Petrol Protest Options

[Richard Garvie]

I've just recieved this email, and I would say quite a few of you may have it already after looking at some of the email addresses who had forwarded it on.

Subject: Petrol prices


Please see what you think and pass it on if you agree with it.

We are hitting £129.9 a litre in some areas now and soon we will be
faced with paying £1.50 per litre. So Philip Hollsworth offered this
good idea:

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day
campaign' that was going around last April or May! The oil companies
just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to hurt
ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience
to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this
idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Please read it and join in!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to
think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive
action to teach them that BUYERS - not sellers control the market
place. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers
need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of
petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing
their petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the
idea:

For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two
biggest oil companies (which now are one) i.e. ESSO and BP.


If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce
their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will
have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally
millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!!

Now, don't wimp out on me at this point... keep reading and I'll
explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If all of you send it to
at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)....and those 300 send it to at least
ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on. By the time the message
reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over
THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass
this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been
contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it.....

THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all YOU have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all (and
not buy at ESSO/BP). How long would all that take? If each of us
sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all
300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8
days!!! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense
to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES It's easy to make this
happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol at
Shell,Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Jet etc. i.e. Boycott BP and
Esso

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Do you think something like this will work in West Berkshire? Appears to be spreadin around the country, but I think the petrol companies will simply direct the argument to the government. (and previous government)

[Iommi]

I already do as listed.

[dannyboy]

Why not just drive less.

You'd have to also include Supermarkets in that list as they buy fuel from both companies.

[Richard Garvie]

Why not just drive less.

You'd have to also include Supermarkets in that list as they buy fuel from both companies.

I try to walk to and from Newbury (whether that's from Thatcham or Stockcross) whenever I have a meeting in town, and typically use public transport at all other times. I just begrudge paying the huge fuel prices in this country. In America before Chistmas, I was paying about £1.80 per gallon.

[dannyboy]

I try to walk to and from Newbury (whether that's from Thatcham or Stockcross) whenever I have a meeting in town, and typically use public transport at all other times. I just begrudge paying the huge fuel prices in this country. In America before Chistmas, I was paying about £1.80 per gallon.

America subsidised pump prices so as to placate the electorate. But the electorate pay in other ways.

We need taxes to pay for things such as CCTV.

[Bofem]

What a nutter. Tesco get their petrol from Esso, and Sainsburys from BP. Doh!

[Richard Garvie]

What a nutter. Tesco get their petrol from Esso, and Sainsburys from BP. Doh!

I didn't realise there were 300 million people in the UK...

[dannyboy]

I didn't realise there were 300 million people in the UK...

Rather like the uncomfortable fact that we are all related & inbred.

[Richard Garvie]

Rather like the uncomfortable fact that we are all related & inbred.

Speak for yourself

[dannyboy]

Speak for yourself

Nope -

Allow for 25 years between each generation. Call a child born in 2010 generation 1.

Then the child would need 2 parents born in 1985. They in turn would need 2 parents each, born 1960 making 4 people for the childs 3rd generation back.

If you go back to the childs 9th generation, its Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, born 1810 you'd need 256 separate un related people to be the childs progenitors.

Problems arise if you go back a few more generations. By 1460 you'd need 4.2 million unrelated people - which is more than the entire population of the British Isles at that time. So, therefore we're interbred. You, me & user.

You can work the other way to. The Marquis Of Ruvigny And Raineval worked out that in 1903 there were 36735 living direct descendants of Edward IV & Henry VII of England & James III of Scotland.

[Darren]

OK, so why are BP and Esso the bad boys here?

Petrol is pretty much evenly priced across all the companies.

[dannyboy]

http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/exxon.html

Philip Hollsworth indeed.

[dannyboy]

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=72078

he needs to change his record.

[Phil_D11102]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13...-wont-work.html

Great story.

The issue is that around 70 percent of the cost of a litre is tax, via fuel duty and VAT.

This is a great graph as well: http://www.petrolprices.com/price-of-petrol.html

While the price of oil increases, so will the amount you pay in fuel duty and VAT. Fuel duty is the tax the gov't sets BEFORE it's sold. VAT is what you pay after it's sold.

The gov't is driving up the cost of petrol, not the oil companies. Instead of boycotting the pumps, the middle class should take to the streets...

[Richard Garvie]

OK, so why are BP and Esso the bad boys here?

Petrol is pretty much evenly priced across all the companies.

I think they suggest if you hit one or two of the big boys in the pocket, they may lower prices. I think what we need to understand is that oil is running out and the price is always going to rise. Using less oil and finding alternative power sources should be the priority.

[dannyboy]

The economic laws of supply and demand and equilibrium pricing apply to individual companies and gas stations as well as the entire market. Therefore, regardless of the fact that the big oil station across the street might lower its prices as result of lesser demand, Station X will not decrease its prices as the email postulates because the demand for Station X's products has just increased.

"The proposition in the email does not change the aggregate level of demand in the marketplace, it simply shifts demand from one company to the next. In the long run, the larger company would sell its surplus supply (as a result of the drop in demand for its products) in wholesale crude oil and crude oil products markets. The companies experiencing the increase in demand would buy that supply, and compete among themselves to establish an equilibrium price."

[dannyboy]

Using less oil and finding alternative power sources should be the priority.

Prevention is always better than cure.

Agree 100%.

[Iommi]

At this point in time, some of us need both.

[Richard Garvie]

At this point in time, some of us need both.

Agreed, you just can't stop using it. But we can all cut back, even if it's just walking to get the paper or a pint of milk.

[Phil_D11102]

Agreed, you just can't stop using it. But we can all cut back, even if it's just walking to get the paper or a pint of milk.

Don't disagree, but who is not providing value for money off of the cost of a litre of petrol, the oil company, the reseller, or the gov't?

If the gov't put a tax on farts, no politician would ever be allowed to speak again