JARROW, England (AP) — Peter Welsh, one of many Britons who ignored a call for nationwide fuel price protests Wednesday, figured out long ago how to cope with gasoline that has soared to nearly $7 a gallon — more than twice as much as Americans pay.
He drives a motorbike to work. His wife drives their two children to school in their Alfa Romeo, then returns home and takes public transportation to her government job. Beyond that, their car only gets out of the garage during local drives on weekends.
"OK, rising oil prices are a worldwide problem now. We know that. But in England, about half of what we pay for petrol is a British tax. If the government dropped the price and raised our sales tax or our income tax, we working people would still be hurt, wouldn't we?" said Welsh, 41, who delivers parcels to companies and businesses for the Royal Mail.
He spoke while filling his car at a gas station in Jarrow where long lines formed over the weekend and early this week in panic-buying set off by the threat of the protests.
But few truckers and farmers answered the call to rally Wednesday at refinery gates around Britain, including at the major Shell oil refinery in Jarrow, a town outside Newcastle, the main city in northeast England. Only about a dozen demonstrators turned up.
As far as Welsh and many others in the area are concerned, there's little point in demonstrating against fuel prices. Even when a much larger protest by truckers and farmers blockaded refineries in 2000 and pumps ran dry in England, high gas prices remained a reality.
In Britain, retail prices recently nudged past $6.90 a gallon, driven by the soaring price of oil on world markets.
The few protesters who showed up at British refineries Wednesday are seeking relief from Britain's high fuel taxes, which account for nearly half the cost of gasoline.
Andrew Spence, a leader of the refinery blockades five years ago, said in an interview outside the Shell refinery on Wednesday that the organizers would make no attempt to stop fuel from leaving refineries.
He was clearly disappointed by the turnout. "I guess our backbones are gone regarding protests because of the powers that police now have to retaliate," he said.
Police and government officials, who had been caught by surprise by the protests in 2000, said they were prepared to deal firmly with any attempt to disrupt supplies.
Despite the muffled protest, motorists were still lining up for fuel at some stations in other areas of England.
"Of course people are worried that fuel will run out. I need my car and I remember the last blockade," said financial adviser Bob Askell, waiting his turn at a station in Sawbridgeworth, 30 miles north of London. The station had run out of gas on Tuesday because of panic buying.
"People are just panicking," said Richard French, who was filling his aunt's car. "I'm not that worried, but my aunt uses her car to commute to work."
Retiree Hugh Scorgie said gas prices need to come down. "When you think how much money the government earns from fuel, it's outrageous," Scorgie said.
In Jarrow, Welsh and about a dozen other people said in interviews they envied the much lower gasoline prices that Americans pay and wondered how some could drive gas-guzzlers such as Humvees, especially now that fears about global warming are growing.
But they said Americans shouldn't be entirely surprised that Britons have accepted their fuel prices as a reality.
"The oil prices just shot up in the United States, too, didn't they?" Welsh said. "Did Americans protest, stop driving SUVs? If not, why are they surprised about our reaction?"
Paul Botto, 43, a self-employed taxi driver, said: "High oil prices are a global problem that involves everything from China's and India's increased demand to Hurricane Katrina's damage to U.S. oil refineries to the Iraq war. We know that."
But he said many Britons accept high fuel taxes as a necessity in a country with a national health care system and an economy that is the envy of many other European countries.
"At the end of the day," he said, "you have to decide what you want. I want free health care, not expensive medical insurance bills."
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