economic situation is dire

[Awol]

That is why I didn´t mention peak oil. Peak production however, is easy to meassure.

Cunning..

If you are referring to refining capacity then that continues to expand, but if you are referring to the production cartels like OPEC and the volumes they are willing to pump out of the ground then you probably have a fair point.

The growth of new oil producing states may have some effect on the current price fixing regime, but even if it doesn't the vast majority of the price at the pump in UK is tax.

[DanishVillan]

Nah I don´t think they (OPEC etc.) are holding back for any other reason than they are not able to supply more. The Saudis have failed to deliver many times.

We continously find new deposits, making them sound very large with an impressive number of millions of barrels. At the same rate existing drillsites are going extinct.

The price has routinely passed $100 on many occasions, top this year was $115 per barrel. So what reason is there not to increase production?

Only country that seem able to raise production is Russia and even they are being pushed to more difficult/dangerous sites, pushing the eroei lower and lower.

[Risso]

Saw yesterday that the govt "only" take 66% of the price of fuel in tax , down from 81% in 2000 ... i thought the tax rate would have risen if anything what with the increase in VAT

I'd still love to know how "we" can blockade pumps at 79p a litre and then sleep walk whilst it hit £1.30

Nearly £1.50 over here at the moment. Makes me die a little inside every time I fill up.

[tonyh29]

Saw yesterday that the govt "only" take 66% of the price of fuel in tax , down from 81% in 2000 ... i thought the tax rate would have risen if anything what with the increase in VAT

I'd still love to know how "we" can blockade pumps at 79p a litre and then sleep walk whilst it hit £1.30

Nearly £1.50 over here at the moment. Makes me die a little inside every time I fill up.

lucky you are all tax dodgers (© The VT Left) and thus have plenty of spare cash :winkold:

[jonno_2004]

Saw yesterday that the govt "only" take 66% of the price of fuel in tax , down from 81% in 2000 ... i thought the tax rate would have risen if anything what with the increase in VAT

I'd still love to know how "we" can blockade pumps at 79p a litre and then sleep walk whilst it hit £1.30

Nearly £1.50 over here at the moment. Makes me die a little inside every time I fill up.

Nightmare isn't it? I'm filling my car to the brim at Birkenhead before I get the boat on Sunday.

[Risso]

Saw yesterday that the govt "only" take 66% of the price of fuel in tax , down from 81% in 2000 ... i thought the tax rate would have risen if anything what with the increase in VAT

I'd still love to know how "we" can blockade pumps at 79p a litre and then sleep walk whilst it hit £1.30

Nearly £1.50 over here at the moment. Makes me die a little inside every time I fill up.

lucky you are all tax dodgers (© The VT Left) and thus have plenty of spare cash :winkold:

Larks' tongues in aspic don't buy themselves you know.

[colhint]

Saw yesterday that the govt "only" take 66% of the price of fuel in tax , down from 81% in 2000 ... i thought the tax rate would have risen if anything what with the increase in VAT

I'd still love to know how "we" can blockade pumps at 79p a litre and then sleep walk whilst it hit £1.30

Nearly £1.50 over here at the moment. Makes me die a little inside every time I fill up.

lucky you are all tax dodgers (© The VT Left) and thus have plenty of spare cash :winkold:

Larks' tongues in aspic don't buy themselves you know.

King Crimson eat that

[VILLAFC2000]

Any one still think we may go into recession...?

http://inoffthebar.org/ chesck this out - be great to here some comments...!

[tonyh29]

Must take heed of blandy's warning

Must take heed of blandy's warning....

[Awol]

Eurozone crisis stokes tension between Britain and Germany

Standoff deepens after claims Angela Merkel will not allow UK 'to get away' with refusal to back financial transactions tax

Tensions between Germany and Britain over how to handle the crisis in the eurozone deepened after allies of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, claimed she would not allow the UK to "get away" with its refusal to back a European financial transactions tax.

Speaking before a meeting between Merkel and David Cameron on Friday, the parliamentary leader of her Christian Democratic Union said: "Britain had a responsibility to make Europe a success."

Volker Kauder, at the CDU conference in Leipzig, said: "I can understand that the British don't want that [a transactions tax] when they generate almost 30% of their gross domestic product from financial-market business in the City of London. Only going after their own benefit and refusing to contribute is not the message we're letting the British get away with."

The transactions tax on shares and other City exchanges – otherwise known as the Tobin tax or Robin Hood tax – has been supported by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and leading UK charities. But Britain has resisted its implementation without it being copied by the US and other leading economies.

Asked about Kauder's remarks, the prime minister's spokesman said: "There is clearly going to be a debate about Europe and the shape of Europe over the coming weeks, months and years. What we would say is that the crisis means that we should focus on the economics.

"It is very clear that countries need credible plans to deal with their debts and deficits and we shouldn't be deflected from dealing with the structural problems in European countries."

In remarks that will further inflame Tory Eurosceptics, Kauder also claimed that Europe was now embracing Merkel's solutions to the crisis by focusing on tougher fiscal discipline for indebted countries. "Now all of a sudden, Europe is speaking German," he said. "Not as a language, but in its acceptance of the instruments for which Angela Merkel has fought so hard, and with success in the end."

The crisis in the eurozone is prompting Germany to draw up possibly far-reaching plans for change to EU treaties that would force Cameron to demand concessions in return. This process could in turn expose tensions between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats over Europe....

So the Germans are making it explicitly clear who they think runs the EU and Britain better damn well do as they are told - even though the Germans acknowledge it will hit 30% of the UK's GDP in order to prop up a currency we don't use, which they themselves aren't prepared to bailout..

But they are not trying to take over sovereign decision making from national governments in the EU. Not at all. That's pure scaremongering. Honest guv..

There is no point denying anymore that the aim of all the current political manouvering is a defacto Franco-German dominated superstate. The people of the UK will need to decide whether they want that or not because the bullshit from Dave about repatriating powers as a 'third way' is just that, bullshit.

With the huge Treaty changes Germany are drawing up a referendum will kick in automatically in the UK before ratification and the choice will be a stark one: Remain an independent democracy or proceed on the track to being part of an unaccountable super state.

That will be an interesting debate, unless of course the whole thing (monetary union) collapses first..

[WhatAboutTheFinish]

[tonyh29]

quality ...can always rely on Dennis Skinner :-)

The point of that kind of Europe with a central bank is no democracy, taking powers away from every single Parliament, and having a single currency, a monetary policy and interest rates which take all political power away from us. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Blaby (Mr. Lawson ) said in his first speech after the proposal for a single currency was made, a single currency is about the politics of Europe, it is about a federal Europe by the back door.

[snowychap]

Reassuring that the new Greek PM is the guy who originally lied about Greek finances to get them into the Euro. Still, despite never having been elected to public office he IS a former banker for the ECB.

Democracy at work in the country of its birth..

Signor Monti is a former EU commissioner too, is he not?

Yep, also another election dodger.

Step forward a government full of 'em:

Italy unveils government of technocrats

The former European commissioner, Mario Monti, has unveiled Italy's new government and told Italy's president, Giorgio Napolitano, he was ready to test its support in parliament.

Monti, a distinguished liberal economist, kept for himself the finance ministry. He handed the industry and infrastructure portfolios to Corrado Passera, the CEO of Italy's biggest retail bank, Intesa Sanpaolo.

The dominant note in the list Monti read out was the weight of academics, who will occupy more than a third of the seats in cabinet. Three of the ministers in his bigger-than-expected cabinet were women, and two were appointed to top jobs: Anna Maria Cancellieri as interior minister and Paola Severino as justice minister.

The new prime minister, Monti, confirmed he would take on the unenviable task of governing the eurozone's most indebted nation after two days of intense consultations during which Italy's borrowing costs soared to unsustainable levels.

The uncertainties surrounding the formation of the new government were maintained to the end by a much longer than expected two-and-a-half hour meeting between the incoming prime minister and the president.

The names on the list of his ministers — most of them unknown to members of the Italian public — showed that Monti had failed in his attempt to involve party representatives in his government. His government was made up exclusively of non-aligned technocrats.

But the economics professor-turned-eurocrat managed to stave off — at least temporarily – demands from the outgoing prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and his party, for the government to have a limited programme and a fixed lifespan. The influence that Berlusconi's Freedom party will exercise over the new government was nevertheless made clear in the runup to Wednesday's announcement. Monti spent three hours at a meeting that finished after 2.30am local time, with Angelino Alfano, the secretary of Berlusconi's party, trying to reach agreement on the names of the new ministers. Berlusconi was ousted after losing his majority last week in the lower house of parliament, the chamber of deputies. But he and his former coalition allies in the Northern League can still command a majority in the senate.

Before the end of the week, the government is expected to outline its programme and seek confidence votes in both houses of parliament, without which it cannot continue. Napolitano, who oversaw the rapid transition, asked Monti to try to form a government on Sunday night.

Was it mere coincidence that on the night Newsnight were discussing the appointments in Greece and Italy, one of the guests called on to discuss the goings on in the Eurozone was:

[VILLAFC2000]

One thing she said is that people who complain about the gap between the richest and poorest would prefer the poor to be poorer provided the rich were less rich.

Make no sense what so ever.

And we all know how well the Blue noses have done in the last 14 years...!

[CI]

Protests going off all over the globe now, London, Athens, NYC, Arabia

We are in uncharted waters here ladies and gents

[TheDon]

So the Germans are making it explicitly clear who they think runs the EU and Britain better damn well do as they are told

Can't say I'm surprised.

[VILLAFC2000]

It Does not help by Camerons sheers arogance on Europe

You cant have it both ways - If you have got nothing good to say then shut the fXXk up.

[tonyh29]

Indeed.....If only people could practise what they preach :winkold:

[peterms]

Protests going off all over the globe now, London, Athens, NYC, Arabia

We are in uncharted waters here ladies and gents

Indeed we are. It may all come to nothing, but that would be surprising. It's starting to resemble a popular movement. Interesting.

[VILLAFC2000]

Indeed.....If only people could practise what they preach :winkold:

Have a word with dave then - sunbeam...!