£1 million an hour !!!

Oil Giant Shell's 'Obscene' £9.8bn Profit
Oil giant Shell has come under further attacks after posting the biggest annual profits figure in UK corporate history.Soaring oil prices, which have hit motorists hard, lay behind annual profits of £9.8bn - equivalent to more than £1m an hour.The performance - described as "obscene" by one union leader - reopened the debate on whether UK firms should be subject to a windfall tax.

Shell's big rival BP is set to announce profits of £8.5bn.

But banking giant HSBC is expected to reclaim its crown as the UK's most profitable company when it unveils a figure of more than £9.9bn.

Tony Woodley, General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, called the level of profits "more than excessive".

He said: "Such levels of excess are, quite frankly, obscene. With our pensions in crisis, these profits are 9.8 billion extra reasons for a windfall tax."

Martin O'Neill, Chair of the Commons Trade and Industry Select Committee, indicated a windfall tax on profits made in the UK should be considered.

He said Shell should be "encouraged" to invest more of the money in community and social responsibility projects.

He added Chancellor Gordon Brown may consider other sanctions if the firm resisted.

Graham Kerr, of energywatch, said the record figures were being achieved at the expense of UK households.


No wonder it's almost £5 a gallon.

thats some outrageous facts!

over here in the US gas is about $1.80 which is HIGH it got to 2.00 a few times!

its ridiculus!

It was over $2 for a long time. Dont even get me started on the politics of this crap.

In parts of NY you're lucky if you see it under $2, now in oklahoma its about 1.78(varies from day to day)

here in Texas its about $1.64 per gallon...thats crazy if it cost like 100 to fill ur tank...

I'd rather walk than to pay that much tax to them money grabbing assholes!

Peace

...and yet, people STILL don't question the 'ethics' of high fuel prices! :rolleyes:

Cuh!..I despair..I really do!

In the UK, the price of petrol is an average 83p per litre...that's nearly £5 per gallon in proper money.
When I started driving, it was about £1.30 a gallon....that's only 17 years ago!
There will be a lorry drivers protest this year, like the one we had a few years ago - so, stock up on your groceries and stuff, because the lorry is king, folks - without them...we all die!

Ok...maybe not die...but bloody close!

The government reaps about 86% of every £ spent on fuel in taxes...why?
Where is that money going?

Oh..I know where it's going...it's going towards cutting the truancy of school kids...£880+Million....which didn't work...
Or, maybe it's the £8Million spent on leaflets that tell us what to do in the event of a terrorist attack....
Or, maybe it makes up part of the £500Billion (yes, BILLION) spent on the Arts...

In the world of commerce and industry, if some 'bright spark' had just WASTED that kind of money on a failed inititive, they'd be sacked...not the government...they seem to just shrug their shoulders and think.."oh well, lets try something else.."

Fucking crazy!

But hey, it doesn't matter that our hospitals are shit, and that the education system is shit, or that public transport is shit, or that we are the highest taxed nation in the world, and yet all our public services are....well...SHIT!

I may not be able to do the job of governence, but surely common-sense would indicate a few flaws in the current way of doing things? :confused:

Pah!..I forgot...politicians dont have common sense - they have business interests to consider....How are the Bush's doing with their Saudi oil shares :rolleyes:

lol....I'm gonna miss getting wound up about the inadequacies of this world...maybe I do need a break :rolleyes: lmfaooo

Up with the Prius!

Greedy bastards! Oil companies piss me off. They buy out all the new alternatives to oil and I reckon are waiting for the oil to run out so they can bring out all these new ideas and capitalise on them. Oh and that brings me on another topic: Capitalism, I hate that too!

Did anyone catch the State of the Union? Bush said he'd be "moving away from dependency on foreign oil," instead substituting it with "safe, clean nucular power."

God dammit. God fucking dammit.

Yes, it scares me to no end that the man in charge of whether we use our nuclear arsenal can't even pronounce "nuclear arsenal" correctly.

And as for the oil companies, I try to not support them as much as possible. I don't own a car or a driver's license and I pretty much walk everywhere or use public transportation but I'm hoping to get a bicycle soon.