Editorial: Fuel costs are a disgracefully high burden - protest blockages are the wrong response but urgent action is needed

It is a particular worry for families on low budgets, including elderly people who are vulnerable to the cold.

But the current spike in energy prices is nothing less than a crisis for certain types of self-employed workers.

The eruption of anger among farmers first in the Republic but also in Northern Ireland is a manifestation of that intolerable pressure.

Here, the protests yesterday were well short of being as significant as some forecasts had predicted, but they could yet grow.

There is a major precedent for this, from a quarter of a century ago. Then, in 2000, lorry owner-operators brought much of the south of England to a standstill due to the then rising petrol and diesel fuel prices. Demanding that Tony Blair reduce fuel duty on petrol and diesel, they protested at or blockaded oil refineries and fuel depots. For a remarkable few days, some of the busiest motorways in Europe fell quiet, as people were unable to refill their vehicles.

The anger at these appalling costs is more than understandable, with the cost of diesel approaching £2 a litre. Meanwhile ,home heating oil still costs a shocking £1.10 a litre or more.

The main reason for these huge prices is of course the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. But Britain already had some of the highest fuel duty in Europe, which itself has far higher tax on fuel than America. There is thus no room for any upward movement.

We agree with the Ulster Farmers Union, that protest blockages are the wrong response but that urgent action is needed to alleviate fuel duty. And we again point out that the disgracefully bloated UK welfare budget is at the heart of big financial problems, including both an inability to spend properly on defence and also a need for sky-high fuel and other taxes.