376 Global Ethics for Leadership
more of the price. For some time, there had been an escalator which
increased the tax on fuel automatically well above the rate of inflation.
By September 2,000, as a result of both high oil prices and the in-
creases in tax, many farmers and hauliers were demanding that the gov-
ernment cut the taxation on fuel to prevent rises in pump prices. In an
apparently spontaneous movement, truck drivers and farmers blockaded
major refineries and fuel depots around the country to prevent the deliv-
ery of fuel by road to retail outlets. The supply of fuel to the general
public as well as hospitals and other public services was beginning to be
restricted or cut off.
The tanker drivers leaving the refineries were understandably reluc-
tant to cross picket lines and there was also a question of the safety of
fuel tankers passing through blockades outside refineries. We knew
from our own contacts with the press that the government was using
their press machine led by Alistair Campbell to get the blame shifted
onto the oil companies, suggesting that the companies were supporting
the blockade because of industry opposition to the taxes. In fact, fuel
taxation at the pump is not a big issue for the oil companies; fuel de-
mand in the short term is not very much influenced by fuel prices. We
were actually just concerned to get fuel to our increasingly angry cus-
tomers while also keeping our heads down.
As the fuel shortage bit and the crisis escalated, the then Prime Min-
ister Tony Blair called a meeting of all the major oil companies. On the
government side, apart from Tony Blair, was John Prescott, who was not
only Deputy Prime Minister but Minister for Environment, Transport
and the Regions. Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, who was the actual
Minister for Transport, was also present, as were Jack Straw, as Home
Secretary, and Sir Richard Wilson, Cabinet Secretary. Alistair Campbell
sat on the far end of the government side.
Tony Blair opened the meeting by saying that a few days before the
press had been suggesting that the oil companies were encouraging the