Ripsnort - Yes, in Europe, road fuel is artificially expensive - because of taxes. Under the current Labour "Government", fuel in the UK has gone from 57p/litre to almost 80p/litre. The joke is that diesel, used largely for commerical purposes, costs
even more. Now whereas France, Spain and other countries appreciate that to make a litre of diesel needs much less crude oil than to make a litre of 95 octane gasoline and therefore give the motorist a tax break (lower cost/litre), in the UK they take the opposite stance. They figure that because diesel cars can go much further on a litre of fuel than the equivalent gasoline powered car, that diesel drivers have lower fuel bills and can therefore afford to pay more tax - hence higher price. On this, I agree with Lazs - typical socialist (Labour government) thinking.
Go to Hobbs Marine on the Thames, not far from here, and you can buy diesel for the boats at around 30p per litre - well under half the cost of road diesel.

But it's the same fuel! Almost. Non-road diesel contains a dye, and other chemical "signatures". Get caught using this in a road vehicle on the public roads, and you could be hit with a VERY big fine.