Nice day - lets bitch

Been a positive day today. We actually had a productive and enjoyable monthly meeting at work (wonders will never cease) and the builders made some progress on the house (I've seen the light!).

So its time for me to have a moan.

Are there any people in this country more annoying than fuel protestors?

Let me set the scene:

A few years ago, the government's policy of taxing the things that were on the whole damaging - eg alcohol, cigarettes, fuel, etc - backfired slightly when a bunch of people decided that petrol prices were too high. These people, largely hauliers and farmers who use subsidised diesel decided to protest against these high fuel prices. As well as go-slows on motorways, they also blockaded fuel plants and prevented fuel shipments being moved. This was largely done through intimidation, to the extent that some trucks only got through due to police escorts being provided.

The protestors kind of got their way. There was an election looming and the government decided to freeze their tax rises. Shame, really.

So now we get to this week's problem:

Hurricane Katrina hit some of the main oil processing plants in the US This led to a decrease in the global reserves of refined fuel. This in turn led to price rises.

At the end of last week and going into this week the mutterings began from the same protestors. Demonstrations but no blockades - there's been an emphasis on this - would take place towards the end of the week. The government announced that there were contingency measures in place (rationing, guaranteed supplies to essential services, etc).

So now the panic begins. Queues at petrol stations. Petrol stations running out of stock. Worried public wondering whether their fuel will last till the end of the week.

Is it just me, or do these protestors really piss you off?

Its not necessarily the inconvenience. True, when we have a product that we're completely accustomed to having suddenly threatened in some way it makes us feel uncomfortable and uneasy. But we adapt to these things. We find a way to deal with it and we move on.

Its more the fact that these people are protesting purely about the money in their pockets. Its the fact that they protest at the government intervening in one way (putting taxes up to try to influence the amount of fuel we use) and yet want them to intervene in another way in their favour (reducing taxes so that they can counteract the increase in price due to the reduction in supply). Its the fact that the main trouble makers are the ones affected the least by the government's tax policies on fuel. Its the fact that of all the terrible things going on in the world (thousands starving in Niger to take one example) they choose this to complain about.

These people are selfish, money grabbing scum who want to disrupt our lives purely so that they don't have to pay so much.

I can guarantee that half of these people are the same ones that complain about the noise of wind farms and that they are an eye-sore that they don't want near them.

Interesting stat: the percentage of the petrol price that goes into taxes is actually less now than it was ten years ago.

In other news, I see the Pentagon have found a lovely way to commemorate the September 11th attacks.

Sid's quiet. Think he's considering a dirty protest.