Britain has a problem. Our petrol prices have skyrocketed to 99.9p per litre, and the country can no longer cope. OK, all of you petrol-heads in your SUVs can grumble about the cost of fuel, but spare a thought for the poor petrol stations, whose expensive electronic signs on the forecourt can only cope with three digits (plus a decimal point). Hence, over the past 10 years, the cost of fuel has gradually ascended until it reached 99.9p per litre….and stayed there.
Now, this is a problem we've seen before back in the 80s, when fuel was measured in gallons. The fuel price gently rose, and when things started to look a little bit on the expensive side, the marketing bods of the large petroleum conglomerates got jiggy with the cats that run the EU, and decreed that petrol should no longer be measured in gallons but in litres. Hey presto, fuel appeared to be cheap again.
But, now we have fuel in litres, where can we go next? Is there some smaller unit we could use? Could we start being charged per centilitre or something? The real solution is for petrol stations to drop the entirely pointless .9 from the end of the petrol price, thus giving an extra digit, and thus guaranteeing that the expensive electronic signs will carry on working until petrol costs 999p per litre. Unless climate change gets us first.
Nik,
The answer seems obvious to me now that I have been in the UK for almost 2 weeks.
Petrol should be measured and sold like anything else of value in the UK...in pints.
Well, it seemed much more witty when I thought of it last night. Oh well.
Ben
Posted by: Ben H at May 18, 2006 10:02 AMThe thought of a pint of petrol just made me gag violently.
Oh, you meant for the CAR.
Posted by: Tazja at June 10, 2006 05:56 AMor you could change the signs to read £ instead of p
So 99.9p would become £.999 Thus retaining the same amount of digits and dots and allowing the petrol companies to go up to £999. per litre.
Eee I remember when you could by a packet of rich tea, 4 bushels of cheese and a small mining village for just 5d and still have enough for the bus home. Kids today? They don't know their born…
until someone explains the intricacies of childbirth to them.
Posted by: Marto at July 6, 2006 09:26 AM