I DIDNT WRITE THIS!!! NOT A BAD IDEA THOUGH.

I know everyone hates SPAM, but just read on, this is about PETROL PRICES

I hear we are going to hit close to 89p a litre by the summer. Want petrol prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth, in the USA, offered this good idea: 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.

BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read it and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking petrol priced at about 77p a litre is super cheap. Me too! It is currently 79p - 83p for regular unleaded in some towns.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP at 77p -80p, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace.... not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

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. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't whimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again,all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people.... well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am... so trust me on this one.:)

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 69p a LITRE RANGE



-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Answers

Hope it doesn't offend anyone posting that....it may or may not work but could be worth a try?

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

arse! Reach more people by a scabby article in the Daily Fail or Bun

PS You may find Tesco sell more fuel than BP!

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

You'd be surpised how many people these chain e-mail get to....you get the one yesterday about that bird who'd slagged her husband off on friends re-united? I had that from 5 different sources and it made news in the mail today....

Nope Tesco do not sell more fuel than Esso and BP....tesco is local, the others are global....

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

so we're campaigning world-wide for a reduction to 69p per litre? I'm sure my colleagues in Texas will support that... NOT

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Can't see this campaign reaching 300 million people as there are only 60 million or so of us in the UK, most of whom don't have a car (under 17's etc). As for reducing the price to 69p is that feasible? The vast bulk of the price is duty and I really think the oil companies would be trading at a loss at those prices.

Still, if the price of motoring can be reduced then we can all look forward to travelling in a manner far, far more dangerous than planes or trains, sitting around in longer traffic jams and breathing in an ever more polluted atmosphere.

Just run this one past me again would you?

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Geordie you can pick holes in it all you want, I don't give a shit....if you are happy to ignore it then fine do that.

I posted it in case anyone wanted to partake and see if they could affect some kind of change....for myself I don't drive and don't have a car so the effect on me is minimal! i'm only interested in seeing if people power can work....

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

no offence Gav but these stupid chain-letters are as much a pain as a virus and I'm surprised you can't see the malicious intent at network clogging given that you're an exprt in this business! ;-)

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

I don't usually get my petrol from BP, 'cos I prefer to keep smaller independent dealers in business. There's one in Lanchester I go to that for quite a while was cheaper than the BP near Langley Park. Now they're equal prices, but I continue to give them my business because they're competitive.

It may be selfish and all you can't defend cars for environmental reasons, but with respect the environmental argument is a city resident luxury. I could (in theory) get public transport into work every day. That would mean a bus into Hexham (£5 return), train into Newcastle (variable service to say the least - tried it once and it was cancelled 2ce and delayed for 1 1/2 hrs), then train to Durham. Oh and then a 20min walk from the station. If everything ran on time I would be travelling for about the thick end of 2-3hrs each way. And the 1st bus isn't until 7.30am so I'd be late too :-)

That's exceptional as I live a fair way from my work and in the country, but things weren't much better when I was in London. Living about 14 miles from work would mean a bus to the nearest tube station, into Paddington, change and 4 stops back out again. Then 20 mins walk. About £6-7 every day. Or a bus to Shepherd's Bush and another to Ladbroke Grove. That's 2hrs on a bus. 7mph.

The joke is that although fuel is expensive, and the traffic continues to build, it is still quicker and often cheaper to drive than to take public transport.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

My wife has got the bus to work for years now and has been dogged by delays (not due to traffic) buses that don't turn up and a generally poor service. Going into work is also a problem as the kids get on to go to school two miles away at the other end of Cramlington (don't know why they won't walk). Upon complaining to Arriva about missing buses she is told she has missed it, despite being their for twenty minutes before it is even due to arrive. Buses on the way home are late, one night she waited 90 minutes and it still hadn't arrive so I had to go pick her up. Generally the bus home is on average 15 to 20 mintues late every night. Coming out of town I can understand maybe 5 minutes delay but more often than not it is more than twenty minutes. When she tackled Arriva about this they told her she was lying (in a roundabout sort of way) and that the computers showed the buses were no more than 8 minutes late each night. My wife was keeping the bus tickets for just such an argument.

The problem is that Arriva have a monopoly and raise the price of travel two to three times a year.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Are you sure this wasn't generated by Shell or Texaco? ;-) If boycotting two suppliers works, those suppliers would stop selling petrol when it no longer became profitable. The slack would be taken up by the others, and the small independents would just grow - ie nothing would change and prices would not drop hugely IMHO. IF BP and ESSO chose to reduce prices to get people back, the end result would be the independents would go out of business since they wouldn't be able to compete with what would be subsidised petrol. Once out of business, consumers would have no choice but to come back to BP and ESSO and pay whatever BP and ESSO chose to charge.

Although I sympathise with people that have to use a car either because of their rural location or the cr@p public transport alternative, we have to face up to the issues of congestion and pollution. The government is deliberately causing people grief (and making them think at the same time) by their high levels of duty. What the government need to do now, asap, is fill the vacuum and provide alternatives (it's happening slowly with green fuel at lower duty, etc etc but it's token gesture stuff)

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

We could simply ensure the US stop threatening to bomb Iraq and stop back rogue states in the middle east.

Personally, Petrol tax should be increased with road tax abolished, the more you drive the more you pay - fair eh?

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

I'd join in if I thought it would make a difference.

Public transport for me means £8 a day, 2 hours to commute 12 miles and no bus before 10am. It just isn't an option, in fact it's a joke.

ML³

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

The best solution IMO would be to reduce petrol duty, and add a tax to the most congested routes. Difficult to do without congesting the routes further, and has to be done in conjunction with viable, cost effective alternatives. ie tax the South East, not other areas where the congestion/pollution issue isn't as significant. Either way, the oild companies are a red herring and an easy 'corporate' target.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

33p a litre in Oz. Gov or oil giants?

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

A 2 mile walk and an hour and 20mins on the Metro every day. Relatively clean way to travel and a chance to listen to the radio in peace.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Incidentally, Gav, I haven't seen this friends reunited thing, do you have a link?

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

I think it's now been removed from the site after the police requested it....I think i might have a copy of it in my e-mail...i'll send it to ya...

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Cheers mate, sounds interesting :-)

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Ouch! Hell hath no fury etc, or is that on another thread?

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

If you really want to make a difference:

1. Stage a coup in Saudi, hang the royal family there as murderers, torturers and for crimes against humanity.
2. Invade Iraq and Iran and Libya. Forget about installing a new 'democratic' government...they'll only bugger it up.
3. Invade USA, hang Dubya by the neck until he is dead.
4. Break up Amaco, Texaco, Shell, BP, Esso, Exxon, Total-Fina-Elf etc into national companies - shoot the presidents of each.
5. Break up OPEC and shoot the president of any petroleum company who wants to operate a cartel.
6. Renationalise public transport. Ban cars in city centres. Only 1 car per household. School buses reintroduced. Subsidise out of town park-and-ride schemes.
7. Make me president of the world

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Or alternatively, cycle to work/shops etc if it's feasible for you.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

8. Tax bikes. If they did that in China they'd be in G7!

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Every one with 3 letter names begining with g lets stick together.

Gav said he had nothing to do with the letter, I think he is promoting the idea of the letter, instead of not buying petrol for 1 day, do not buy petrol from 1 or 2 retailers for say a month.

I think it is a brilliant idea Gav. Don't be put off by those with longer names or worse still those with TWO names, greedy barstewards!

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Bobby for President!! :-D

All this debate about petrol....what about developing cars running on alternative fuels/engine technology? Have hybrid cars made it to the UK, yet? They're starting to be marketed here, still rather expensive, but people who have them love them. The engines are half electric, half gas. The electric battery charges itself, so no need to build charging stations. Gas mileage is something over 50mph in the city because the car runs mostly on electric, but around 40mph highway because of running mostly on gas. They are supposed to go as fast as any small car.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002