The Telegraph a running a campaign with a petition to get the 2p price rise scheduled for October on fuels stopped, and to take actions to slow the rate that fuel prices are increasing. As you’ll have seen by my previous posts fuel costs are increasing at whole percentage points per month (rather than per year) at the moment. PetrolPrices.com have a range of figures reporting fuel prices as high as £1.37 per litre in parts of the country. Although the principal to slowly increase taxation on fuel to help fund public transport and encourage green activity maybe fun, the current rate of change is starting to make a notable impact on inflation, sufficiently so that it has the Mervyn King the head of the Bank of England has identified it as a factor on any number of occasions now.

The campaign includes a petition here which you may wish to sign.

del.icio.us tags: fuel, petrolPrices.com, deisel, prices, inflation, petrol, Telegraph, petition

A new graph showing April’s fuel prices is here …

The figures show that in the last month prices have jumped %1.3 on average for petrol and 3.5% on a month on month calculation this is on top of last month’s 2.9% and 5.4% respectively. If fuel prices are to climb in step with inflation (suggested to be 2.5% p.a.) we should be seeing monthly changes in the order of 0.2%. The question is, how long before this kind of fuel price acceleration is going to trigger inflation in the cost of necessary products such as food.

del.icio.us tags: fuel, prices, inflation, statistics

Camping the Monster way – folding chair fitted with water resistant speakers, amplifier in a pouch at the back of the chair, cup holders the lot.  Maplins for £15 (~$30).

Robin Williams in finest form ends up ‘hijacking’ a BBC debate with a bit of stand up comedy.  The good thing is the Beeb kindly kept the footage and posted it on their site – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7325278.stm

The fuel prices graph has been updated with the March figures. So the graph now looks like:

The raw data in an excel spreadsheet raw data

del.icio.us tags: Fuel, pricing, AAC, PetrolPrices.com, cost, motoring, petrol, diesel, car

Various press organisations (including Wired.com here) that Sony BMG have been found to have a substantial level of pirated software within the organisation.  If this is the case then they seriously need to get their house into order before they continue to support the RIAA’s pursuit of downloaders.  What is almost as bad is the article indicates that Sony/BMG asked the press to keep quiet as well.

It is kind of ironic that the record company’s parent Sony invest so much in trying to prevent the very thing that appears to have happened here.

With the government backing down on the 2p (~$0.04) per litre fuel increase in the last budget, and the feeling that fuel prices seem to be continuously and rapidly climbing, I decided I’d like to see a graph of the price changes. Thanks to the folks at PetrolPrices.com I’ve got a set of figures (from the AA) that have allowed me to build a graph.

The figures are a lot more comprehensive than I have currently made use of. If I get time to build something richer then I’ll post that. If there is any interest then I’ll make the spreadsheet available.

del.icio.us tags: Fuel, pricing, AAC, PetrolPrices.com, cost, motoring, petrol, diesel, car