Fuel duty is way too high

Depending on where I have lived and worked from time to time I have used Public Transport, sometimes for years on end. Just that I now live in the country and my latest job means I have to use the car. I have no problem using buses and still do occasionally. The cost has increased but the practicality for me, in effect, means there is NO bus service now. It is a stupid argument to say that because it is theoretically possible to use public transport to travel to work I should do so, even though it will take 2 hours to go one way against half an hour in the car.
There is only one way to cease car use and that's to ban all private and commercial (but not emergency services) car use. So that we're all in the same boat. Otherwise people, like the rich, would assume such a situation would not apply to them and attempt to buy their way out of this responsibility.
I agree that we can no longer justify cars with engine sizes over 3, or even 2, litres. It ought to be mandatory for 4x4 vehicles to have only diesel engines, if we really have to have them at all.

How do you know that public transport is no good if you drive your car everywhere?
Why dont you invest in a better argument. The answer to global warming is easy - dont tax large vehicles, just stop retailers selling them. But of course Mr Brown wont do this when he drives one himself.

Why not INCREASE fuel duty?....and do away with car tax et al.
The rise could be cost neutral if you drive say 8Kmiles per year. Then you pay as you pollute.
It's silly to tax people who buy a car and don't use it much (it encourages use in fact). So have yer gas guzzler cheap BUT you drive, you pollute, you pay. Moreover the tax dodgers are largely dealt with too and without expensive enforcement.
Just in case..the MOT/insurance issue of no tax disc is easily deat with too.
Point is: if we want green and fair road charges..put it on fuel, use less pay less etc.

There will come a day when petrol will have given way to some other form of fuel, (e.g hydrogen) that won't pollute as much and CO2 will be reduced. The government of the day will have to tax this new fuel instead otherwise it will lose income.
The problem is how the government spends the fuel duty. This Government promised an "integrated Transport system, "(John Prescott) 10 years ago. It has comprehensively failed to build such a thing. Without it we will have a crisis, it's more a case of when, not if.
The fuel price is bad enough on its own, but the price increases of everything are currently unmanageable for me.
I would love to get rid of my car and have no need of it, it would save a packet. But public transport in Britain is so poor it's almost third World!

In 1974 the price of petrol shot up from 8p a litre to 17p a litre. Adjusting for inflation this was pretty expensive for the time. This prompted a huge public debate on the future of motoring and all the forecasters told us that the future would be smaller engined, sleek, lightweight, town cars that would do sixty miles to the gallon. But what do we have on the road today? Gas guzzling 4X4s that do less than 20 m.p.g. and aren't even streamlined to reduce drag. By the way, the price of petrol hasn't gone up in real terms since 1983 despite all the recent hype, although we are running out of oil.

Car Crusher, the hundreds of other expenses does not come to the £1,500 in lost salary.

If you think cars should be crushed then thats fine but next time you get a cab, get a lift from a friend or take a bus with only 2 other people on it, think about your crushing argument again. As with most green defenders you're quite happy to show a blind eye when a bit of CO2 use suits you.

With the rising car tax and then fuel going up even more I've bit the bullet and sold my car. I have a car to use still but share it and the costs involved. The cost of living is getting beyond a joke for a rising number of people and Labour have betrayed their core support base with their anti-working class implementations. I feel no pride and don't have the desire to work harder to make a life here now.

Car crusher - you obviously either don't have a car, a job, or are too old and entitled to a free bus pass - paid for by the rest of us

Mc£5perGallon VAT is not a Luxury tax, but a simple sales tax on everything.

You pay fuel duty because we don't want you using too much. It pollutes.

Your car should be crushed.

Your analysis is all wrong. You have not taken into account a hundred other expenses with running your car. It should be crushed.

V.A.T. - This was supposed to be a luxury tax. However, since when was it called a luxury to pay for Fuel Duty has the vat is applied to that as well, I.e you pay 9p of that vat on just the fuel duty alone.

As for going green(er, it still needs fuel to run a train) 10 mile drive to work and back, about £15 a week in petrol, same journey in train (I can walk to both stations in 5 minutes) about £18 before last price hike and it takes 45 minutes (and thats using the express servcie) instead of 35 minutes door to door in the car (East Kilbride to Glasgow Central) therefore nearly 2 hours a week more in traveling time so add 2 hours salary to the £3 already saved.

This half a could've been a govt. holds not one ounce of integrity to the people it misgoverns.

When are they going to step in, stop, that's enough on the fuel? I suppose they'll step in once the companies have gone under.

This goes not just for fuel but for everything. When I go and pay the car tax, I'll take off my shirt, hand it to the Post Office clerk and ask her to send onto the PM, the one I did not vote for.

The fact that fuel duty is taken from an already heavily taxed wage. It seems the harder you work the more you get taken to the cleaners by the government. If you ever sit down and work out exactly how much of your annual salary goes to the government you'll be amazed and disgusted. The company I work for has a business in Perth Australia I've been trying like mad to get a job out there.

They dont call it rip off Britain for nothing, the government wont stop the extortion on any prices while they are getting a big fat cut of the high street prices.