The prices were slow to come down but will now steadily increase back to where they were, and higher.

I used the BBC website to compare my fuel costs (Venuezula pay 1p a litre!) and my tank is £65 to fill up, which would be £17 without tax. So the fuel itself is a bargain.

Even if they are pushing the prices up, that doesn't really bother me too much. Of the £1.11ppl it's currently costing at my local Texaco, approximately 70p of that is tax.

The oil companies extract it, refine it and transport it for us - and provide neatly packaged sandwiches also - so they earn their money. The Government don't do anything and they get a bigger slice.

It is the retailers - there is a back street yard near me in the midlands selling road duty paid diesel for 99.9p a litre - some 15p less than the ones with canopies, ATMs and mini-markets.

That could be because they don't sell much of the stuff. They bought it when it was cheap and are still able to sell it cheap. When they buy their next lot the price will have gone up for them and so their selling price will as well.