February 2009 Archives

Gordon Brown's slogan "British Jobs for British Workers", which was heavily criticised as a clumsy Labour party conference 2007 attempt to "triangulate" political support away from the BNP and other extremists from amongst "the workers", seems to have come back to haunt him.

This former National Front slogan is being thrown back in Gordon's face, following his inept handling of the economy, and is being used as the rallying cry for the "unofficial" strikes and walkouts at oil refineries and possibly nuclear industry sites.

e.g. The Sunday Mirror reports: Gordon Brown slams wildcat strikes as more workers plan to walk out

Gordon Brown was personally in charge of failing to properly regulate the banking system, and he still seems to be micro managing and meddling in the economy, keeping his sock puppet of a Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling out of any media soundbites.

The industrial action has been concentrated amongst construction workers, protesting about the use of foreign labour, brought in perfectly legally by sub-contacting companies from other European Union countries like Italy or Portugal. When there was a shortage of such skilled labour, nobody complained, but now that Gordon Brown's policies have led to an economic recession, the inevitable pressure in the jobs market is on.

At the moment, the walkouts and demonstrations are "unofficial", and as such, reflect massive discontent with the trades union leaders who fund the Labour party, as well as with the Government and employers.

If the production workers, as well as the construction and maintenance workers, at these affected energy plants refuse to cross the picket lines or come out in sympathy, then the usual media hysteria will probably lead to panic buying and fuel shortages at petrol stations, again

Remember also that the Fuel Duty is set to rise, yet again, in April,

Already there is a media spin and disinformation campaign, with lots of stories explaining that the French multinational oil company Total, at the centre of the dispute is not actively discriminating illegally against British workers

Labour politicians are again giving the extremist xenophobic views of the BNP far more oxygen of publicity than they would otherwise have achieved, by their strenuous denials that there is any discrimination against British workers - trust in this Government is so low, after so much spin and disinformation, that many people now automatically assume that they must be lying.

The Labour Government appears to have no clue about what to do: the disgraced Cabinet Minister Lord Mandelson is making Norman Tebbit like "get on your bike" noises about the mobility of labour throughout the European Union, but his former trades union leader colleagues like the Alan Johnson are, in contrast, calling for some sort of protectionism.

The Times: More strikes loom in row over hiring foreign workers at low wages

Is it really just a coincidence that the classic comedy series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is being re-run at this particular time, on the ? Is it being aired now to remind people that British workers do benefit from the free movement of labour within the European Union (who are the commercial advertisers or sponsors for this re-run ?)

It is hard to say if online websites, which were devoted to industry specific news like www.ukwelder.com, have been taken by surprise by the depth of feeling on their discussion forums, or if they have been deliberately targeted by extremists and online trolls. It seems that they have decided to censor these comments, possibly as a result of legal or other pressure:

The UKWelder forum was established to provide a platform for the discussion of welding and welding related subjects. Of late a number of non welding posts have appeared that threaten the continued existence of this website. To ensure that this site stays online we must ask users to refrain from posting non welding topics.

There do still seem to be other online discussion forums about these strikes, for instance at The Bear Facts, who are trying to be non-political party aligned and non-racist, but who are clearly sending back to Gordon Brown his "British Jobs for British Workers" slogan.

This website may be ;less slightly less susceptible to censorship, as it is hosted outside of the United Kingdom in Denmark.

Apparently, even though the trades unions are not "officially" supporting these disputes, they are apparently, according to The Times meeting with the Government:

Thursday: Union delegation meets MPs and goes to Downing Street to talk about the industrial strife

Is this just sneaky evasion of the trades union dispute laws, which require secret ballots of members etc. before industrial action, and no secondary picketing etc., or are the union leaders again selling out the interests of their members to the Government and the big business employers ?

There seems to be talk of "a march on Parliament" to coincide with this meeting, but who exactly is organising this is a mystery - is it local trades union branch officials or someone else, in order to put pressure on the trades union leaders and Labour party politicians ?

Given the "political intelligence" gathering capabilities of the "snooper state", and by private investigators and infiltrators employed by big businesses, it would be wise for anyone organising, or even reporting on, such protests or strikes, to take some elementary precautions with their mobile phone and email communications and physical meetings: e.g. Hints and Tips for whistleblowers, journalists, bloggers and political activists

About this blog

This United Kingdom based blog attempts to draw public attention to, and to comment on, the Fuel Crisis caused by UK Government policy on energy i.e. petrol, diesel, LPG for use in vehicles, and for electricity generation, and the knock on effects on transport, food, domestic heating costs etc.

For a country with North Sea Oil and Gas,why are fuel prices so expensive in the United Kingdom ?

Most of the price for fuel that we pay is Tax to Her Majesty's Treasury, not directly anything to do with the world price of petroleum.

Is it really going to take blockades and protests in the streets again, like in 2000 under the Labour government, before the Conservative / Liberal Democrat Coalition Government listens to the people and abolishes the tax increases on fuel, which has reached over £1 £1.40 per litre of petrol in many areas ?

Or are they going to mismanage the Fuel Crisis, yet again, but this time invoke their Emergency Powers under the Civil Contingencies Act, or using the vast sureveillance powers of the state to snoop on peaceful protestors ?

Email Contact

Please feel free to email us your views about this blog, or news about the issues it tries to comment on:

info @ fuel-crisis.org.uk

If you want to send us something confidential, then you can use our PGP public encryption key

UK Fuel Price and Tax statistics

Various statistics on Fuel Prices and rates of Fuel Duty and VAT, are published by the misnamed Department of Energy and Climate Change:

Energy statistics: prices, where you "can download annual, quarterly, monthly and weekly statistics in Microsoft Excel 2000 format"

The Weekly Fuel Prices Table (.xls) is updated each Tuesday at 9.30 am.

Government Website Links

WriteToThem Identify and Contact your Member of Parliament, Members of the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament, European Parliament etc,

No. 10 Downing Street Prime Minister Tony Blair Gordon Brown gets David Cameron gets hundreds of thousands of letters and emails a year. It is possible to write to or email the Prime Minister, but do not expect him to actuually read your message, let alone respond to it personally.


Her Majesty's Treasury
Complain to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown Alistair Darling George Osborne:
"Emails and letters for the Chancellor and his ministerial team come in the first instance into HM Treasury's Correspondence and Enquiry Unit and then are sent into the Chancellor's Private Office. All correspondence received is replied to, within 15 working days and so you will receive a response."

To email the Chancellor or the ministerial team, the address is:

ministers@ hm-treasury.gsi.gov.uk

and to send a letter the address is:

Rt Hon George Osborne MP,
Chancellor of the Exchequer,
HM Treasury,
1 Horse Guards Road,
LONDON SW1A 2HQ

You can also fax correspondence on:
020 7270 4580


Consumer Focus - the former Energy Watch independent watchdog for gas and electricity consumers has been amalgamted into Consumer Focus

The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets - the regulator for Britain's gas and electricity industries.

Department of Energy and Climate Change

The Government Department which is supposed to be coming up with and implementing some sort of strategic Energy Policy for the United Kingdom, was shunted off in October 2008 into the newly created Department of Energy and Climate Change, to make way for the return of the twice disgraced Peter Mandleson's return to the Cabinet.

The useless Minister put in charge was Ed Miliband, the younger brother of the equally useless, yet ambitious, Foreign Secretary David Miliband (another example of NuLabour nepotism). - It turns out that both brothers were ambitious for power and Ed Miliband is now the Leader of the Labour party, which is proving to be as incompetent in regard to Energy Policy and Fuel Prices in Opposition, as it was when in power.

The lack of continuity of Ministers in charge of this department has continued under the Coalition, with the Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne resigning to clear his name of driving offence allegations.

The Ministerial team who might make announcements about Energy Policy, or who will be flying off at public expense, to international conferences etc. representing the UK, and who you might wish to write to or lobby in person, are:

So far, these Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition government politicians have not been much of an improvement over their incompetent and authoritarian Labour predecessors.

DECC Contact Us web page.

Department of Energy and Climate Change
3 Whitehall Place
London
SW1A 2HD

General enquiries:
0300 060 4000
[standard national rate)

Email: correspondence@decc.gsi.gov.uk

"Enquiries from journalists should always be directed to the DECC Press Office, either as per the IPO Directory (White Book) or via the Enquiry Unit on 0300 060 4000. The out-of-hours number for urgent press enquiries is 020 7215 3505."

The top civil servant is the Permanent Secretary Moira Wallace
email: perm.sec@decc.gsi.gov.uk

The DECC Corporate Governance page list some more of the top civil servants and publishes reports about some of their foreign trips and expenses paid by th etax payer.

N.B. these do not reveal all the extremely rich Energy Company vested interest lobbying activity which obviously influences them more than the plight of the log suffering general public.

Protest Website Links

Fuel Tax Protest - low turnout protests in 2005

Farmers for Action some of the organisers of the fuel protests in 2000

Road Haulage Association

Fuelprotest.com online petition

Fuel Website Links

Automobile Association summary of UK and Oversease fuel prices

Rip-Off Britain

Fuel Industry Links

UK Petroleum Industry Association - made up of the 9 companies the main oil refineries in the UK.

UK Petroleum Industry Association Ltd,
Quality House
Quality Court Tel: 020 7269 7600
E-mail: info@ukpia.com
www.ukpia.com

BP Oil UK Ltd, Witan Gate House, 500/ 600 Witan Gate, Milton Keynes, MK9 1ES
Tel: 01908 853000,
www.bp.com

ConocoPhillips, ConocoPhillips Centre, 2 Kingmaker Court, Warwick Technology Park, Warwick CV34 6DB
Tel: 01926 404000
www.conocophillips.co.uk

Esso UK Ltd, ExxonMobil House, Ermyn Way, Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 8UX
Tel: 01372 222000
www.exxonmobil.co.uk

Ineos Refining, INEOS Group Ltd., Hawkslease, Chapel Lane, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, SO43 7FG
Tel: 0238 0287067
www.ineosrefining.com

Murco Petroleum Ltd, 4 Beaconsfield Road, St.Albans, AL1 3RH
Tel: 01727 892400
www.murco.co.uk

Petroplus UK, St. Mark`s Court, Teesdale, Stockton-on-Tees, TS17 6QW
Tel: 01642 736101
www.petroplusholdings.co.uk

Shell UK Ltd, Shell Centre, York Road, London SE1 7NA
Tel: 020 7257 3000
www.shell.co.uk

ChevronTexaco Ltd, 1 Westferry Circus, Canary Wharf, London E14 4HA
Tel: 020 7719 3000
www.texaco.com

Total UK Ltd, 40 Clarendon Road, Watford WD1 2TQ
Tel: 01923 694000
www.total.com

Energy Networks Association represents the licensed gas and electricity transmission and distribution companies in the UK.

ENA member companies

Blog Links

Spy Blog - civil liberties, security, privacy, technology, legislation

Global Guerrillas - John Robb

NuLabour blog

ParliamentProtest.org.uk blog - opposition to the curtailment of peacefule demonstrations and protests around Parliament and Whitehall and beyond.

Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers and Political Dissidents

The hints and tips below are just as important to anybody organising a peaceful Fuel Protest, as they are to other people who might come under UK Government or Multinational Corporation surveillance for their political activties.

Please take the appropriate precautions if you are planning to blow the whistle on shadowy and powerful people in Government or commerce, and their dubious policies. The mainstream media and bloggers also need to take simple precautions to help preserve the anonymity of their sources e.g. see Spy Blog's Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers - or use this easier to remember link: http://ht4w.co.uk

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