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It also threatened protests and a national strike if the government did not cut its special taxes on petrol and diesel fuel

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It also threatened protests and a national strike if the government did not cut its special taxes on petrol and diesel fuel.. Five tankers left a refinery in Essex tonight just hours after Prime Minister Tony Blair promised the fuel situation would start to get back to normal. Five tankers left a refinery in Essex tonight just hours after Prime Minister Tony Blair promised the fuel situation would start to get back to normal. An Essex Police spokesman said the tankers left the refinery at Purfleet shortly after 7.30pm.A police officer sat alongside the driver of each tanker and police cars also drove alongside as an escort."We explained to the pickets what we intended to do and they raised no objections," said the spokesman."There are four refineries in total on the site and there were a small number of lorries outside each."They moved aside to allow the tankers through and there were no problems."Hopefully this will be the start of a return to normality."Farmers who have been demonstrating at a refinery Stanlow, Cheshire, where the protests began, were tonight meeting Shell managers to discuss the situation.At 7.30pm 100 taxi drivers from Wellington, Widnes and Chester arrived at the depot to show their support for the protest.They arrived by foot after their vehicles were stopped by a police cordon a mile and a half away from the protest line.Spokesman Clive Swann told them: "As long as we are peaceful we cannot be moved."A line of 20 policemen formed at the gate to the depot as the number of protesters rose.Taxi driver Steve Harper, from Warrington, said: "Tony Blair thinks he can get rid of us but his speech this afternoon has only caused more of us to come out in peaceful protest."Night shift drivers at the Manchester Fuels Terminal were also meeting management to decide whether to take loads out of the depot.The terminal remained at a standstill for the third day with only supplies for emergencies services leaving.But police outside the depot said senior officers had spoken to managers about the suitability of sending out vehicles.Inspector David England, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "The police are here to ensure the safety of the drivers and that there is no obstruction of the highway but the decision as to whether the vehicles leave will be made by the centre manager and the drivers."We would say it is considered safe for the drivers to go out."Meanwhile, Cheshire Police cordoned off both ends of the private road leading to the Stanlow refinery "as a precaution".. Large swaths of the country faced an unprecedented fuel drought today caused by panic buying, a very non-British militancy and the most widespread public protests since the poll-tax riots. Large swaths of the country faced an unprecedented fuel drought today caused by panic buying, a very non-British militancy and the most widespread public protests since the poll-tax riots. As motoring organisations predicted that petrol stations across the country were in danger of running out of fuel by tonight, public services were already being disrupted by fuel shortages.NURSES were having real difficulty reaching sick patients with many, particularly those working in the community, unable to make even basic house calls, their union said.Christine Hancock, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "We need urgent plans from the Department of Health to ensure that nurses can carry on treating patients many of whom rely on them for their day-to-day care."AMBULANCE services in some areas were suspending non-emergency calls in order to conserve fuel and concentrate on 999 calls.Phil Spence, director of operations for the Scottish Ambulance Service, said: "In the event of further shortages, we will need to work together with our NHS partners to plan ahead to ensure that Accident and Emergency and high dependency non-emergency patients are cared for, but we might need to postpone some non-emergency appointments in some areas."TEACHERS caught out by fuel shortages were having difficulty in travelling into schools. Essex County Council said it was going to get more and more difficult for schools to stay open if the blockades and shortages continued.Nigel de Gruchy, of the NASUWT teaching union, claimed teachers at schools in toke-on-Trent and Wales had been threatened with having their pay docked if they were unable to get to school because of the petrol shortages.FUNERAL directors called for undertakers to be included in Government contingency plans for distributing fuel for essential services, fearing they might otherwise not be able to perform funeral services or to collect bodies from homes.The National Association of Funeral director met officials at the Department of Trade and Industry to discuss their request. The Society of Independent Funeral Directors also wrote to John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, warning of far reaching health implications if undertakers were unable to move bodies from the place of death to a mortuary or chapel of rest.THE RSPCA said it was struggling to respond to calls for help for animal casualties because some of its vehicles had run out of fuel and supplies were drying up, particularly in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Wales and the north west of England.

All non-emergency activities had been suspended, the organisation said.It asked members of the public to take animals to private veterinary practices themselves wherever possible until the situation was resolved.There were other knock-on effects of the fuel shortages:DONALD Dewar, Scotland's First Minister, cancelled a planned audience with the Queen at Balmoral Castle in order to hold emergency talks on the mounting fuel crisis.BRISTOL City postponed tonight's home game against Brentford, the first major sporting casualty of the fuel crisis, because the club was unable to guarantee the required number of match stewards.RADIO 1 DJ Scott Mills missed half an hour of his Breakfast Show this morning. He booked a taxi for 5.45am to get him across London to the BBC studios but the cab did not arrive because the firm had run out of fuel. He arrived at the studio at 7am.A BRIDE booked her brother's electric-powered milk float as her wedding carriage after she was unable to hire a luxury limousine. Patricia Mountney, 52, will arrive at Birmingham Register Office n Saturday in the float decked in celebratory ribbons and balloons after her brother Barry Britton, 50, finishes his milk round.. The Government is making a killing out of rising oil prices, campaigners claimed last night.

The Government is making a killing out of rising oil prices, campaigners claimed last night. They said it was deriving a £4.6bn bonus which could be used to help motorists. Ministers could cut fuel prices by eight pence per litre without hitting public spending, they said.Between January 1999 and June 2000 the price of a litre of petrol rose from 62.9 pence per litre to 85 pence, making Britain's petrol the most expensive in Europe. Of that 85 pence, 48.8 pence goes to the Government in excise duty and a further 12.5 pence in VAT. In the past two years, petrol prices have risen by 26p a litre, 16p of which was through tax increases.In Spain, a litre of petrol costs 53 pence while the price in Greece is 54 pence and in Germany 66 pence.In the US, where there have also been recent protests over fuel prices, petrol costs just 28 pence per litre.Economists disputed a claim by Stephen Byers, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, that services such as health and education would suffer if fuel tax was cut.He said that public services would lose £1 bn for each two pence taken off the duty on a litre of petrol..

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