valid points, however the UK taxes the living daylights out of us for alcohol and tobacco as well.
vehicles are hugely expensive here, we have a national health service that has had money thrown at it in exponentially increasing amounts for years to no avail. We have a miniscule armed forces, our police service is tiny and predominantly unarmed, we are closing fire stations left right and centre, an ambulance takes 15 minutes to get to you, irrespective of your condition. Our police now have fewer regular officers and more "community officers", who are really just civvy's in uniform with absolutely no more powers than a civilian.
Pensions have failed totally, the road system is falling apart because we send 40 million pounds a day to europe to repair and build roads for them. Our workers are hog tied by regulations from Brussels which include a 'driving licence' test to be completed before you are able to use a LADDER. Unemployment is going through the roof, largely due to the fact that the indigenous population of this country has no work ethic and a huge number have been on benefits since leaving school.
I love my little country, and have served the crown for a number of years, but getting back to the original moan, we have many, many offshore oil rigs, owned by British companies, i just wondered what the disparity would be between the US fuel prices and our own, and it seems that we are paying five times the going rate
Also, the forecourts make little money from each litre sold, the overwhelming influence on price is government taxation, which on uk fuel is running around 79%. This, coupled with increasing domestic fuel prices, tax on property, death taxation, tax on saving, annual vehicle excise duty, income tax, national insurance, not to mention stealth taxes levied from speed camera's, is breaking the back of the average working man and woman in this country. You would imagine that the increases would fund better public services and infrastructure, but this is not the case.
There are many complaints that the taxes are used to fund the war in Afghanistan, if so why do our troops, as my relatives did in WW1 WW2 Korea and the Falklands, and my self and my friends in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan, have to buy their own equipment because the crap that is provided by the military is not up to scratch and costs lives. America has a massively greater personnel and material input in the middle east, but at least your guys are wearing half decent boots, and carrying weapons that don't jam up at the first sign of dust, (not ideal in desert warfare), and i was just interested if you are seeing huge fuel charges or tax rises recently.
