FRIDAY NOVEMBER 03 2000

Straw prepares for all-out war against fuel protesters

BY PHILIP WEBSTER, LEA PATERSON AND ANDREW PIERCE

THE Government went to war against hardline fuel protesters yesterday after Jack Straw unveiled plans to protect food supplies, keep main roads open and safeguard tanker drivers. The Home Secretary outlined emergency measures rarely taken in peacetime to keep Britain moving and the essential services supplied.

Police will be able to direct slow-moving convoys off motorways and to prosecute drivers considered to be causing a danger to other road-users and obstructing the highway, officials said. More than 1,000 soldiers have been trained to drive tankers Bas a last resortB and others are ready to go into refineries to help with loading. The police have promised to act BrobustlyB against unlawful demonstrations.

Mr Straw said that no one had the right to instigate the kind of disruption seen in September.BIt is not from any desire whatever for confrontation, which we still seek to avoid, but because of our responsibilities as a Government to the country as a whole that we now must make preparations to minimise the risk of this happening again.B

In spite of pleas for calm, dozens of fuel stations were closed last night or had run out of specific grades of fuel. The Automobile Association reported big queues at garages on trunk roads. Esso confirmed that panic buying had begun and told motorists there was no need for them to keep filling their tanks because extra fuel was being delivered to service stations.

In the Commons, Mr Straw was given strong backing from Labour MPs for his approach, which confirmed a growing feeling that the Government was trying to isolate the more vocal protesters. They expect Gordon Brown, who is to make his Pre-Budget Report on Wednesday, to direct help at the haulage and farming industries, and to cut vehicle excise duty.

William Hague accused the Government of deliberately creating a Bclimate of anxietyB, before the expiry of the protestersB 60-day deadline for action on November 13. But the Opposition promised support for measures designed to keep fuel and food on the move.

Mr Hague told reporters: BThe Government are making the situation worse by talking so much about bringing in the Army and by holding the pre-Budget statement so close to the 60-day deadline. The Government are now causing a climate of anxiety and making that climate of anxiety worse.B

The GovernmentBs case against duty cuts was not helped by new analysis from the independent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which showed that BritainBs fuel tax take was rising while other European countries were cutting theirs.

Between 1996 and 1999, the share of British tax revenues accounted for by fuel duty rose from 6.3 per cent to 6.9 per cent, largely because of the fuel tax escalator, which has now been scrapped.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,29744,00.html

-- Carl Jenkins (somewherepress@aol.com), November 04, 2000