Petrol prices!!

A hot topic of conversation at the moment is inflation, and in particular the spiralling cost of petrol and diesel in the UK. Car drivers are quietly seething while they watch petrol prices rise steadily beyond the £1.10 a litre mark. Diesel is at £1.20 a litre and rising, despite the European average being just 60p. The Chancellor seems intent on pressing ahead with 2p-per-litre tax increases with each passing budget, despite taxation making up nearly 70% of the cost of a litre of petrol. Meanwhile BP have announced that their annual profits are up 48%. The short-term forecast is grim: expect to pay £1.50 per litre of petrol within the next four months, almost £7 a gallon.
Apart from a gently increasing tax burden, the main reason for the escalating prices it that crude oil is at an all-time high, having been at $24 a barrel in September 2000, the events of 9-11 and beyond have pushed the price to around the $120 mark.

The economic impact on UK businesses is quite severe. Today 65 haulage lorries converged on Downing Street to protest at the price of diesel fuel, which has increased 30% in the last year, thus taking the average weekly fuel bill per lorry to around the £1,000 mark. Try being competitive on price against European rivals who pay 50% less for their diesel - many companies are getting seriously worried.

So, we have a problem. What is the Government doing about it? Nothing.
Why? Well apparently, it's good for "the environment" to charge people more for their fuel. I see! So by charging more, people will use their cars less? Sadly, no. We won't all suddenly hop on buses, swap our petrol cars for diesels, or hybrids, or use the train more (because average annual fare increases of 8% aren't tempting either). In the same way that we're not all cancelling our holidays now that we have to pay an environmental charge for our aeroplane fuel. People will go on with their usual behaviour patterns, bite the bullet, and pay more for the same product - as simple as that. We'll all be getting a lot poorer, with the average UK weekly pay up just 2.9% in the last year, salaries cannot hope to compete with the current price rises.

If the Government was serious about helping out not only their citizens, but also their own economy, then they might consider cutting some of the heavy tax burden on petrol and diesel. Before a rampant Green party member accosts me with a wet lettuce, I'd like to point out that the environmental benefits of the increased fuel taxation are negligible - carbon emissions from privately owned cars are set to fall by just 1% by 2010 as a direct result of taxation.
It is interesting to speculate about the government's aims apropos taxation on transport. Are they perhaps working towards a less mobile population - one that no longer goes away for short breaks, or uses their cars so often? Are they aiming to move even more people out of the countryside and into towns and cities, by imposing crippling taxes on the off-road vehicles favoured (and needed) by farmers and those living in rural communities? Or are they merely flailing wildly, trying to get cash from anyone who can pay? Given the recent decision to scrap the 10p tax band, I would suggest that the latter is true - they're short of money, and are tightening their belts the only way they know how. A small increase on the higher tax band might bring in some of the money they need to plug the ever increasing national debt.

I wonder what Gordon Brown is saving up for? An electoral "Treasure Chest" perhaps, to curry favour with the masses? If he doesn't act soon, I fear he'll have more than just financial problems on his plate.

Useless information

I just turned my home PC on for the first time in a week, to be confronted with a succession of utterly useless messages. If there are any usability experts reading this, then please, please, please do something about it! Clicking 'ok', 'cancel' or the little x button is just downright annoying. Software should be effortless, not irritating! Here's what I had:

- STEAM was unable to connect to the Internet.
- Successfully connected to wireless network.
- Java update available.
- Java update available (again - why tell me twice? Why not just download the bloody thing and stop hassling me?)
- The following AVG components are in error state.
- Downloading AVG updates, please wait.
- Successfully installed AVG updates.
- The following AVG components are in error state (what, still?!)
- There are new Windows updates available, click here to download them.
- There are usused icons on your desktop.
- STEAM successfully connected.

That's twelve clicks to get rid of messages I didn't need to read. Hardly a great user experience, but then as we live in an age where we're constantly bombarded with utterly useless information, it makes sense that my PC would join in. One day, the UI experts will figure out that they only need to display a message box when something genuinely needs the user's attention.