Government '“ give back your windfall

The chances are you will give some to your family and friends, helping them with mortgages, perhaps a holiday.

I doubt whether many would just keep the lot '“ unless they are very, very selfish.

Now, let's look at the recent massive windfall the government gets from the ever-rising price of fuel at the pumps.

In January last year, the price of a litre of petrol was around 85p. Now it's 1.15 and rising. There are guestimates that it will be 1.50 by the end of summer.

Every time the price of petrol and diesel goes up, the government rakes in more money, on duty and then VAT on top.

We're not talking millions here, we're talking billions.

That is money that the darling Chancellor wasn't budgeting for '“ it's a real windfall, just like you and I winning the lottery.

But like the selfish person keeping all that windfall to himself, the government seem hell-bent on doing the same, and they're being as reluctant as they can possibly be in freezing the 2p extra in duty planned in October, and the re-shuffle in Excise duty planned on more polluting vehicles.

There is no doubt that petrol and diesel price rises are having a very serious impact on people's spending power in the UK.

I think it is sad that despite fuel prices going up almost daily, people are so reliant on their cars that driving is the last thing they will give up.

There is evidence that people are cutting down on other things '“ like going out to restaurants and bars, going to the cinema, spending less at the shops, etc., everything other than walking or cycling more!

And fuel price rises puts more pressure on everything we buy because of higher distriubution costs.

And that, in the longer term, is so worrying because as these outlets shed staff, or, at worse, fold, unemployment will rise.

Action is needed, right now, to cushion these fuel price increases. There is no reason why the government cannot use its windfall to reduce its tax rates per litre, so that it can knock off a few pence at the pumps.

This is not caving in to pressure (like the 10p tax fiasco), it's using common sense. Where this government is going so badly wrong is its total intransigence, acting only when it is forced to.

How much more respect it would get if it become proactive in matters so important to people's pockets.

Ministers say they are constantly listening to what the public are saying. How much have people got to shout (or yell) before these politicians will really hear, and better still, act?

Or are they going to keep fiddling while Britain burns, or rather more people get their fingers burned at the pumps?

Of course, there is the counter argument favoured by environmentalists, that the more you reduce fuel prices, the more people use and the more CO2 is pumped into the atmosphere.

Are ministers so worried about the wrath of the environmental lobby they are reluctant to act, blaming everyone else about the high price of oil and hoping the problem will just go away?

It really is no point in just talking to the bosses of oil companies as if they can wave a magic wand and pring prices down, when by far the biggest contributor to sky-high prices at the pumps is the government's own imposed tax.

The way to push the environmental argument is through excise duty '“ taxing higher and higher the most polluting vehicles and using the revenue to drive research and production of environmentally-friendly vehicles.

Government con tricks

You know how good the government is in camoflaging facts '“ like creating alternative measures of calculating inflation, producing a lower figure to try to convince us that we're better off than we actually are?

The government has tried to convince us that knifes are used in about eight per cent of violent incidents (according to the British Crime Survey) a figure which hasn't increased in the last decade.

However, that figure does not include the under-16s and, surprise, surprise, knife crime is involving many kids under 16.

There is a worrying trend in Britain, particularly in deprived areas, for young people to carry knives for protection and also because it gives them a sense of power.

And the frightening thing is that they have little hesitation in using them.

Build more prisons, dont release prisoners early

The government is at it again '“ their answer to prison overcrowding is to release prisoners early.

They try to re-assure us that no violent criminals or those convicted of sex crimes will be released early.

But it gives me great confidence to learn that we will have more burglars, thieves, drug trafficers and other trash on the streets than would be the case than if we locked them up and kept them locked up.