Mmm what to spend my penny on?

As has been widely reported, George Osborne in his beneficence chose to reduce duty on petrol by 1p per litre from 6pm on 23rd March. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/23/budget-fill-up-petrol-tanks

Thanks George, that saves me 50p every time I fill up. "Every little helps" as Tesco say in their advertisements. But talking of supermarkets George can I tell you something strange? On Monday evening at 10.30pm I drove past Asda Walmart in north Swindon and petrol was 129.9p per litre. On Tuesday morning, it was now 130.9 per litre. No doubt it is back to 129.9p per litre this morning. So where's my saving gone George?

I get the impression maths isn't your strong point George, but let me help you out here. If a bag of sweets costs 10p and the shopkeeper decides to put the price up overnight unexpectly by 1p (or at least after being given a nudge by the sweet manufacturer) how much will the sweets cost? That's right 11p. But if my kind Uncle George realises that the those right wingers at The Beano are breathing down his so decides to give me an extra 1p pocket money. And then the kindly shop keeper decides to put prices back to 10p. So that's nice.

But the trouble is George the bag of sweets still costs 10p. It hasn't reduced. And whereas in my example 1p in my pocket equates to a 10% increase in my pocket money sadly George 50p for each time I fill up my car doesn't amount to much. In fact given that the price this of petrol this morning is the same as it was on Monday evening it amounts to a big fat zero.

George. 0/10.

Now if you had really wanted to help out many thousands of motorists, including health visitors, district nurses, social workers and yes ministers of religion, you could have changed the 40p per mile tax allowance paid for people who use their private car for work purposes. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351681/Drivers-use-car-work-hit-2-000-bill.html That really would have put petrol in the tank of the UK economy.

Oh and one final thing George. You know you have just raised taxes on the oil industry. I've no problem with that. They can afford to pay. And it would be good to use that money to develop green technology perhaps. But one small flaw in your logic I think. The oil companies will just pass on the tax to the motorists.

It's hard this maths isn't it George? I bet you wished you stayed with your dad working as a painter and decorator now.