the point being that the UK has its own supplies of crude oil..and refines its own gasoiline - not all of its supplies but nonetheless - so UK has the cheapest in Europe before tax and the most expensive after tax. I live in switz and fuel here is far cheaper..the difference is ALL taxation.

zugerman, zurich, switzerland

Us English seem compleled to adhere to European directives which the Europeans rarely do eg. restricted to 56m.p.h we also in the main drive legal. perhaps if the tunnel rail link should extend to Stranraer with drop offs at Rugby and Manchester this would reduce heavy unregulate trucks on uk roads

Dave Farmer, Broxbourne, England

Keith, there is already 70% Fuel Duty Tax and VAT! We get the cheapest Oil in europe BUT also pay the highest tax, meaning our goverment earns the most tax revenue for the whole of europe, from fuel!
Mr money bags is not willing to part with his lion's share but also wants to appear understand (2p)

Andrew Towell, Hartlepool, UK, England

Alan in Holywell,

Is it beyond you to understand that Fuel Duty goes up with every increase. A cap is what needs to be put in place where duty remains the same however many price increases take place.

Sid, Stoke,

Given that 70% of the price of our fuel is tax I can't see what the favour is with the dropping of a further 2p tax rise. It doesn't make a great deal of difference.

judy, Liverpool, England

How dare he say "use less fuel" (in car and home) and your bills will stay the same! It's total double think!

Basically, your bills will stay at what they used to be, but you'll get less for it... hmmm yeah because that's a reasonable answer to the problem isn't it Gordon, you parasite!

Andrew Towell, Hartlepool, UK, England

Why not charge foreign motorists to use our otherwise free roads as they do in Switzerland? This will allow us to reduce fuel duty without losing revenue. Afterall, we have to pay to use most roads in Europe, so why shouldnt they pay to use ours?

Matt, Naples, Italy

Should we thank Labour not taking our money off us? No, they will take it another way.

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

Frank: I quite agree but none of this would happen overnight; the hole in Public Finances arising from the claimed reduction would take effect immediately and would need to be made good until the reforms, over-regulation and waste came on line. The money has to come from somewhere in the short term.

Alan Hargreaves, Holywell, UK

What about the VAT we pay in the TAX on petrol? This is the only item that charges VAT on tax. That is what makes our petrol so expensive. Brown is once again avoiding the real issue - the government is loving the petrol price rises - they are what is propping them up.

CA, Manchester, UK

The housing crisis means less tax income from Stamp Duty and the 10% tax band fiasco has Darling rubbing his hands at the unexpected tax windfall from higher fuel prices!
The sad thing is they can't see that a 20p CUT in duty would be the best thing to kick starf the economy at the moment.

Tony, Brighton, UK

Alan - perhaps we could save £6.9 billion by bringing the Olympics back on budget, two or three billion by pegging the growth rate of NHS managers to the increase in medical staff, a few hundred million by only buying helicopters that work, huge amounts on wasted consultancy fees.......

Frank Upton, Solihull,

I take it brown has given all up all hope of ever being elected PM, lets face it no one voted for him this time and no one will be at the next election ether.

Mr W Jones, Liverpool, England

A reduction of at least 20 pence per litre would considerably alleviate the current economic crisis but you can bet that Brown and Darling won't even consider it. They never stop increasing taxation in an attempt to satisfy their insatiable greed for money to fund their profligate and totally ineffective spending spree. The Socialists ALWAYS leave an economic disaster for the Tories to sort out and then, when we have finally recovered, the idiots vote the Socialists back in again.

Richard, Alicante, Spain

Like just about everyone I would like to see duty on fuel reduced.
However, would any of the "Fuel Protestors" like to say where the lost revenues should be made up from.
Increased Income tax? VAT? NIC? Fewer hospitals, schools? Lower Old Age Pensions?
Well Protestors, over to you?

Alan Hargreaves, Holywell, UK

You English that complain about how high your petrol is and say other countries pay less then please live here and see if you can still pay our fuel prices, and live good all on our lower wages. If you can you will have a better life than us.

Xose, Galicia, España

We are not the only country being squeezed - South Africans are complaining about their high price for fuel, too: 68p per litre now! Perhaps we could import fuel from there...though Brown and the Greedy Mob would find a way to double the price, no doubt.

chris, Oswestry,

he's already had his 2p tax increase anyway, as there is 17.5 vat on fuel, everytime the price goes up he gets more tax,

keith, Liverpool, U.K.

If Brown was listening like he claimed he would, they would be reducing the duty not just freezing it. We pay far more than nearly every other country and some countries even subsidise.

Keith Sloan, Winchester, UK

Oh, fantastic, well done Mr Brown!!!!

We already pay 50p a litre more than Spain, and 20p a litre more than France - I should think they won't be adding 2p a litre to duty!!

It's about time they thought about reducing fuel duty, rather than thinking about whether to increase it again or not!!

Dan Greenslade, Doncaster, UK