OT Fuel protests

Simonb said:

Colin Blackburn said:

This applies to other users of red diesel.

I seem to remember that the yachting fraternity still benefits from red
diesel. It's used by trawlers and the like and the yachties buy it from the
same pontoons.

We have our own pontoons round here.

Sometimes you get asked to fill in a form when you fill up; to track
that the marina is really selling it for marine use, I assume.

I remember that there used to be a lot of C&E men dipping tanks at
just about any rural gathering in the past. Caused a bit of a stir.
Haven't seen that happen for a while, though.

gavin said:

We may hate trucks and wish more goods were sent by rail. However,
they are a vital element of our society. I believe that the fuel
should be cheaper for trucks and more expensive for cars. The
majority of Europe agrees with this and discounts diesel relative to
petrol. However in sad little Britain, we have it the other way round.

Drive lorries much?

"Pyromancer" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as Sam Salt
<[email hidden]> breathed:

Quoted message said:

Ran a Half Marathon in Leeds this morning.Of course the majority of the
roads were closed/blocked off.With a few exceptions cars were stood with
their engines running in the resulting long queues.Petrol too expensive ?
Not too expensive to waste evidently.

Arrghh - yes, that drives me up the wall! Whenever I know I'll be
stopped for more than a minute or so I switch the engine off (and if the
jam is on a slope, leave it off and roll slowly down using the
footbrake), but everyone else just seems to sit there, idling away,
engines turning over at 900-ish RPM, burning fuel to no purpose and
pumping out huge quantities of exhaust.

Then again when the engine is running I'm aware of pistons going up and
down, valves opening and closing, and fuel flowing in and burning - I
get the impression many people think of turning on a car as the same as
turning on a radio, and just leave it on till they've finished with it.
:-(

--
- Pyromancer.
- http://www.inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk <-- Pagan Gothic Rock!
- http://www.littlematchgirl.co.uk <-- Electronic Metal!
- http://www.revival.stormshadow.com <-- The Gothic Revival.

We'll know when fuel is too expensive. As well as switching off the engine
when waiting, you'll see:

Mothers sharing the school run when they live as far as 100m apart from each
other...
Supermarkets not shipping Scottish mineral water to Devon, and Welsh water
to East Anglia
An average of more than 1.0000001 person per car in the rush-hours
People in their gas-guzzling FYFWDs (you work it out) choosing to down-grade
to a vehicle which consumes a litre in more than 4 miles
People driving at economical speeds (i.e. well, less than 90mph anyway.)

Judging from all the mumies running their dears to the local schools today,
I conclude that we're not there yet, so Prudent Gordon can afford to lob a
few more pence per litre. Roll on the blockades!

Peter.

"Pyromancer" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Arrghh - yes, that drives me up the wall! Whenever I know I'll be
stopped for more than a minute or so I switch the engine off (and if the
jam is on a slope, leave it off and roll slowly down using the
footbrake), but everyone else just seems to sit there, idling away,
engines turning over at 900-ish RPM, burning fuel to no purpose and
pumping out huge quantities of exhaust.

Air conditioning (esp. yesterday)? Rolling on the footbrake is fine but with
power assisted brakes and steering its not always a good idea to use them
without.

Tony

al_Mossah said:

Roll on the blockades!

Hear, hear! The last 'blockade' was the only time we've ever sat in our
garden during the daytime without hearing the noise of traffic from the
A335, apart from Southampton's FA cup final last(?) year.

Simonb said:

Hear, hear! The last 'blockade' was the only time we've ever sat in our
garden during the daytime without hearing the noise of traffic from the
A335, apart from Southampton's FA cup final last(?) year.

I need time still to get my fitness up to being able to do the 30 mile
round trip involving a big valley with steep sides 5 days a week.

I seem to have gone slower today - maybe a side effect of carrying an ex
bathroom suite to the local tip on Sunday. The thought of putting wheels
on the bath and towing it behind a trike did cross my mind, but in the
end it was quicker to carry it between us.

- Richard

"Simonb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Drive lorries much?

In previous jobs I have managed transport but not driven them.

Gavin

Richard Corfield said:

Simonb said:

Hear, hear! The last 'blockade' was the only time we've ever sat in
our garden during the daytime without hearing the noise of traffic
from the A335, apart from Southampton's FA cup final last(?) year.

I need time still to get my fitness up to being able to do the 30 mile
round trip involving a big valley with steep sides 5 days a week.

I seem to have gone slower today - maybe a side effect of carrying an
ex bathroom suite to the local tip on Sunday. The thought of putting
wheels on the bath and towing it behind a trike did cross my mind,
but in the end it was quicker to carry it between us.

- Richard

Does not compute.

Quoted message said:

Does not compute.

You got there before me ;-)

Cheers, helen s

--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam--
to get correct one remove fame & fortune
h*$el*$$e*nd**$o$ts**i*$*$m*m$o*n*s@$*a$o*l.c**$om$

--Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off--

[email hidden] (MartinM) wrote in message
I'm an NHS worker and was not

Quoted message said:

allowed to buy it last time; good thing I commute by train ;-)

I should add that in 2000 I was not allowed to take my bike on the
train to make room for the displaced car drivers (which never actually
materialised, confronted by no guzzoline they presumably stayed at
home, or cycled ;-)

"Daniel Barlow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Among the other fruits in the supermarket near my office are apples
from the USA and pears from New Zealand. Perhaps the additional
transport costs could be reduced by sourcing these items somewhere
/closer/?

We could go back to the days I still remember where you could only get apples
and pears in season. International shipping means we can now enjoy them and
lots of other foods year round.

Tony

in message <[email hidden]>, gavin

(') said:

Truck drivers are not the middle classes. The trucks they drive, which
are
becoming increasingly expensive to operate, are the arteries of the
economy. The costs of the additional truck drivers required by the
Working Time Directive and increased fuel costs are simply passed on
to us all - whether you buy your potatoes at Lidl or Sainsbury.

But not if you get them from your local farm.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Morning had broken, and we had run out of gas for the welding torch.

in message <[email hidden]>, Tony Raven

(') said:

"Daniel Barlow" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Among the other fruits in the supermarket near my office are apples
from the USA and pears from New Zealand. Perhaps the additional
transport costs could be reduced by sourcing these items somewhere
/closer/?

We could go back to the days I still remember where you could only get
apples
and pears in season. International shipping means we can now enjoy
them and lots of other foods year round.

....and they taste of nothing. If you're going to have flavourless food,
there's no need to import it from the other end of the earth.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

See one nuclear war, you've seen them all.

you know? said:

Michael MacClancy said:

This is a major contrast with Germany, where people routinely turn off
their engines when waiting. At level crossings there are often signs
instructing you to turn off your engine.

Ditto Sweden, IIRC.

There's some in Crawley too. "Reduce Pollution" it says, and a cartoon
car belching fumes. I keep meaning to complete the slogan with a well
placed "get on yer bike"

Tim

In article <[email hidden]>,

gavin said:

"Nick Kew" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Only when the
middle classes start to think about what they're doing (as opposed to
moan about what everyone else is doing) will we cease to be marginalised.

Quoted message said:

Truck drivers are not the middle classes. The trucks they drive, which are
becoming increasingly expensive to operate, are the arteries of the
economy.

Indeed.

Follow the link in my .sig. It's actually a page about what the 'net
can do for us. OK, I'll quote from it here:

"My dream of the Internet is of a society liberated from the constraints
of geography. The regular centralised office job of the 19th and 20th
centuries should pass into history as the job moves primarily to the home,
or to small local centres equipped with IT infrastructure. Our overburdened
transport systems will be freed up for those who really need them -
like manual workers and freight transport - and leisure use."

Yep. Freight transport is an entirely legitimate use of the roads.

Quoted message said:

The costs of the additional truck drivers required by the Working
Time Directive and increased fuel costs are simply passed on to us all -
whether you buy your potatoes at Lidl or Sainsbury.

Of course. Ask any of the freight industry bodies about the cost of
congestion caused by the car culture, and offset any reductions in
that against their fuel costs.

Oh, and Tescos may be cheaper than my local shops, but Tescos + the cost
of a car to get there certainly isn't. Tescos + the cost of cycling
there probably is (certainly is if we consider only the marginal cost of
cycling there) - which is fine for me but not for my elderly neighbours.

--
Nick Kew

Nick's manifesto: http://www.htmlhelp.com/~nick/

Daniel Barlow said:

gavin said:

Truck drivers are not the middle classes. The trucks they drive, which are
becoming increasingly expensive to operate, are the arteries of the
economy. The costs of the additional truck drivers required by the Working
Time Directive and increased fuel costs are simply passed on to us all -
whether you buy your potatoes at Lidl or Sainsbury.

Among the other fruits in the supermarket near my office are apples
from the USA and pears from New Zealand. Perhaps the additional
transport costs could be reduced by sourcing these items somewhere
/closer/?

It wouldn't suprise me if the cost of moving them from the dock to the
shop was as much or more than the cost of moving them on a boat from
New Zealand to the dock.

--
Trevor Barton

In news:[email hidden],
Nick Kew <[email hidden]> typed:

Quoted message said:

Follow the link in my .sig. It's actually a page about what the 'net
can do for us.

Entirely tangentially, and purely out of interest, will you be
re-registering webthing.com as webÞing.com now that it's possible. (That's
with a thorn, in case my server decides to trim the 8 bit bit)

A

On Sun, 16 May 2004 19:35:01 +0100, "Just zis Guy, you know?"
<[email hidden]> wrote (more or less):

Quoted message said:

On Sun, 16 May 2004 16:36:10 +0100, "Simon Mason"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

What? In your Volvo? ;-)

Oh yes, I did drive once this week, I'd forgotten.

I'm going to drive this weekend! (Fourth car hire of the year)

Mind you, I am going to drive to Millport for a families' cycling
weekend holiday on Cumbrae...

--
Cheers,
Euan
Gawnsoft: http://www.gawnsoft.co.sr
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On Mon, 17 May 2004 18:53:30 +0000 (UTC), "al_Mossah"
<[email hidden]> wrote (more or less):

Quoted message said:

Mothers sharing the school run when they live as far as 100m apart from each
other...

Mothers stopping school-running when they live only 5 mins walk from
the school.

Quoted message said:

Supermarkets not shipping Scottish mineral water to Devon, and Welsh water
to East Anglia
An average of more than 1.0000001 person per car in the rush-hours
People in their gas-guzzling FYFWDs (you work it out) choosing to down-grade
to a vehicle which consumes a litre in more than 4 miles
People driving at economical speeds (i.e. well, less than 90mph anyway.)

Judging from all the mumies running their dears to the local schools today,
I conclude that we're not there yet, so Prudent Gordon can afford to lob a
few more pence per litre. Roll on the blockades!

Peter.

--
Cheers,
Euan
Gawnsoft: http://www.gawnsoft.co.sr
Symbian/Epoc wiki: http://html.dnsalias.net:1122
Smalltalk links (harvested from comp.lang.smalltalk) http://html.dnsalias.net/gawnsoft/smalltalk

On Mon, 17 May 2004 20:04:00 +0100, "Tony Raven"
<[email hidden]> wrote (more or less):

Quoted message said:

"Pyromancer" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Arrghh - yes, that drives me up the wall! Whenever I know I'll be
stopped for more than a minute or so I switch the engine off (and if the
jam is on a slope, leave it off and roll slowly down using the
footbrake), but everyone else just seems to sit there, idling away,
engines turning over at 900-ish RPM, burning fuel to no purpose and
pumping out huge quantities of exhaust.

Air conditioning (esp. yesterday)? Rolling on the footbrake is fine but with
power assisted brakes and steering its not always a good idea to use them
without.

Of course air conditioning needs the glasshouse of the car closed.
Which means you can't convect out the solar radiation by letting a
breeze through.

And anyway why would you want to let the heat out by cracking a window
when there are ll these cars around you belching unecessary fumes into
teh air. Because they want to use their air con because if they had
to open there windows, they'd get all the fumes from...

--
Cheers,
Euan
Gawnsoft: http://www.gawnsoft.co.sr
Symbian/Epoc wiki: http://html.dnsalias.net:1122
Smalltalk links (harvested from comp.lang.smalltalk) http://html.dnsalias.net/gawnsoft/smalltalk