People Power

national | consumer issues | news report Saturday April 10, 2010 12:27 by Boadicea

Acting together we can make a difference and that is our right;

We have to show both oil producers and government that the people who pay (that’s us) are boss and that we are not powerless;

BUYERS control the market place and not sellers;

We owe it to ourselves to peacefully and lawfully kindle the PEOPLE POWER flame into a ROARING BLAZE.

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I recently received an e-mail containing what might be described as a "French/UK 'People Power' Brainwave" that might be suitable for adaptation here in the Republic of Ireland?

The basic general idea (for use within a UK setting), which involves a possible means of reducing petrol prices at the pump, is set out in the e-mail text provided below.

In a much less organised way than described in the e-mail text below, a diluted version of the idea may in fact have already come into use to some extent here in certain places (e.g. where Tesco have petrol stations). I state this because I happened -- to my surprise -- to notice lengthy queues some days ago at the Ballinasloe Tesco outlet, while the forecourt of the nearby and normally very busy Topaz (Shell) Station was completely empty.

"That'll learn them."

Some additional information (of a wider and more general kind) on the "People Power" subject can be viewed at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Power_Revolution

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From: *****@*****
Sent: 09 April 2010 02:52
Subject: FW: Petrol Prices

The following email was forwarded to me by an English friend in France. The email showed it had been forwarded at least half a dozen times prior to my receipt and listing dozens of recipients who had read it, agreed with it, and had taken the trouble to pass it on before it reached me. It makes a lot of sense - so please read it and pass it on to as many others as you can.

This growing display of ‘people power’ demonstrates that ‘people power’ still exists and we owe it to ourselves to kindle that flame into a roaring blaze. We have to show both oil producers and government that the people who pay (that’s us) are boss and that we are not powerless.

SUBJECT of the email received: Present Fuel Prices.
 
The long and the short of the following email is, please choose NOT TO BUY ANY FUEL from ESSO or BP (which is the same company anyhow). 
 
While the price of crude oil has come down a lot in recent times, and is as low as it has been for a long while now, the oil companies nonetheless keep on jacking their prices up at the pump, and the government will not do anything as they rake in extra VAT for every increase.
  
See what you think and pass it on if you agree with it.
                               
We are hitting £119.9 a litre in some areas now. Soon we will be faced with paying £1.50 a litre.
                               
The above boycott makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy petrol on a certain day campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea has come up with a plan that can really work.
 
Please read it and join in!
 
Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the market place and not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action.

The only way we are going to see the  price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. So here's the idea:

For the rest of this year DON'T PURCHASE ANY petrol FROM the two biggest oil companies in your particular country (which now are one in the UK), ESSO and BP.

If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!!

Now don't wimp-out at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!
                               
I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at  least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it.....
                               
THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!
                               
Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people or more. That's all (and of course not buy at ESSO/BP yourself).

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! Acting together we can make a difference and that is our right. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.
  
PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 90p a LITRE RANGE.
 
It's so easy to make this happen. Just forward this email and only BUY your petrol at Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Jet etc.

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