Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

The average price of diesel in the UK has reached a record-breaking high of 199.18p a litre.

In cash terms, Britain has never paid more for the fuel that moves the supply chains of the country. Some pumps are at 200.9p. Some at 203.9p. A 55-litre tank is more than £112.

Petrol sits at 174.13p. A few years ago that number alone would have been a scandal in itself.

Since the end of February, diesel has risen 56.8p a litre, almost 40% in seven months. The same vehicle fuel tank that cost about £78 then now costs £109.55. Thirty-one pounds extra. Every fill. Same van. Same job. Same miles.

People blame the oil price. The oil price is real. It is not the whole story. Far from it.

Fuel duty is 52.95p a litre. VAT at 20% on a 199.18p litre is 33.20p. Together that is 86.15p of tax on every litre - 43% of the pump price.

Then comes the detail that should outrage every single motorist. VAT is levied on the duty as well as the fuel. The government slaps 52.95p of duty on the litre, then takes 20% VAT on its own levy. At today’s price that is 10.59p of VAT on duty. Tax on tax.

No private firm could invoice a customer that way and keep its reputation. When the government does it, it is called policy. And the government don’t give a shit. They are fleecing us into the ground.

There is a second number. In 2025 the Competition and Markets Authority looked at fuel retailers and found their margins “far above historic levels.” Supermarket fuel forecourts were taking 8–9.1%. In 2017 they took about 4%. Up like a rocket when wholesale rises, but only marginally down when it falls. Watch how fast this record only marginally retreats if crude prices eventually fall.

In the three months to the end of June, ExxonMobil made $14.5 billion - its strongest quarter in four years. Chevron made $12 billion - its best in six years. Shell’s profit more than doubled to around $10 billion. BP more than doubled to $5.73 billion. The five big Western major fuel corporations together hoovered up close to $50 billion in a single quarter.

Same war. Same crude. On the driver’s side, a record litre. On the government and fuel corporations side, a bumper harvest at our motoring expense. The Treasury takes 86p of every litre and charges VAT on its own tax. The fuel giants post bumper profits.

Diesel is not a lifestyle choice. It is the engine room of the supply economy. Lorries, tractors, delivery vans, buses, boats. When diesel rises, the cost of almost everything that moves rises with it. The record at the pump reappears later in the shopping basket, the delivery charge and the invoice - with VAT on some of that too.

If you think VAT-on-duty is a racket or that fuel duty should be cut before the next global shock becomes the next bill, tell your local MP who votes on it before the October Budget.

Enough is enough. We are being treated like suckers by the government and the vulture corporations.

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

@adamboultonTABB What a vile individual you are. Your apology is about you & saving your skin!

[David Shaw @David90shaw]

🚨 It is Saturday morning. Millions of hard working families are doing their weekly food shop right now, looking at the receipt, and wondering why they can barely get by.
You get up early, work forty hours a week, and pay record-high taxes, yet the Westminster elite easily find billions for luxury migrant hotels and endless foreign aid.
The system is actively punishing the people who play by the rules and treating our hard earned savings like their personal treasury. We are being bled dry by a political class that simply does not care. Retweet if you want our country back! 🇬🇧🛒📉

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

@mattletiss7 Love this @mattletiss7 👍🏻🫶🏻

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

Having read many of the Epstein files, it clarifies what many people have known for quite some time - there are individuals within our ‘elite’ class who are sick and twisted psychopaths. The conspiracy theories are grotesque realities.

[Rob Moore @robprogressive]

A degree in 2004: £1,200 a year
A degree today: £9,250
Wages didn’t go up 670%

Is it no wonder people are broke MANY years after their degree with compounded debt & interest that keeps going up & up?

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

@robprogressive Nothing surprises me anymore in this god fucking foresaken pit! 😳

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

Almost everyone I speak to feels completely pissed off with what is happening to Britain. The extortionate costs, high taxes, petty authority rules and the fact that nothing works properly. A country in serious decline. A decline facilitated by governments for corporate greed.

Britain faces huge difficulties and we don’t have the calibre of politicians to deal with the issues being faced. We have the most useless, insincere and out of touch politicians ever seen in British history. It’s a dreadful situation. We are being led by a bunch of shysters with their nests being feathered by their corporate cronies.

Britain is broken. You can feel the decline everywhere, except in the deep pockets of the greedy corporations who have been allowed to plunder the assets of Britain.

We are an island full of natural resources & with a temperate climate. We should have energy security, vibrant agriculture and fishing industries, blue collar industries to be proud of, manufacturing centres of excellence, but instead, it's all being destroyed, sold off or closed down. The industrial and community fabric of so many communities has been wilfully destroyed or neglected for decades.

We have infrastructures and public services that are rotting despite having the highest tax burden in history.

We have an ongoing cost of living crisis where supermarkets & utility & energy companies fleece consumers on a daily basis while showing record profits.

And for all of this, I blame governments for being more concerned in political game playing, consolidation of power, suppressing freedom of speech, indulging in petty punishment rules and surveillance culture, facilitating corporate greed rather than addressing the many concerns and challenges faced by individuals and communities right across the country.

The first job of any government should be to wholeheartedly serve and protect the citizens that they are supposed to represent. Instead, we have successive governments who are punishing the public and are in thrall to billionaires, global technocrats and asset stripping corporations like BlackRock.

Britain has turned into a total mess. Nothing works. Everything is bogged down in governmental petty bureaucracy or punishment politics. Pensioners, small businesses, students, farmers, fishing communities and the disabled are wilfully hammered by the Labour government. Over £100bn of taxpayers’ money is now spent per year on interest payments for the national debt, £30bn is being spaffed away on carbon capture machines, The cost of living for basic essentials like water, energy and food is through the roof. We are taxed to the hilt and yet public services and core infrastructures are rotting. We have water, energy and food security concerns despite having the national resources to be secure in all of these. We have a warmongering Prime Minister who is the most pompous and conceited individual ever to walk through the doors of 10 Downing Street. We have successive governments literally asset stripping the country to give everything away to multinational corporations. We have massive amounts of poverty and homelessness. We have thousands of migrants arriving across the channel while £millions are spent every day on housing them in 5 star hotels. We have an NHS that is in a total mess with millions of people living in excruciating pain because they can’t get treated for months on end. We have governments who are more concerned with sucking up to the likes of BlackRock rather than fixing the mess that they created. And we even have a government who ram through plastering solar panels on thousands of acres of prime farmland while spending £50bn on sun dimming experiments. It’s an utter disgrace what has happened to Britain and for all of this, I blame successive governments.

Britain is broken. A gigantic asset stripping and plundering Britain - facilitated by successive governments - at our own expense. Absolutely shameful.

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

The twisted irony of world’s rich and powerful flying into WEF Davos on hundreds of private jets to lecture us all about changing our behaviours to combat climate change.

[Rupert Lowe MP @RupertLowe10]

£200 million allocated to preparing British troops to be deployed in Ukraine.

We can’t even defend our own border. It is pathetic.

I will use my vote in Parliament to oppose British troops on the ground in Ukraine.

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

@benonwine Does he fuck 🙄

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

@OlenaRohoza Don't be so fucking ridiculous 🙄

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

@OlenaRohoza Why?

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

@oelma__ Nah! Not with that attitude!

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

@Neccccy Would I fuck !

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

@Coventry_City This is what happens when you have cards only & no cash - reap what you sow!!!!! And you all want digital ID 🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

When you get rid of cash you reap what you sow. Sorry state @CBSArena @Coventry_City Computer says no so no service at tills! Pitiful!! #PUSB

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

Here’s a post that many of you will relate to right now. For many years I’ve managed to have a pretty good standard of living through career progression and then being self employed. I’ve always worked hard and have enjoyed a few decent holidays, nights out, got on the property ladder in my twenties and largely always found a way to be reasonably comfortable financially.

But recently, things have changed.

Despite the fact that my annual income is significantly higher than it was in my twenties, I feel significantly poorer than in my twenties. And that’s because the cost of living is completely out of control. And the cost of living is out of control on the basic essentials of energy and food prices. This is combined with a horrendous tax burden - now at record levels.

If we were paying all of this tax and getting a return on investment then at least there’s a social contract of trust between the taxpayer and government. But there’s not. Instead we are paying record amounts of overall taxation and the country is rotting. Nothing works. Public services have diminished and infrastructures are rotting. The decay is everywhere.

I am not alone in saying this. Everyone I speak to is saying the same thing. We are all working our arses off just to keep our heads above water while paying governments extortionate amounts of money for them to make our lives worse.

And for all of this, I blame successive Tory and Labour governments. They have let the country rot. And they’ve sold our assets to multinational corporations. And they’ve made some terrible policy decisions that have cost the taxpayer a fortune. They’ve spaffed away our hard earned tax money on wars, corporate contracts, numerous crisis situations that they created and have feathered their own nests with power and money in the process. They’ve brought Britain to its knees by wilful incompetence and managed decline for corporate greed and we are all paying the price.

At some point we must stop focusing on who needs to pay more tax and instead focus on where all of our tax money is going.

The mood across Britain is unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed before. But it’s not the fault of the people. It’s the fault of government. And don’t ever let these bastards tell you otherwise.

[Joseph Boam @Joseph_Boam]

If you get up at 5am & go out to work, you’re getting hammered with higher taxes.

If you don’t work at all, congrats, this is the best Budget you’ve ever had.

In fact, if you’re a migrant family with 10 kids on full benefits, you’re laughing all the way to an extra £20k a year.

[Col Faulkner 🩵⚽️ @ColFaulknerLive]

@LeilaniDowding @RachelReevesMP @hmtreasury Always love your politeness @LeilaniDowding 🙌🏻👊🏻