices are only the visible tip of the iceberg, Stu. And incidentally they're not particularly cheap this Xmas - apart from loss-leading mince pies many of the Autumn's reduced prices have crept back up again in this period of maximum sales volume.

Not only that OW, if you go by oil price drop the petrol prices and prices of goods in shops etc should be far cheaper.

No Stu the shareholders want their share of the PROFITS and there is no body in place for protection for the likes of us to enjoy any benefit on the price of fuel except fuel itself. Where there is a chance to make even more profit we are the ones who suffer the concequences and this Tory dominated Coalition love it as it benefits their wealthy friends the extortionate profit makers.

Oh so wrong Mel, for years we have paid those massively high prices in the shops, supermarkets, and at the petrol pumps, now when the prices should be going down they are not, because of the greedy sods wanting yet more profit still.