Anyone watching the fuel debate?

A._Badger

J_i_m wrote: »

Fuel prices are always going to relatively high from now on. It's not just the polictal and economic factors but the fact that sooner rather than later we're going to run out of fossil fuels.

To be honest, fuel prices at the pumps aren't any worse here than elsewhere in Europe, yes it's a !!!!!!....but the taxes can't exactly be reduced because it'd blow a massive hole in an already shallow economy.

Reduce wasteful government spending and exploit shale oil and gas. The economic growth generated would more than make up for the loss of revenue.

Mr_Mumble

reweird wrote: »

Everything you described is a luxury and a choice. You've chosen where you live and work and how to commute. Running more than 1 car is a luxury.

Taken to this silly degree having education for children is a luxury and a choice or healthcare or a police force or fire service or running tap water or....

If it saves Going4TheDream two hours a day then a second car is far more valuable than some of what the government spends the £50bn+ on. Those five-a-day food advisers, ethnic diversity officers and football coordinators are far more of a luxury.

ess0two

Are'nt we still sat on !!!! loads of coal.

reweird

Mr_Mumble wrote: »

Taken to this silly degree having education for children is a luxury and a choice or healthcare or a police force or fire service or running tap water or....

If it saves Going4TheDream two hours a day then a second car is far more valuable than some of what the government spends the £50bn+ on. Those five-a-day food advisers, ethnic diversity officers and football coordinators are far more of a luxury.

Yes it saves him time so it is a luxury. It is entirely possible to function as a family with 1 car. If you think it's not then that us simply your skewed sense of entitlement to live, work, and commute where you chose.

Road_Hog

At the end of the day, who gives the government the right to gouge on tax? Tax on fuel is ridiculous (please don't give me then green issue, because I'll wipe the floor with you).

Life has changed, very few of us work local and can walk to work, like we could many years ago, I remember having a job in the '80s where I could walk to walk. Small local employers have mainly closed and more and more of us work for large corporations some distance away and need to be there on time every day come rain or shine. And quite frankly many of us need both partners working to pay the rent or mortgage, so two cars are often needed.

Don't forget, that the people making these decisions have ministerial cars, chauffeur and all fuel paid, plus the right to use bus /taxi lanes etc.

As far as employment goes these days, we all need geographical mobility. Sure, I'd like to work local and walk to work or cycle, but for those of us that live outside of London, it is a choice.

If we need more revenue, that I suggest we cut the foreign aid budget that is going up to something like £12 billion pa, we stop going to wars like Libya which cost us about £0.5 billion, we stop upping our contribution to the IMF from £12 billion to £20 billion pa (with the promise of more money imminently) to help out countries in the Eurozone that we didn't even join.


The list is endless, but I shan't bore you. Quite frankly working people in this country have enough to worry about with them hiking the price of fuel, especially when call me Dave is writing blank cheques that we can't afford.

Mr_Mumble

reweird wrote: »

Yes it saves him time so it is a luxury. It is entirely possible to function as a family with 1 car. If you think it's not then that us simply your skewed sense of entitlement to live, work, and commute where you chose.

If it saves time then it is the fundamental reason for modernity. You can spend your luxurious time typing away debating me on the Internet because you don't spend 90% of your day in a field living a life of subsistence as you would have in 16th century Britain or 21st century North Korea.

PS. I don't think anyone is entitled to anything. However, when it comes to a choice between whether a family can afford a second car or a politician can demand money on threat of imprisonment... darn right the family should get that second car!

Going4TheDream

reweird wrote: »

Yes it saves him time so it is a luxury. It is entirely possible to function as a family with 1 car. If you think it's not then that us simply your skewed sense of entitlement to live, work, and commute where you chose.

Firstly am a 'she'.

Perhaps we should do away with running water and all have to queue at standpipes at the end of the street, maybe not have central heating, maybe we should all bin our washing machines and go down to the river........ after all these are 'luxuries' which we could live without but find that they make live more 'convenient'

I am not saying I am entitled to have a car, but I can afford one and given my circumstances it is a no brainer....I would be a fool not to.

The only thing that hasn't changed it would seem is your warped attitude, which seems clearly stuck in the past?

Unless of course you apply your warped sense of entitlement to yourself also and have already done away with your washing machine, central heating and water....... (laptop, mobile phone, internet, perhaps even electricty eh?)

No thought not.... in that case perhaps 'hypocrisy' springs to mind

gailey_2

Just wanted to clarfify reason why we ended up with 2cars.

we used to have bmw of doom I called it that was always going wrong.
Do believe that car was jinxed within 6month getting it the neigbour drove into side of it with her rangerover.
Every time it went into the garage hubby would say maybe something else wont go wrong now , no cars perfect!

We brought the car in 2006 when daughter was born trading in his sporty 2door car.
but it was expensive to run the parts cost a fortune, warning light kept coming on dont know why feel we replaced so many parts it was like a new car!
It was also I think dont qoute me over £200 a year to tax and petrol was £70 a tank in january this year.

We replaced it in febuary with a vw touran 7seater as our 3rd child was born in april and needed bigger car. oddly touran slightly cheaper its still £70 to fill a tank but diesil so goes a bit further!extra 100miles to the tank, was in lower insurance group and less carbon emissions so less to tax we would have got new one sooner but couldent afford to at time and traded in bmw for £600:eek:

reason why we ended up with 2nd car was 2years ago fil passed away.
he had small nissan micra 10years old now but he only used once a week so was very good condition but as it had now powersteering and age wouldent have got much for it when selling.

its very cheap to run £125 tax a year and costs just over £25 a tank which lasts hubby 4days to and from work rather than the £70 he was spending before so its big saving and avoids putting more milage and wear and tear on the touran which is worth more .

Does sound mad but having 2cars actually brought our monthly fuel costs down from £300 to about £200!plus as it was his dads it has sentimental value and at time bmw was so unreliable it was good to have a standby.

couldent just have the micra as cant fit our 3kids in there!
today touran needs to go garage but we need to do a foodshop so will take the micra.

Hubby commutes southwest to wales including going over bridge each day. hes tries public transport has to get bus to train station now where near our house then train then walk 25mins from station at other end to work plus he starts at 6.30am some days and locks up at 8pm. last time he was forced to do it took him 3hours to get home!it would also cost more as theres been huge hike in train fares this year.

Both my hubby and I work in retail management where being fully mobile across whole regions is expected at weeks notice we both commuted bristol to newbury for a while!Managers meetings and courses can be all over the country so we expected to do that. A lot of jobs do require people to be mobile and reliable and relying on public transport does make people frequently late for work.

When I worked i had a vespa which was cheaper just 7quid to fill a tank and easy to park:D. i used to come home drop bike off then speedwalk 15mins to pick daughter up from nursury as sadly she dident fit in back box.

I dont drive only hubby does the insurance is just too pricey and kids go school locally as we city suberb. I sometimes do foodshop without hubby and struggle home with 3kids and all my bags.

I walk half hour to supermarket or 45mins to doctors.

schools just 15mins.

Occasionally I use nightmare that is first bus but our routes like a herd of cattle they pile far too many on very stressful, never on time and very pricey hence why had scooter as was cheaper than bus.
Every time they put up fare they blame rising fuel prices!

so it affects non drivers too.

Going4TheDream

gailey wrote: »

Just wanted to clarfify reason why we ended up with 2cars.

we used to have bmw of doom I called it that was always going wrong.
Do believe that car was jinxed within 6month getting it the neigbour drove into side of it with her rangerover.
Every time it went into the garage hubby would say maybe something else wont go wrong now , no cars perfect!

We brought the car in 2006 when daughter was born trading in his sporty 2door car.
but it was expensive to run the parts cost a fortune, warning light kept coming on dont know why feel we replaced so many parts it was like a new car!
It was also I think dont qoute me over £200 a year to tax and petrol was £70 a tank in january this year.

We replaced it in febuary with a vw touran 7seater as our 3rd child was born in april and needed bigger car. oddly touran slightly cheaper its still £70 to fill a tank but diesil so goes a bit further!extra 100miles to the tank, was in lower insurance group and less carbon emissions so less to tax we would have got new one sooner but couldent afford to at time and traded in bmw for £600:eek:

reason why we ended up with 2nd car was 2years ago fil passed away.
he had small nissan micra 10years old now but he only used once a week so was very good condition but as it had now powersteering and age wouldent have got much for it when selling.

its very cheap to run £125 tax a year and costs just over £25 a tank which lasts hubby 4days to and from work rather than the £70 he was spending before so its big saving and avoids putting more milage and wear and tear on the touran which is worth more .

Does sound mad but having 2cars actually brought our monthly fuel costs down from £300 to about £200!plus as it was his dads it has sentimental value and at time bmw was so unreliable it was good to have a standby.

couldent just have the micra as cant fit our 3kids in there!
today touran needs to go garage but we need to do a foodshop so will take the micra.

Hubby commutes southwest to wales including going over bridge each day. hes tries public transport has to get bus to train station now where near our house then train then walk 25mins from station at other end to work plus he starts at 6.30am some days and locks up at 8pm. last time he was forced to do it took him 3hours to get home!it would also cost more as theres been huge hike in train fares this year.

Both my hubby and I work in retail management where being fully mobile across whole regions is expected at weeks notice we both commuted bristol to newbury for a while!Managers meetings and courses can be all over the country so we expected to do that. A lot of jobs do require people to be mobile and reliable and relying on public transport does make people frequently late for work.

When I worked i had a vespa which was cheaper just 7quid to fill a tank and easy to park:D. i used to come home drop bike off then speedwalk 15mins to pick daughter up from nursury as sadly she dident fit in back box.

I dont drive only hubby does the insurance is just too pricey and kids go school locally as we city suberb. I sometimes do foodshop without hubby and struggle home with 3kids and all my bags.

I walk half hour to supermarket or 45mins to doctors.

schools just 15mins.

Occasionally I use nightmare that is first bus but our routes like a herd of cattle they pile far too many on very stressful, never on time and very pricey hence why had scooter as was cheaper than bus.
Every time they put up fare they blame rising fuel prices!

so it affects non drivers too.

If you can afford to run two cars and it makes life easier then it makes sense.

Personally I wouldn't give my car up, the extra 3 hrs a day that I 'buy in time' for having it is worth a lot to me.

If I couldn't afford it it would mean I couldn't afford to get to work as it is no more expensive really to drive for me than to take the bus

greggymagic

reweird wrote: »

Yes it saves him time so it is a luxury. It is entirely possible to function as a family with 1 car. If you think it's not then that us simply your skewed sense of entitlement to live, work, and commute where you chose.

My goodness - it's entirely possible to function without sounding condescending and like you are sitting on a very high horse.

Very few people live, work and commute where they choose - maybe in la la land they do - but in the real world I doubt anyone would "choose" to get on the tube if they didn't really really have to.

I would love to work within walking distance of where I live but unfortunately job availability, house prices and cost of living make it not really possible.

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