06-11-2014, 09:34 AM
In theory, this is a good shout, as the oil price has plummeted (for geopolitical reasons) this year. However, what Danny Alexander is not saying is that something like 80% of the fuel price in the UK is the result of taxes. Maybe then he should kickstart the process and cut tax by 10%?
Quote:Cut pump prices, Danny Alexander urges petrol firms
Minister calls on petrol firms and supermarkets to combat the rocket and feather effect'
- Press Association
- The Guardian, Thursday 6 November 2014
- Jump to comments (113)
'
The public have a suspicion that when the price of oil rises, pump prices go up like a rocket. But when the price of oil falls, pump prices drift down like a feather'. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA
Petrol firms and supermarkets are to be pressed by the government to pass on the benefit of falling oil prices to motorists. The chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, will demand an assurance from fuel companies and distributors that they are doing all they can to cut prices at the pumps.
Brent crude slumped as low as $82 (£51) a barrel earlier this week, its lowest level in just over four years due to concerns about oversupply.
Alexander will say in a speech in Aberdeen: "Especially in the current economic circumstances, people would rightly be angry if they feel that pump prices don't fall as much as they should on the back of falling oil prices.
"I believe it's called the rocket and feather effect. The public have a suspicion that when the price of oil rises, pump prices go up like a rocket. But when the price of oil falls, pump prices drift down like a feather.
"This has been investigated before and no conclusive evidence was found. But even if there were a suspicion it could be true this time it would be an outrage."
The Liberal Democrat minister will say that he plans write to the industry's major players "seeking their assurance that they are doing all they can to pass on the benefit of falling oil prices as quickly as possible".
"When the price of oil falls, the public have a right to expect pump prices to fall like a stone, not a feather," he will say.
Highlighting the Treasury's action to freeze fuel duty, Alexander will say: "I have made sure over the last four years that government has helped with the cost of fuel. And when the oil price falls, industry must do all it can to help, too."
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14