The only example of this working that I can think of is the Poll Tax. That was an unfair tax based around a mistaken hypothesis - the petrol issue is totally different.
It is a combination of factors both national and international - I would ask you to consider that while our esteemed representatives insist on fighting a war thousands of miles away on two fronts, the cost of fuel will continue to rise in order to fill the shortfall in treasury coffers that operations continue to cost.
You only have to look around you to smell the coffee in terms of money trying to be saved and collected - no backdated rises for public servants - shortfalls in equipment for soldiers - postcode lotteries in hospitals - English/Scottish postcode lotteries in education etc.
The questions we need to ask ourselves are somewhat more fundamental then the simple arguments posed by the hauliers. We,as a popultion, need to consider whether we are prepared to say enough is enough, we need to be prepared to say, on mass, that we cannot go to work, that we cannot go shopping, that we cannot pay our mortgages, that we cannot service our debts.
And we won't, which makes the whole notion of the protest somewhat tribal and representative of a minority section of road users, namely the truckers. If the 'powers that be' can marginalise the truckers on that basis, and they will, then the truckers are fighting a lost cause, the government will come in and divide and conquer. This protest will go that way.
Waste of time and effort.
In as much as I want a number of things to happen in this country on any number of issues such as taxation, domestic/international policy, law and order etc, my opportunity to influence is polling day and if a few more of us turned out and took an interest in the world around us then we would have the representation we deserve in my opinion. When those self appointed busybody cretins turn up at your house every few years to 'count upon your support' - make the buggers work for it - bend their slimey ears and tell them what life is like for you stuck on a two hour commute on roads barely big enough for the traffic at a cost in fuel that makes a real dent in your monthly income for a salary that barely covers your outgoings.
Happy Christmas.
