What it has got to do with the tax rate for the rich is very simple. One reason that has been lowered, so we are told, is in order to entice the rich to stay here. They are vital to our economy apparently and we must not scare them off.

Well clearly the tanker drivers are also vital to the economy but unlike the rich who get the carrot of a tax break they are facing the stick of worse terms and conditions including the increasing casualisation of their employment.

So the rich get a carrot of a tax break and the workers a stick? And you do not get why people link the two?

Landlords can only up the rent if someone is prepared to pay it? that is the economic reality?

Perhaps the reality is we have had it too good for too long and things are just returning to the status quo?

There are host of ways our "mixed economy" can grow - its a myth that we don't manufacture things in this country - you look in any sizeable town/city and you find a host of small companies making things.

In correct IMO - improved processes will gain efficiency - if someone developed a faster way of getting the petrol out of the tanker into the well at the station, improved route planning, perhaps delivering through the night so the drivers don't spend much of their time in gridlocked cities etc. No one should have to break the law to do their job but to suggest the current methodology cannot be improved is preposterous. I bet if you any of the formula 1 teams the tasks of improving the process it would be vastly different to what it is now.

Also have Unite the barmiest union around involved will hinder this no end.

Stick to paper, logistics, especially the distribution of hazardous fluids, is certainly beyond your grasp

Well you could cut out things like having to earth the vehicle properly before you start the delivery, that would save five minutes at least.

The current methodology has been developed over a period of time purely with safety in mind and is now being undermined with profits in mind, some of us are not surprised.

Those people are not panic buying.

They are following Government Minister guidelines.

A lowering of the tax rate for the highest earners (Who STILL pay SIGNIFICANTLY more of their income in taxes than everyone else) is a GOVERNMENT move. These workers having changes made to their employment conditions is a move by a PRIVATE COMPANY.

So anyone linking the two is either stupid or very bitter about the current political situation.

Quite, they were stupid in their recommendations. However, the few people amongst the masses that can actually read have noticed that the strike has to have 7 days notice and they aren't even discussing the issue further until Monday. So we're 11 days away from a possible strike.

The winners in this? HMRC and the petrol companies. Both laughing heartily at the foolish behaviour.

The easiest way for the fuel delivery companies to improve their efficiency is to have a smaller delivery window and reduce the time allowed for the journey.

I wonder how many people know that it only takes the small difference of 3 mph in the speed of a laden fuel tanker, which is critical in it negotiating a roundabout safely, or rolling over on top of you?

A fact, I suspect many motorists are blissfully unaware of.....

The oil companies used to control fuel supplies from well to tank. Then someone looked at the margins of each of the separate operations and decided that they were too low in refining and distribution. These elements of the operation were hived off to contractors and now we see the results.

Lowering of safety standards led directly to the Buncefield refinery disaster.

The low margins in refining led to Petroplus going bankrupt and the potential loss of the Coryton refinery from the UK capacity

The distribution element is under similar pressure to squeeze ever more from less and could lead to similar results, albeit on a smaller scale.

And all the right-wing can do is condemn the unions.

QT last night was farcical, Sarah Tether could have done worse than don a Girl Guides outfit, so clueless was she about what was happening. Coupled to Anna Soubry's fawning defence of all things Cameron and Douglas Alexander's failure to press home any meaningful points, I was glad that Alexei Sayle and Simon Jenkins were on the panel, they were the only ones speaking any sense.

rlShe was only following Francis Maude's suggestionrl

I'm sure even the most staunch anti-Conservative like yourself can see that she is to blame for this. Why on earth was she 'decanting' it in the kitchen with the hob on? What an absolute fool.

How had her daughter ran out of fuel despite the pumps not being dry and despite there not being a petrol crisis yet is another good question.

But still, as with so many in the compensation culture we live in, she'll no doubt try to blame her stupidity on Maude and she'll no doubt be able to wrap her 40% burns in cash from her payout.

Sounds like a stupid thing to do but how many people know that its not the liquid that burns but the fumes, not many I'd suggest.

When I worked in the electrical contracting industry, even back in the olden days, installations within the area covered by the petrol station canopy was highly specialised work and your normal bog-standard electrical contractor (like the company I worked for) was only allowed to take the power supply up to the switchgear outside of the canopy area.

Its probably the most volatile substance that "normal" people will ever handle and yet we do it so blithely without questioning what could go wrong.

Cobblers. There is a shortage of affordable housing. Supply and demand is basic economics. And those communist paradises of France and Germany manage to have regulation of private landlords, along with pretty much every other European nation. God, how they' all suffering as a result.



Ah yes. The rich just get richer and the poor get poorer. Have you practised your own grovelling yet or are you hoping it won't affect you much, so you can get away with talking about how others should suffer - just as long as it isn't you?

So effectively you think it's okay for, say, situations of people unable to afford housing - three families living in a the-bed house, for instance? Anything more - 'oh, we had it too good'. Although I'll bet you don't speak from anything like such a position but are only happy for it to happen to others.



Nobody has claimed that we make nothing.

The reality, however, is that approximately 75% of our economy is based on the service sector. Shopping is now so important that quarterly retail figures are headline news.

Napoleon must be spinning in his grave with sheer laughter.

We have to be careful when we compare how many people are employed in manufacturing now against years gone by.
For example, back then, if you worked in the canteen or security or payroll etc in an engineering works, you were counted as being in manufacturing.
That and the subsequent outsourcing of non-core skills skews the comparison.