Recently it decided to jack up prices of crude again andmotorists are expected to start begin footing the bill

Recently it decided to jack up prices of crude again, andmotorists are expected to start begin footing the bill in August, as increases take two to three months to feed through.Sainsbury’s, which sells6.5 per cent of the petrol on sale in Britain, says crude prices have risen from $23 to more than $31 since March.Motoring organisations point out that there is another villain of the piece in the form of Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In Britain, 84 per cent of the price of petrol is made up of fuel duty and value added tax – far higher than in most other countries. In Ireland, the average price of unleaded petrol is 53p a litre, in Spain it is 52p, Germany 61p and France 69p. The cost in the United States is about 27p.The Chancellor, a non-driver, was recently exposed over his ignorance of the cost of fuel.

Quizzed in the Commons by the Tory MP John Redwood about the cost of a litre of fuel, Mr Brown was unable to answer. His aides argued, however, that it would be even higher if the Chancellor had not abolished the “fuel duty escalator” – a concept which originated at the Kyoto summit on the environment to combat greenhouse gas emissions.The policy of increasing tax by 6 per cent plus inflation was scrapped and replaced with annual rises in line with the retail price index. However, it has been calculated that for every tanker with a 38,000-litre load worth £31,904, the Treasury creams off £27,438.The price of petrol also varies considerably throughout Britain. On urban A roads where competition is tough and throughput is high, motorists pay about 82p a litre, according to Keith Greenhead, director of the fuel division at PHH, Britain’s biggest fleet car management company.

In remote rural areas, however, where small amounts of fuel are sold and delivery costs are high, motorists will be pay about 92p a litre.Mr Greenhead said there was no reason why the Government could not cut tax on petrol before the next Budget.Richard Freeman of the AA added: “It would be different if a lot of this money derived from taxation was spent on the transport system so that we had shiny new trains and great bus services. But the truth is we’ve got abysmal public transport.”Meanwhile Opec is due to meet next week to decide how much more is to be extracted from motorists’ pockets.. Tony Blair has been warned by strategists that he should stop pandering to middle Britain and support policies that benefit voters from all backgrounds. Tony Blair has been warned by strategists that he should stop pandering to middle Britain and support policies that benefit voters from all backgrounds.
Recent focus group polling has shown that women in particular are concerned about a range of similar issues such as health, education and crime, whatever their social and economic situation.

Voters from less privileged backgrounds do not tend to have different priorities but are likely to feel their problems more strongly.The evidence will serve to weaken the case of Government critics such as Peter Kilfoyle and Mark Fisher who have argued that the Government should concentrate more on its heartlands vote.While men are more likely to give the Government the benefit of the doubt, women are growing increasingly impatient with the Government’s failure to deliver. Strategists for both main parties regard women voters as crucial in the next general election.Labour worked hard in the last general election to overcome the so-called “gender gap” which meant that women traditionally supported the Conservative Party.While Labour, buoyed by a record number of 101 women MPs, closed that gap to 2 per cent, in 1997 there is growing concern that women are disillusioned by the Government. Although they still regard Tony Blair as their champion, female voters are concerned about the “disappearance” of prominent women such as Mo Mowlam from the frontline of politics.A Fabian Society pamphlet by Harriet Harman and Deborah Mattinson will set out the case for greater female representation in politics.. Paul Sykes’ widely publicised rapprochement with the Tories appeared to collapse last night after Conservative Central Office accused him of being a “media junkie” who had never given a penny to the party.

Paul Sykes’ widely publicised rapprochement with the Tories appeared to collapse last night after Conservative Central Office accused him of being a “media junkie” who had never given a penny to the party.
In a bitter attack on the Eurosceptic millionaire, senior party sources said that they neither wanted nor needed his cash and would not be dictated to on policy.Mr Sykes revealed last week that he was considering rejoining the Tories after William Hague offered to hold a referendum on any further handover of powers to Brussels.The Yorkshire-born businessman, who had founded the anti-euro Democracy Movement, had quit the party in the 1990s to protest at John Major’s “wait and see” policy on a single currency.His predicted return to the fold was seized on by Tony Blair as evidence that the party had swung far to the right.But last night, sources stressed that Mr Hague had agreed nothing with Mr Sykes and had had no part in his announcement that he was back on board with the Conservatives. “Our policies on Europe are settled, they are not up for negotiation or sale. We have half a million people signing up to our ‘Keep the Pound’ campaign and they are just as important as Mr Sykes,” a central office official said. “We don’t like someone trying to tell us how to run our policies.”Although Mr Sykes had donated some £2m to Eurosceptic MPs at the last general election, the party centrally had never received a donation, the official said “He’s never given us a cent This is all just spin The man’s a media junkie. We don’t need him or his money.”The sharp rebuff will come as a disappointment to John Redwood, the former opposition trade and industry spokesman, who has kept up links with Mr Sykes in recent months.. The leader of Britain’s biggest union has rounded on ministers, claiming they are pursing privatisation with even greater vigour than previous Tory governments. The leader of Britain’s biggest union has rounded on ministers, claiming they are pursing privatisation with even greater vigour than previous Tory governments.
Two thousand delegates at the annual conference of Unison listened politely to an “Old Labour” speech from the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, yesterday, in which he urged a crusade against the Conservatives, who he said wanted to privatise the NHS.