Petrol can it get to two pounds a litre?

I'm reading with some shock the story on the BBC website about a petrol station charging 199.9 pence for a litre of fuel. They say it's to stop panic buying during the tanker drivers strike, and help them conserve their stock - sounds like a plan to make some money at motorists expense.

Consider for a moment that at that price it's more than nine pounds for a UK gallon, so for our US cousins that's 7.56 UK pounds for a US gallon, or more than 14 US dollars for a US gallon of regular unleaded fuel. My three hundred miles a week to get to and from the office each day would increase from over fifty three pounds at current prices, to over ninety three pounds at 1.999 pence per litre. Maybe someone needs to increase my salary so that net it works out I take home an extra 2,000 pounds per year to cover getting to work. Though of course if fuel goes that far then so will all the other costs like energy and food for the family.

Another thought; if the UK government made some changes to employment law to make home working more the norm they could cut emissions from all those journeys, employees would be better off and more likely better motivated too. Of course the government would be up a creek with no paddle loosing all that revenue from the fuel taxes.

Perhaps the only thing good in this story is that I noticed that 199.9 is the most the sign on the garage forecourt can display, the first digit only has the space for a 1. No doubt that the government would step in with a grant for petrol retailers to revamp their signage should government tax increases push the price over the two pounds per litre mark.

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