Skyrocketing oil prices have Tony Blair over a barrel

With the British prime minister counting down the days until the election, the economic fallout from the Iraq war is posing a grave threat to the future of the Labour party

By Larry Elliott
THE GUARDIAN , LONDON
ADS1 Tuesday, May 18, 2004,Page 9

Air fares are up. Petrol prices are up. The leaders of the 2000 fuel protest in the UK have been making minatory noises. None of this was in the script a year ago, when US President George W. Bush was boasting of final victory in Gulf War 2, so it is hardly surprising that Prime Minister Tony Blair is concerned about rising oil prices. With the £0.88 per liter (US$1.55) in prospect for British motorists, he's a worried man.

For the first time, there is evidence that the ripple effects from the mess in postwar Iraq are lapping up on the shores of the domestic economy. And for a prime minister counting down the days to a general election, that's not good news.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/05/18/2003156012

Google has a nifty conversion feature. Just enter the following into the Google search bar:

litre to gallon

and it returns this:

1 litre = 0.264172051 US gallon

then type into the Google search bar:

1.55 * (1 / 0.26) and you get this:

1.55 * (1 / 0.26) = 5.96153846

So if my math and Google are correct, the Brits are paying just under $6.00 per gallon of gas.

Even before the recent rises we would have been paying $5.27 ( approx) per Gallon. It is one of the reasons we have more fuel efficient cars. Although I just don't understand why SUV's are getting more popular here with petrol at these prices, I guess we don't have long distances to drive like you guy's.

UK gallon slightly more than US gallon

Holy shit! :crazy:

and oil is bought in dollars, so even with this additional help gas prices are rising there