It is a national outrage (depending on which segment of society you hail from) and it is certainly something that impacts all elements of the UK. It is also subject to a strangely twisted world view.<\/p>\n

I am talking about oil prices (and petrol prices specifically).<\/p>\n

For us poor Brits, the average price of petrol (gasoline for our colonial brethren) is now \u00a31.05 per litre. This is approximately $7.91 a gallon. For some people it makes owning a car financially crippling (to the great joy of some “green” lobbyists), and it also has the knock on effect of making public transport prices increase to the point of stupidity. Given the way modern society works, not having access to affordable transport is fatal. Using plain old me as an example, my “commute” to work leaves me driving at an average of 23 miles per hour which is far from economical with the fuel – however there is no public transport which covers the route, it too far to walk (20 miles) and for various reasons cycling is not an option. I have no choice but to foot the big assed fuel bill each month (best part of a gallon each way…).<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, fuel prices annoy me. A few years ago we had all manner of protests over the UK when road haulage firms complained about the high tax rates, but despite this pump prices have been steadily rising every few months. Breaking the \u00a31 per litre mark was once thought to be so outrageous as to never happen. Ha.<\/p>\n

The government tax fuel at 65%, pretty high really. I don’t actually have a problem with this in general terms as it provides a phenomenal source of revenue for the country. This is, normally, a GOODTHING\u2122\u00a9. However, despite this source of revenue, a tax which is claimed to exist at least partly to encourage people to reduce<\/strong> personal transport<\/em> usage, is not being used to provide good quality public transport.<\/p>\n

Whenever people complain about the monstrous cost of vehicle fuels, the oil companies are always quick to point the finger of blame on the government’s massive fuel tax. And, on the surface, this seems reasonable as 65% tax is high. If you take the oil companies at face value, they are charging the minimum they can get away with to recoup their costs and pay their taxes. Aren’t they all saintly?<\/p>\n

Today, one of the headline news items read “Shell sets new UK profits record<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Wow. How can these two versions of reality be reconciled?<\/p>\n

If, as they claim, the high cost of oil is solely dependant on the government imposed tax how is Shell managing to turn \u00a313.9 BILLION in profit? That is in the region of \u00a3230 per person in the UK. For that, they could strike off 30p a litre on fuel and still be making a phenomenal profit – not to mention the massive amount of extra sales they would get.<\/p>\n

It really makes my head spin to think that Shell (and presumably the other oil companies) are happy to commiserate with the public about the high price of oil while at the same time gouging a monstrous profit. Petrol prices may suffer from high taxes, but the root cause of their bank-balance-busting status is the uncontrolled greed of the oil companies. At least the governments tax makes its way back to the nation…<\/p>\n