CRISIS AT THE PUMPS! 

(cue cool graphic and dramatic intro music)

Wow! A gas crisis! Something exciting is happening and, unlike the last two gas crisis, I'm actually getting to experience this one. Yeah, OK, I was in Korea for the first one (1973) and in the desert of Saudi Arabia for the second one (1990). 

I'm actually living in a really great place to experience something like this. Do you know that in England the price of gas is around 80 pence ($1.16) per liter? That's about $4.33 per gallon! What makes this truly horrible though, is the fact that the gas itself only costs about $1.77 per gallon. The rest is TAX! 

According to one news report, oil leaves OPEC countries like the United Arab Emirates at something like $28 per barrel, and comes into England at $35 per barrel. The people who need it most (truckers) protest this price gouging and further ripping off by the government by staging 5 MPH protest convoys along the major highways. In the meantime, panic buying depletes the gas supplies at the majority of the stations around the country forcing further panic buying into the food and necessities market.

Now, with all this going on, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has the unmitigated audacity to stand there on national TV and tell the country that he will NOT bow to these protestors and repeal the gas tax because this is NOT how a democracy works.

I've got news for you, Tony. The PEOPLE, which, incidentally, is what democracy is all about, are speaking to you in a rather loud voice. Now I'm no political scientist, but can someone tell me if the word democracy has a different definition if used in a constitutional monarchy? What is the country to do? Wait for you to schedule a parliamentary meeting then debate the issue for the next six months then schedule a vote? How long do you think a president would last if this sort of thing happened in America? OK...any president except the Teflon one we have now.  

So, the truckers today announced that they will stop the blockade and give the government a chance to rectify the situation. This was a very carefully choreographed game of brinkmanship skillfully played out by the protestors. They KNEW how delicate the balance is when it comes to public opinion. Take it to the edge but DON'T let people really suffer. Inconvenience is one thing but suffering could sway public opinion over to the other side just to end the crisis. Frankly, I think that is precisely what the government was holding out for. 

Anyway...

We are feeling the "inconvenience" of all this. My wife went to the gas station at one of the US airbases in the area to top off her gas tank. When she got there she found that gas is being rationed to a maximum of $10 worth and only if you were at a half tank or less. Well, she was dead center at half a tank when she pulled in. The gas pump Gestapo lady checked her fuel gauge and declared that my wife had over a half tank and could not get gas. 

If any of you have ever been on the receiving end of my wife's wrath, you KNOW that it is not a good place to be! Because of the crisis, the base support wing at RAF Mildenhall sent out a Brigadier General to monitor the situation. He, unfortunately, was caught up in the blast radius of my wife's fury. When last seen, he was wandering away muttering something about wishing he had never left the Pentagon. My wife was allowed to purchase some gas.

I suppose I will be glad when this finally blows over. But in the meantime, if you will excuse me, I feel a sudden panicky urge to go to the store for a case of scotch. 

Mike