UK Petrol Price Fuels Chaos (long)

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Daily Express

Petrol price fuels chaos BY JOHN CHAPMAN AND PATRICK 0'FLYNN

LORRY drivers threatened a winter of chaos yesterday as Britain's roads were brought to a standstill in protest over soaring fuel prices.

As the demonstrators threatened to bring the entire country to a halt within days, ministers refused to contemplate an emergency cut in fuel duties to cancel out the impact of rising crude oil prices.

While farmers and lorry drivers set up blockades in the North West, North East and Home Counties, Downing Street set itself firmly against any rescue package to protect rural communities hit by fuel costs.

Millions of litres of petrol destined for filling stations across the Midlands and the North of England yesterday remained stranded in the giant Shell oil refinery in Stanlow, Cheshire, and there was a further blockade at a fuel depot near the M1 in Hertfordshire.

Shell warned that some of its petrol stations would soon run out of fuel and predicted panic-buying by customers if the protests weren't called off.

But instead they spread, with lorry drivers in the North East bringing evening rush-hour traffic to a standstill on the south-bound carriageway of the A1M near Newcastle. Transport Minister Lord Macdonald provoked fury by defending high fuel duties and mocking the low-key response to last month's "dump the pump" call for a 24-hour boycott of filling stations.

Downing Street also refused to countenance a reduction in duty, saying that would undermine the Government's bid to improve key public services such as health and education.

"A 2p cut in duty would mean a #1billion reduction in revenues and that would entail cuts in public spending programmes. Last year's increase in fuel duty was the lowest for 11 years," said a spokesman for the Prime Minister.

Lord Macdonald said it was important to look at the "full context of taxation" when assessing the regime on petrol, signalling that ministers believe high fuel duties are an inevitable trade-off for relatively low income tax.

"In France, for instance, their corporate taxation and their personal taxation is higher than it is in Britain. Every country has a different tradition of taxation and indeed of politics," he said.

"One has every sympathy with the plight of people in farming and in the countryside, but we have to ensure that we keep the free movement of goods or services, not just here, but we are keeping up the pressure for that to happen in France as well."

The minister played down prospects of British lorry drivers and farmers protesting on the scale of the French, saying there had been very little support for the French blockade at Dover and joking that the "dump the pump" campaign in the UK had received a "very British reaction".

"People have the right to a peaceful demonstration, but they don't have the right to interrupt the vital supplies in the country, or put the livelihood and convenience of other people at risk," added Lord Macdonald.

For the Tories, shadow transport minister Bernard Jenkin accused Lord Macdonald of exhibiting complacency and contempt for the views of the British public.

He said a fax was currently circulating among hauliers and farmers who were planning a day of "direct action" outside refineries and ports on September 18.

"These people are decent, honest, hardworking people and they feel they have nowhere else to go," he said.

"They are being forced out of an honest living by this Government's punitive tax increases and they should stop."

Mr Jenkin said he supported the protesters' objective, but he could not support action which disrupted other people's lives. "They are beginning to follow the example in France which they can see is successful," he said.

He said a future Conservative government would cut taxes that were making Britain uncompetitive "in all normal circumstances".

Don Foster, the Liberal Democrat transport spokesman, said he would be proposing a cap on fuel duty, including VAT, at the party's conference later this month.

A spokesman for Shell said that the protest was already hitting petrol stations which would shortly be running out of fuel.

"Our business and our retail outlets are suffering," he said, adding that if the blockade continued it would very quickly lead to panic buying of petrol by the public. The Stanlow demonstration started on Thursday night when three tractors were placed across the entrance to the refinery.

But farmers agreed to clear the road and stage a peaceful protest on the pavement outside the refinery after police warned they were breaking the law under the 1992 Trade Unions and Labour Relations Act.

Brynle Williams, vice-chairman of the Farmers Union of Wales and one of the protest leaders, said it had been a spontaneous expression of the frustration of agricultural workers at spiralling fuel prices.

And he admitted it had been inspired by the success of protests by the French farmers.

"We want to see some reduction in the excise tax on fuel. This is going to go on and on until something is done about it," he said.

Mr Williams, 51, who owns a 200-acre sheep and beef farm in North Wales, added: "This is not a union action, it is sporadic action by farmers who feel thoroughly fed up by what is going on. Twelve months ago agricultural diesel was 9p a litre and now it is 24p a litre and we are now facing a further rise.

"We are determined to maintain a legitimate presence here until the Government takes some action."

Tom Houghton, regional organiser for campaign group Farmers For Action, said: "We are going to carry on with this until the petrol pumps are empty "The aim of this protest is to put as much pressure on the Government as we can to cut fuel prices."

A small police presence outside the 1,350-acre Stanlow refinery, which processes 12 million tons of crude oil a year, ensured tanker drivers were free to cross the farmers' picket line yesterday.

But the drivers of 60 tankers laden with Shell fuel for petrol stations in the Midlands to the Scottish Borders refused to drive past the demonstrators, claiming it was too dangerous because of threats they had received.

One driver said: "We are carrying 30,000 litres of fuel in each of these tankers and we are not prepared to drive out of the depot unless we are certain it is safe."

Ed Brady, a spokesman for Shell at Stanlow, said: "The longer this goes on the worse it will get. Petrol stations will soon begin to run out of stock. You can't have a terminal this size offline for a day without suffering a big effect on business."

But the protesters were unrepentant. David Handley, chairman of Farmers for Action, said his colleagues felt they were being "screwed" by the Government and big business.

A spokesman for the Country Landowners' Association, which represents 50,000 rural businesses, said: "This is a crucial issue for the countryside, where a car, van, lorry or tractor is a necessity not a luxury. "Rural people are facing higher and higher costs while losing more and more services - isolation is leading to ruined lives and in some cases, suicides."

In Hertfordshire, lorry drivers blocked a fuel depot near the M1 at Hemel Hempstead.

Around 20 tankers were involved and protesters said the blockade would go on for as "long as it takes". The fuel depot close to junction 8 of the motorway supplies petrol to major retailers and supermarkets.

As a police helicopter monitored the protest, lorry driver Lindon Pallet, from Ware, Herts., said: "We can't sit by any longer."

A snaking line of lorries, vans, cars and tractors brought chaos to the A1M in the North East, causing 20-mile tailbacks.

Haulier Craig Eley, 29, said: "Perhaps people thought we would never have scenes in this country like those in France, but this is what it has come to.

"It is not just truckers who have joined this protest - there are people with private cars who are sick to death of paying #50 to fill up their tanks."

Motorist Christine Powell, 36, who joined the blockade in her Renault Clio, said: "If we don't make a stand the Government will walk all over us. The French have the right idea. They took a stand and got what they wanted.

Additional reporting by Paul Gallagher.

British-hater vows more trouble as the pumps run dry

FROM JACK GEE IN CALAIS France was running on a near-empty tank last night as truckers and farmers blockading roads and oil depots turned down a government peace-offering.

More than 80 per cent of petrol pumps had run dry while some airlines were brought to a standstill on the fifth day of the protests against rising fuel prices.

In Calais, British motorists and lorry drivers gave a wide berth to farmers who agreed not to block the Channel Tunnel but continued to disrupt motorway access instead.

British drivers were fuming as they sat locked in jams several miles long as they headed to and from the tunnel and ferry terminals.

Holidaymaker John Peters, 26, from London, said: "I have covered two miles in two hours since disembarking. Now I hope I will have enough petrol left to get to Burgundy."

One of the farmer's leaders, Michel Delattre, had his men barricade the Paris-Calais motorway with 100 tractors and combine harvesters. "We know we are making it uncomfortable for British motorists and lorry men," he admitted "Some of our people may have used unfriendly language. We would like to apologise for their rudeness. Our real quarrel is with our French rulers in Paris."

But others simply sneered at the rising British indignation. Standing atop a combine harvester, protest ringleader Jean-Marie Rohard, 56, rallied his men at a roadblock on the outskirts of Calais.

His speech was greeted by shouts of support and applause as he vowed to blockade the French port for "as long as it takes" to get the Paris government to drop fuel prices. Bruno Roussel, 42, a friend of Rohard, said: "He hates the fact that we are joined to the English by the tunnel. He dislikes the English with a passion and does not care what he puts them through."

Mr Rohard himself insisted: "President Chirac is afraid of your Mr Blair so by driving just a handful of tractors and blocking the Channel Tunnel we can put massive pressure on our government."

But Tony Blair was the very least of Monsieur Chirac's worries last night as a poll showed 88 per cent of the French public backed the protests and splits emerged in the truckers' unions with whom the government has been negotiating.

Rene Petit, president of the National Federation of Road Transport, called on his members to lift the blockades, saying they should accept Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's "final offer". But many of his members appeared to be rejecting the call.

Taxi drivers, however, decided to end their protest after winning a 4.5 per cent fare hike to compensate for rising fuel costs.

The protest was being felt all over France, with some airports cancelling flights and long lines forming at filling stations. Desperate motorists near France's borders were crossing into Italy, Spain and Switzerland to fill up.

Simon Bunce, 36, of Beckenham, Kent, on holiday in the Loire Valley with his wife and two young children, was stranded in central France.

"It is hard to imagine in 21st century Europe that I have no way of getting home without abandoning my car," he said. "I have a better chance of reaching Calais in a horse and cart."

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), September 08, 2000

Answers

Sunday Times

Petrol pumps will run dry, says Shell

BY RUSSELL JENKINS, ARTHUR LEATHLEY AND VALERIE ELLIOTT

HUNDREDS of petrol stations will start drying up today after a protest outside one of Britain's biggest refineries forced oil company executives to abandon fuel deliveries yesterday.

Hauliers and farmers angered by fuel price rises issued a warning last night that they will intensify their demonstrations, which also brought chaos to the A1 in the North as lorry drivers blocked all lanes.

A string of further protests is planned for the next few days at other oil refineries, ports and on main roads, culminating in a national day of action on September 22.

Shell reported that filling stations in northern England face serious fuel shortages from today because it was too dangerous for its tankers to leave Stanlow refinery near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

Company executives ordered dozens of tanker drivers to halt deliveries after protests at one of Britain's biggest refineries which supplies filling stations in Wales, the North West and Yorkshire.

Panic-buying set in at petrol stations in Liverpool last night as supplies began to run out. A BP station which did not receive its regular tanker of unleaded fuel from Shell was expected to run dry by midnight. "After that, I do not know where we will get any more," a spokeswoman said.

In a separate protest, rush-hour traffic on the A1 near Gateshead was brought to a halt as more than 100 lorry drivers, farmers and members of the public formed a two-mile, slow-moving blockade.

The hastily arranged demonstration, timed to catch Friday commuters leaving work early, created tailbacks of up to 30 miles on both the north and southbound carriageways of the trunk road linking England and Scotland.

The protests at Ellesmere Port coincided with a blockade by 11 lorries of the Buncefield oil terminal at Hemel Hempstead. And last night around 250 people protested outside the Texaco Oil Refinery at Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, after the arrival of a 50-strong convoy of lorries, although they did not block the road.

Hauliers and farmers gave warnings of more demonstrations across the country as they try to force ministers to cut taxes on fuel after petrol price rises expected this weekend. "There will be a total blockade of refineries," John Jones, a spokesman for the hauliers at the Shell refinery, said. "It is the only effective way to draw attention to our plight."

At the Shell refinery in Cheshire about 60 tankers, each carrying 30,000 litres of fuel, were stranded inside the complex after the company tried to avoid a confrontation with picketing protesters.

More than 150 farmers and lorry drivers copied the shock tactics of their French counterparts by blocking the entrance with tractors on Thursday night but police reinforcements forced a retreat. A hard core of 40 protesters remained at the entrance yesterday.

Motoring organisations called on drivers not to take unlawful action. However, campaigners against high fuel tax urged drivers to use a European Car-free Day on September 22 as an opportunity to leave their cars at home as a peaceful protest.

Friends of the Earth told ministers they must not "cave in" to the pressure from protesters. Charles Secrett, executive director, said last night that ministers had to find the nerve to "stand up to the petrolheads".

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), September 08, 2000.


So, the big Tax Revolt is spreading from France to England. Interesting. With minor drippings of this same thing now going on in Greece, Spain, and Poland, you've go to wonder: where will this all end?

-- Chance (fruitloops@Hotmail.com), September 08, 2000.

A new Boston Tea Party.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 08, 2000.

Don't rule out this sort of thing spreading to the god ol' U.S. of A. Truckers in the San Francisco Bay area are now up in arms about diesel at $2 a gallon, and about to take action.

-- JackW (jpayne@webtv.net), September 08, 2000.

I don't understand the idiocy of all this; it's so self-defeating.

-- Nancy7 (nancy7@Hotmail.cm), September 08, 2000.


I think a definite pattern is now set in motion, and these dominoes will fall all across Europe. Bedlam could ensue. Think of it, all of these socialist governments are sucking at the teat for the mother's milk to feed their high-priced social programs. They simply cannot due without the revenue from these unconscionable gasoline taxes.

Therefore, they simply cannot afford to give in to the protestors.

-- Wellesley (wellesley@freeport.net), September 09, 2000.


Isn't this the kind of chaos that we expected from y2k?

-- QMan (qman@c-zone.net), September 09, 2000.

Even though this is going on overseas, I'm beginning to feel the panic. This will certainly spread, I'd say, with a 50 / 50 chance it will hit our shores.

Of course, my weakness has always been to be quick to push the panic button, and, I sure hope I'm wrong this time.

-- Loner (Loner@bigfoot.com), September 09, 2000.


Don't you think, really, that martial law will soon be declared to break up these blockades? No government can stand still and put up with anarchy and stay a functional government.

I expect this to start happening any day now.

-- Wayward (wayard@webtv.net), September 09, 2000.


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