Recently in Media Spin and Disinformation Category

The out of touch Conservative / Liberal Democrat government politicians managed to cause unnecessary panic buying of petrol and diesel fuel, ahead of a threatened strike of (well paid) tanker drivers belonging to the Unite trades union.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude's stupid remarks about storing "jerry cans" of petrol at home in your garage, were seized upon by not just the tabloid media, but by tv and radio broadcasters like the BBC and Sky.

The equally out of touch Labour opposition (who were astonished that they managed to lose a "safe" seat to the extremist demagogue George Galloway at the Bradford West by-election on Thursday) spent most of the week feeding the tabloid press with their views about the irrelevant to most people, policy of charging VAT on hot pasties and on publishing a list which Conservative party political donors had had private dinner at Prime Minister David Cameron's home.

Labour in turn had to reveal that that Len McCluskey, the boss of the Unite Union, which has paid the Labour party at least £5 million, has had a private meetings or dinner with Labour leader Ed Miliband on 8 occasions since the General Election. Was the tanker drivers dispute discussed during those private meetings ?

The individual members of the general public cannot be blamed choosing to purchase more petrol or diesel than they have done historically at this time of year, especially given the massive media hype and propaganda and apparent political dithering they have been subjected to.

The Unite trades union is partly to blame, for not making it clear to the dim witted, short attention span mainstream media, exactly when they were proposing to take industrial action. Apparently this will not now be before or during the Easter Bank Holiday (a favourite target for UK and foreign transport related strikes) as many people jumped to the conclusion that it would be.

The Government is partly to blame for talking of "Preparedness", the training of Army drivers and the notorious "jerry cans", but again, not making it precisely clear when these measures were expected to be used.

It is not entirely the mainstream media or the internet social media's fault - they can spread rumours and misinformation rapidly, but they can also help to quash such rumours and panics, if they are used properly.

Will this self-inflicted Fuel Crisis be compounded by the planned rise in Fuel Duty (again, regardless of whether the world price of oil actually falls) this coming August ?


What exactly did Gordon Brown's "must be seen to be doing something" trip to Jeddah in Suadi Arabia actually achieve, apart from waste money and energy in delivering a 10 minute speech, to a conference, without any other world leaders present (apart from the Saudi Arabian hosts) ?

The lobby journalists were not impressed e.g. Sam Coates at The Times

Over the next 18 hours we will be spending 13 hours travelling so he can make a 10 minute speech - the bulk of which was released to the Sunday newspapers - which will allow Gordo to tell people he is 'doing something' about oil prices. We haven't even arrived and the Algerians have already issued the draft communique. Gordo's press briefing will apparently be before the conference has even started. And they've just shaved fours hours off the trip

What has this trip achieved ? Less than nothing - the price of crude oil went up afterwards !

According to The Guardian:

Demand, not speculation, at heart of oil shock, says Brown

[...]

In his speech, Brown offered a long-term deal whereby the oil-consuming nations would diversify energy supplies, moving into nuclear and renewables, and the oil-producing countries would increase production, as well as recycle some of their huge profits into western renewable technologies.

Is Gordon Brown really willing to let, say, the Iranian , or even the Saudi Arabian governments invest in, and therefore have access to British nuclear technology ?

Why not just give them nuclear weapons, with which they can threaten us, on credit ?

If the UK Government and the City of London cannot see the business case for investing in, say, nuclear power or wind turbines etc, then why do they think that the Saudi Arabians or others in OPEC would waste their money on such projects either ?

Who is going to be stupid enough to commit billions of pounds to risky projects which have not actually been specified in detail ? That may be how the NuLabour Government operates, but other countries are a lot more prudent with their money.

It all sounds like Gordon Brown's vague handwaving about clearing Third World Debt, which he used to get positive media coverage for himself - has all the promised money actually materialised ?

Brown has stated that oil producers have earned $3tn in extra profits from the latest oil shock. He also revealed Britain will host a follow-up summit in London, to build the shared analysis of what he described as the biggest problem of the world. The meeting will probably be held in October.

Nobody else agrees with Brown's analysis:

[...]

But Brown's analysis of the causes of record oil costs was at odds with the Opec president, Chakib Khelil, who reiterated his view opposing increased production, saying "the price is disconnected from fundamentals" of supply and demand.

"We believe that the market is in equilibrium. The price is disconnected from fundamentals. It is not a problem of supply."

The Indian finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, agreed, saying producers and consumers should "wrest control" of trading by agreeing to restrict prices.

"Surely demand and supply cannot explain what has happened over the last 12 months," he said. "Oil prices were $70 a barrel in August 2007 and how is it that they've doubled when there has been no dramatic change in demand?"

What exactly has Gordon Brown achieved with this junket to Jeddah, apart from embarrassing the United Kingdom in front of assorted foreign finance and oil ministers ?

When will Gordon Brown reduce the tax on fuel in the UK ?


The Financial Times reports:

Strike talk activates emergency oil plans

By George Parker, Andrew Taylor and Ed Crooks in London

Published: June 9 2008 23:31 | Last updated: June 9 2008 23:31

Ministers have activated emergency procedures with the oil industry ahead of a threatened four-day strike by tanker drivers, amid fears that filling stations across Britain could start running out of fuel from this ­weekend.

John Hutton, business secretary, fears the strike could prompt much more widespread fuel shortages than those caused by the strike at the Grangemouth oil refinery in April, and has ordered officials to draw up contingency plans. Industry executives believe these fears are well founded and said they were working with the government to implement measures to minimise disruption.

The emergency measures - activated discreetly last Friday in an attempt to reduce the risk of panic buying - would safeguard fuel for emergency services and provide for supplies to be moved around the country to areas of shortages.

What utter stupidity !

Are they expecting to keep news of any local fuel shortages secret, somehow ?

They will make any panic buying much worse by springing it on the public as a surprise.

About 500 tanker drivers employed by haulage companies Hoyer UK and Suckling Transport are threatening to strike for four days from Friday after their claim for a 13 per cent pay rise was rejected.

The two companies are sole suppliers to almost 1,000 Shell forecourts, which are concentrated in the south-east, the north-west, central Scotland and parts of the Midlands.

But Mr Hutton fears that the striking drivers could picket distribution depots used by other companies, leading to wider disruption.

"It is difficult to gauge what the impact of the strike would be if it went ahead," the Department for Business said. "Shell accounts for about one in 10 filling stations and it is inevitable there would be some stock-outs.

"If the strike were to affect other retailers, it would have a more significant impact. The government is working with the wider fuel industry on what could be done to reduce any disruption to the public and business."

Why is Hutton flapping around in a panic like Lance-Corporal Jones from Dad's Army ?

Why would this strike affect the other "9 out of 10" petrol filling stations not operated by Shell ?

[...]

The emergency measures include a suspension of anticartel rules to allow oil companies to exchange information about stocks.

[...]

Now that the Labour politicians and bureaucrats are starting to use their vast array of Emergency Powers, will they be putting the fuel delivery drivers and union officials under electronic and other surveillance, as if they were terrorists ?

Today's fuel protest "go slow" on the motorways around Manchester, seemed to attract a good number of protesting motorcyclists, and gained useful regional news coverage, and a bit of sympathetic mainstream media reporting.

However, the simple political facts of life are that such regional protests are far too easily ignored by the "Westminster Village" of politicians, civil servants and mainstream media journalists, unless they happen right in the centre of London.

This protest is not dominating the evening TV and radio broadcast news.

See this report in The Times:

Bikers bring roads to standstill over rising fuel prices ... but are cheered by drivers

From Times Online
June 5, 2008
Joanna Sugden

Hundreds of bikers were cheered on by drivers as they brought roads to a standstill in the North West today in protest against the soaring cost of fuel.

More than 500 motorbike riders revved off in convoy from a service station outside Manchester at 8am and staged a "go-slow" demonstration against escalating prices at the petrol pump. Onlookers - and even those caught in the disruption - applauded in support as they sat in the major tailbacks on the M62 and M60 around Greater Manchester caused by the protest.

The Highways Agency warned motorists to find alternative routes but most did not seem too put out by the added journey time and seemed to be enjoying the spectacle.

Roads into the city were severely jammed as a series of rolling road blocks put in place by the Highways Agency and aimed at curtailing the protest served only to lengthen the delays. One organiser said onlookers were getting out of their cars to wave and take pictures of the bikers. "They've embraced this traffic jam today, that's what we wanted," he said.

The bikers are heading for Salford Quays. Michael Clearly, 56, a Salford garage owner, said: "I think it's brilliant. It's a pity they're not blocking off Downing Street and London too."

[...]

Very true.

Hundreds of motorcyclists, in convoy, revving north up Whitehall, past the Treasury, past the front entrance to Downing Street, through Admiralty Arch, south down Horseguards Road past the rear entrance to Downing Street, past the the back and along the side of the Treasury into Parliament Square, and then back up Whitehall again, and then round the route again and again, would have been far more effective.

A national fuel protest is planned for June 22 when vehicles of all kinds will take to roads across the country for a "peaceful driving protest" organised via the social networking website Facebook.

That particular Facebook group seems to be a little hard to find - any pointers ?

The Sun tabloid newspaper is now campaigning against the exorbitant fuel taxes, which are higher in the UK than in many other countries.

Will the Labour politicians stop snooping and listening in on the public, and start listening to their anger and frustration ?

Pumped dry UK sick of fuel tax

The Sun
Friday 30th May 2008

By DAVID WOODING
Whitehall Editor,
and LYNSEY HAYWOOD

BRITAIN would have the cheapest diesel in Europe if Labour's punitive taxes were axed, it emerged yesterday.

But nearly 60p in every Pound paid at the pump goes straight into Treasury coffers -- making our diesel the dearest.

Today The Sun launches a backlash campaign against sky high fuel prices to find the cheapest forecourts in Britain.

And we urge our army of readers to boycott those pumping up prices.

The huge sums siphoned off by the Government were revealed in figures put out by Business Secretary John Hutton.

They also reveal that the UK has Europe's second-lowest prices for unleaded petrol before tax and duty.

Chancellor Alistair Darling is poised to ditch plans to slap an extra 2p duty on fuel from October amid rising public anger.

But yesterday's figures prove millions of motorists are already being clobbered every time they fill up.

Our diesel costs 48.8p a litre before tax and duty are added. But at the pump, with 58 per cent tax added, it averages 116.6p.

[...]

Meanwhile Tories seized on Mr Hutton's fuel tax figures to blame Labour for rip-off prices and rising household bills.

Shadow Treasury minister Philip Hammond said: "Gordon Brown's claim that world oil prices are the cause of the soaring costs is exposed as a sham."

PM Gordon Brown hopes his call for increased North Sea oil production will ease the crisis.

But yesterday Sun readers were demanding more action.

Shop worker James Read, 32, said: "The cost of fuel is crippling. I just can't afford to go anywhere."

[...]

Surely the media column inches obsessed spin doctors will communicate this anger through to their out of touch political bosses, dithering in the Downing Street bunker, with this clear message from Rupert Murdoch's media empire and from the public ?

Yesterday's fuel protests by road hauliers organised by Transaction 2007 did achieve excellent mass media coverage.

Clearly Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his glove puppet of a Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling have had their Whitsun holiday interrupted, and they are now waffling about somehow exhorting international oil exporting countries to increase production, something which has never worked in the past.

They are also giving mixed signals about the issue of the October fuel duty increase - is it going to be scrapped or not ?

The media have also piled on the political pressure by claiming that there is also going to be reversal of the unfair increase in car tax on vehicles registered after 2001 (why could this not just apply to new vehicles ?), quoting Cabinet Ministers Jack Straw and John Hutton, but there seems to be some backsliding on this from the Treasury.

There also seems to be some media spin about as yet undefined promises to Do Something About "fuel poverty".

Is that going to be another 10p tax fiasco bribe, if so, where does the money come from ?

Will it involve another intrusive, demeaning and wasteful bureaucratic disaster like Gordon Brown's tax credit system ?

Meanwhile, Tuesday's electricity power cuts, affecting hundreds of thousands of consumers, including hospitals etc. show how precarious the National Grid is, due to the lack of investment, caused by Gordon Brown's taxation policies.

The fact that the electricity companies deliberately withheld details from the public, of when electricity supplies were likely to be restored, for "commercial market reasons", show another aspect of the dubious Enron style energy speculation artificial market which was introduced by this Labour Government.

Surely this highly regulated market has failed, once there are actual power cuts to hospitals etc., and trading in energy capacity futures should be temporarily suspended ?

There was also news yesterday that the de-commissioning costs of old nuclear power stations is set to increase by an unknown number of billions of pounds, from the current £73 billion estimate.

Everywhere you look, there is a Fuel Crisis, over which this Government is failing - they only ever seem to promise to "tackle" or "address" such problems, but they never actually "solve" any of them.

There is a window of opportunity to get the Government to change their wretched energy and fuel policies, in the hope of saving themselves from political oblivion, provided that the angry public keep up the pressure on them.

Keep protesting and keep lobbying the politicians (of all parties).

The next planned Fuel Protest by haulers and farmers etc. organised by Transaction-2007.com is set for this coming Tuesday 27th May 2008.

This has a far better chance of attracting some main stream media coverage than the previous one which was predictably swamped by the Local Election night coverage.

Whilst the NuLabour cult currently in Government agonises on how to cling on to power over the Parliamentary Whitsun recess, perhaps some of them might now consider putting some political pressure on the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to reduce the crippling fuel price and tax increases.

If you happen to meet a Labour politician over the Whitsun recess, make sure that they understand how strongly you feel about this issue (try to restrain the understandable urge to argue with your fists).

If you are unfortunate enough to have a Labour MP who is supposed to represent your views, this week would be a very good time to write to them over fuel prices, tax and energy policies. - you can do this conveniently online via WriteToThem.com. If you have a non-Labour MP, it is also worth writing in as well, but this is less likely to have an immediate effect.

See the Sunday Telegraph report

Details of the Transaction 2007 protest:

One does have to wonder at the media communications strategy of these fuel protestors - they are incredibly lucky that they got any broadcast media coverage at all on Local Election night, of all nights.

The newspapers will , rightly, ignore this protest in favour of Local Election and Mayor of London stories.

The BBC reports:

BBC news Thursday, 1 May 2008 00:49 UK

Refinery protest over fuel prices

About 100 farmers and hauliers have staged a demonstration outside the Stanlow Oil Refinery at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire over rising fuel prices.

Protesters stood at the entrance of the plant and had blocked about 50 lorries from entering by about 2300 BST.

Cheshire police said they were notified just after 2030 BST and officers were called to the scene.

The protesters later moved off the road and vehicles were moving freely in and out of the refinery.

Police said about 40 or 50 protesters remained at the refinery's gates in the early hours of Friday.

The Stanlow plant was at the centre of the fuel protests in 2000 that caused some stations to run out of petrol.

'Massive profits'

One of the hauliers told the BBC: "It's affecting all of us. It's not just hauliers and farmers - although they are being crippled by the costs - it's going to have a knock on effect on everyone - in rising fuel costs and higher prices of food on the shelves in shops."

A protester said hauliers and farmers were being made bankrupt while companies still made a profit.

He said: "People are going out of business left, right and centre and no-one seems to care.

"Oil companies are still announcing massive profits and the government are taking massive amounts of tax - and they want to put another 2p on in October.

"They've got to bring it down it down again. Something must be done or this country's industry will be lost."

Police said the protest was peaceful and no arrests had been made.

The clear implication of the last bit of this story, is that the media will not actually be too interested, unless there are actual arrests of fuel protestors.

The mainstream media are now moving over to almost saturation coverage of petrol queues at filling stations, caused by self fulfilling prophecies of panic buying, even before any protests have started.

The Times has more details of various different regional fuel protest ideas. How many of them gather up enough support remains to be seen.

On what evidence, and under what law is this reported threat to hauliers' licences ? If people are desparate and they believe that they are being forced out of business anyway, such a threat is likely to strengthen the resolve of those people who do not feel politically crushed by the NuLabour state.

"Protest hauliers warned that they may lose licences

By Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor
POLICE chiefs have told hauliers who protest at British refineries this week to expect a tough response.

Whitehall has ordered police to report any lorry used in any protest to the Vehicle Inspectorate. Hauliers, who plan demonstrations at refineries from 6am on Wednesday, have been told that they risk losing their licences to operate if their vehicles are involved in any blockades."

The function of the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency is to ensure that helath and safety legilation is obeyed. If yhere have been no criminal offences committed by peaceful protestors, and presumably if there are any, the Police would arrest and prosecute demonstrators, then why is the Vehicle Inspctorate being dragged into a political dispute ?

What business is it of the "Vehicle Inspectorate" or of "Whitehall" to mete out punishments for political activity ?

Or is this just anothe bit of NuLabour disinformation being fed to the Mutdoch press ?

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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