(This is a heavily edited version of the original)
For all you drivers!
Want petrol prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action.
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.
How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can’t just stop buying petrol. But we CAN have an impact on petrol prices if we all act together to force a price war.
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), 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
Comment:
Now don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good idea – great in fact but I also see a few flaws and potential problems with this idea.
It may simply put BP and Esso out of business in the UK market – leaving us with less choice and the potential for more price increases.
We could however do the same for DVD’s and CD’s and bring those down in price in line with the rest of the EC. So I propose we also boycott Virgin and HMV, and while we are at it coffee is kinda pricey so let’s boycott Starbucks and Costa. Oh and how about Borders and Waterstones too? The list could of course go on and on.
I do agree though it is a much better plan than the don’t buy petrol days. I mean who that was a good idea?
Petrol pricing is a no-win subject. Petroleum companies get so little return from forecourt sales (there is much more to be made at the ‘crude’ end of the process) that they won’t really blink if they have to close their B2C operations (which in turn of course will lead to less competition anyway). The only anwer, sadly, to this problem is political. Your petrol is expensive because of taxes. BP gets a few coppers profit at the pumps, HM treasury takes a whopping 75p (or whatever it is). And voting differently at the next election (whilst a good idea 🙂 won’t solve the problem, because governments a) ‘need’ the money and b) are on the horns of a dilemma over transport/enviroment/emissions, etc. Solution – get Ken to build more and more cyclepaths and buy a bicycle!!!
I have a bike 🙂
Makes me wonder what these people will do in twenty five years time when the stuff is so scarce that it will cost nearer ?100 per litre.
They’ll probably still blame the government of the day for high taxes. People have just got to get used to it costing more or make changes to their lifestyle to use cars less.
They will blame anyone but themselves obviously. Change in lifestyle pah – hardly anyone in the UK recycles for god sakes. Let alone use public transport – they all need to drop the kids off at school and consume at the supermarkets. So they need the car for that too.
It varies on geographical location, but a litre of petrol in the UK will typically cost 76p a litre.
i just have to say, thats approximately $1.43/litre…thats insane…in canada where i live, its 67?/litre canadian
Is ESSO and BP one. Last time I heard they were at each other hammer and tong: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3854392,00.html
curious, how much is petro per litre?