That penny off petrol...

Let's see if we can cut through the bullshit about petrol duty by taking an objective look at the pros and cons of Boy George's duty cut...

There's been a lot of hoo-hah about petrol stations putting up the cost of fuel on Wednesday morning just so they could put it down again in the afternoon and pocket the penny a litre. The retailers quite reasonably say that the 1p cut in duty won't actually be passed on untill they get their next delivery, because they already paid the 1p on the stock in their tanks. This is a perfectly reasonable argument.

However, this should mean that over the next few days prices start to come down. Call me a cycnic, but I will believe it when I see it.

And whilst we are on this subject, there is VAT on this duty at 20% so we should see prices go down by 1.2p per litre. Anyone like to place a bet on how many petrol stations will be displaying .7 instead of .9 at the end of their prices? Do let me know if you spot one.

Osbourne says he has cut duty by 6p a litre. Well sorry, George, but that's rubbish. You cannot claim that cancelling Labour's extra penny and not implementing the 4p escalator - for which, incidentally, the statutory requirement was abolished many years ago - is a cut. On that basis, I've cut the sale price of my car by £1,000 because I was going to ask £1,000 more. If you haven't added it yet, then not adding it is a fair point, but claiming it as a cut is arrant nonsense.

The retailers claim that the increase Wednesday morning was a coincidence because wholesale prices had risen anyway. I don't buy that. It's profiteering. It's treating us as mugs. Just like the energy companies, petrol retailers are quick to increase prices when the costs go up and slow to drop them when the costs go down. We fall for it every time because, frankly, we have no choice.

But with petrol we do. Some time ago there was a campaign to boycott the largest suppliers and force them to lower their prices. I think this is a good idea. Let's pick one - say, BP - and see what happens when their forecourts are empty.

I'd like to think this would work, but I expect that the great British public will do what they always do - go down the pub for a pint and a good moan...