Sorry, Mr Cameron, but £1.30 a litre is just too much

A MAN I interviewed for a piece in last week's Champion was preaching to the converted. His message? That the price you're paying at the pumps has GOT to come down.

I've known for ages that the cost of petrol and diesel has been ridiculous bordering on extortionate, but after a friendly natter with Mike Heybourne, a man whose business is getting people to where they want to go, I can't hold my breath on this one any longer. Something's really got to be done about the price of fuel at the moment.

If you're older than, say, ten, you might remember that way back in the year 2000, a band of truckers and cabbies got very cross with the price of diesel, blockaded the nation's fuel depots and swiftly brought the nation to a halt. Their beef was that a litre of diesel cost 85p. Now, a decade on, it's nudging £1.40.

Lots of people I've spoken to reckon it's only a matter of time before the blockades and go-slows are back, but I honestly don't think they'll make much difference ten years later. Those protests, and the ones against the war in Iraq and rises in tuition fees, let Governments know that people were cross. But they still went ahead with their plans anyway.

David Cameron's “fuel stabiliser”, which lowers duty as oil prices go up, and vice versa? I wouldn't hold your breath on this one, especially after Danny Alexander, a fellow member of the Coalition, said the Government wouldn't “sacrifice income willy nilly” to help motorists already being made poorer by a string of cuts they've made elsewhere.

Nor do I think the Government's preferred alternative - the long line of electric cars being launched this year - is any good, partly because the majority of the UK's charging points are in London and partly because electric cars are slow, expensive and stupid. Until I can get in one and drive it to North Wales, like I did with the cars in last week's Champion column, I'll still need a normal car - hybrid or not, they still have to burn things that died millions of years ago - anyway.

A normal car, I'll remind Dave Cameron next time I pass him riding his bike with ministerial Jag in tow, is really expensive to run at £1.30 a litre.