As fuel protests grow, how can the government tackle a summer of discontent?
The IndependentMotorway go-slows earlier this week, organised by the awkwardly named Fuel Price Stand Against Tax, didn’t have much of an immediate effect – the price of a litre remains stubbornly high – but they did prove one important point: even the most draconian laws, and the most agitated of home secretaries, are powerless in the face of mass protest on this scale. The fuel protests of 2000, for example, involved rolling road blocks and blockades outside oil refineries, and caused mass panic in the country – and, more to the point, in Tony Blair’s cabinet. This alliance of convenience – or coalition of chaos – could very quickly paralyse the UK’s transport network and leave the government in an impossible position: giving in to the fuel-price protesters would simply anger the green protesters, and vice versa. If a government looks exhausted and out of control of events – leaving aside the crippling political turmoil in which No 10 is currently immersed – it tends to lose power soon after.
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Fuel protests: Petrol hits another new record high of 191.5p as drivers block motorways
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