Revolution in England

[Gaidos, A.]

 Here in the states the news was your PM talking tough about not giving in
to thugs, that it would jeopardize the very structure of the government to
concede.
 I find this a very bad attitude considering that 90% support cutting the
taxes. Is your PM looking to be ousted by failing to enact the will of the
people?
 I'm afraid it would be no different here. Governments just don't want to
give up their strangle hold on revenue generation.
Anton

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-admin at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-admin at audifans.com]On
Behalf Of isham-research.freeserve.co.uk at pop.pol.net.uk
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2000 12:00 AM
To: ameer at snet.net; quattro at audifans.com
Subject: RE: Re: Revolution in England



> who's fighting who now? why are gas prices high in uk? is it truck
> driver protest or  are they protesting gas prices. Gas prices are high
> here in US, but they were $.25/gal higher just a few months ago.
> Truck drivers were protesting here a while ago when diesel went up
> more than premium gas.

Who's fighting whom?  Hard to tell, and I think this is one of the great
problems.  There is no identifiable body - association, union, etc. -
that seems to be in charge.

There have actually been two actions - a blockade of oil refinery depots
and a series of demonstrations out on the roads.  The disparity between
official reporting of both of these events and the eye-witness reports
reaching me (and I was actually caught up in one demonstration
personally for three hours) are strongly at variance.

The oil refinery blockades are said to have been implemented by a
'handful' of truck drivers blocking the exits of refinery depots.
People who've seen these events have told me that there was simply a
presence of trucks - no exits were at any time blocked, no placards were
waved, no violence offered, etc.  If anything, the major civil
disobedience involved was the tanker drivers themselves - far from being
blocked by the 'blockade', they were themselves an active part of the
demonstration.

Similarly, the rolling road blocks (a few trucks driving at 5mph,
according to the television news) were nothing of the kind.  My personal
faith in the integrity of the British Broadcasting Corporation is
shattered forever.  I was caught up in one on the M1 southbound at
Junction 21 on Wednesday - if that was a 'handful', then someone has
friggin' big hands!  About 10,000 to 12,000 trucks were involved -
when it became obvious that it was a demonstration, I and hundreds of
other car drivers moved over into the truck lanes (left and centre -
trucks are banned by law from the right lane) to show solidarity.
Although the right lane was free, almost no car drivers used it to
escape the jam.  The atmosphere is hard to describe - like a street
party without the beer and sausages.  Everyone was 100% behind the
truck drivers - most of them are entrepreneurs (owner-driver companies)
being forced to compete against european companies that pay GBP600
tax per year per vehicle when they pay GBP7000+ per year per vehicle.

Later that evening I watched the BBC national and local news.  Loads
of total _TRIVIA_ (real crap) and not a word about the UK's main road
artery being blocked in both directions for seven hours.  And I saw
the BBC's helicopter filming the whole thing ...

And - later the same evening - the coincidental release of a
Government-sponsored study showing that people dislike traffic jams
more than high fuel prices?  Get real, guys - we know SPIN when we
see it!

Consumer fuel supplies will be disrupted for another two weeks.  It
is _very_ hard to find a filling station with fuel, and average
queueing time is two hours.  Even so, almost no one is criticising the
action.  A television poll showed 98% support - even a telephone poll
with pretty heavily loaded questions showed less than 10% support for
the Government.  They are behaving as if the storm has abated - it has
not.

It has been said that the organisers have given the Government 60 days
in which to respond.  Early indications are that this response will
take some legal form rather than the form of a concession.  It is
hard for me to express how wrong I think this is - but my fear is that
this latest 'crisis' will pale into utter insignificance against the
next one, if the Government does not see sense.

--
 Phil Payne
 UK Audi quattro Owners Club
 Phone +44 7785 302803   Fax: +44 7785 309674

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