Britain’s motorists already get a raw deal at the petrol pump and voters won’t forgive Philip Hammond if he hikes fuel duty
A hike will make people poorer, take cash out of the economy and stoke inflation, while low-paid workers will be unfairly hit
Don't be fuels
IT is staggering that the Government is contemplating hiking fuel duty.
Britain’s motorists already get a raw deal at the petrol pump, with fuel duty among the highest in the world.
Why should they be hammered further to help bankroll the £20billion NHS splurge?
A hike will make people poorer, take cash out of the economy and stoke inflation. Low-paid workers, who need their cars and vans for work, will be unfairly hit.
So will ordinary, hard-pressed families, who already have to budget to fill up so they can take their kids to school and transport their weekly supermarket shop.
In other words, it will unfairly impact the “Just About Managings” who Theresa May once claimed she would strive to protect.
Philip Hammond might regard drivers as a convenient cash cow to fill the Treasury’s coffers.
But he should resist clobbering them for a quick cash injection. Targeting those struggling is political cowardice.
Voters won’t forgive him.
Burk on top
ORDINARY Brits back Boris Johnson.
But away from all the Twitter outrage, the former Foreign Secretary is in step with public opinion.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn continues to shame Labour with his anti-Semitism.
Of course, just as we are free to debate the burka, people are free to debate the Israel-Palestine conflict.
But a politician with aspirations to run the country should not be laying wreaths for terror leaders.
Corbyn believes Israel is the ultimate malevolent force, a racist imperial outpost, causing the world’s ills at the behest of America and Britain. How many traditional Labour voters today share his worldview?
It is Boris, derided by his enemies as an Etonian toff, who has his finger on the nation’s pulse and understands the concerns of ordinary people.
No surprise that in one poll the Tories have opened a four-point lead over Corbyn’s Labour.
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