Petrol prices

So I see no one has yet seen this blog! I've spent the last hour or so researching how to advertise my blog and changed various settings etc, so lets wait and see - who will be the first person to read my blog??? I've decided not to tell family/friends about the blog (except my wife of course), I'm interested to see how long it takes anyone I know to find it!

Finished a rather quiet surgery this morning. Obviously I'm not going to go into details about the patients I see, in order to respect confidentiality etc, but it was pretty uneventful! Medicine is not as great as you might think it is (or maybe you don't think it's great, or maybe you don't even have an opinion on it). There are only a small percentage of people you can help in life saving scenarios. Admitedly there are plenty of people who need medical help, but it is all overshadowed by the dire working conditions of doctors.

Everyone is aware of the long hours, night shift, weekend etc, and although that is awful, it is not as bad as working in a hospital and having to deal with managers. These people are only interested in reaching targets and deadlines set by more 'managers' in the government. They don't have much of a clue about the individual patients and the differing needs that they have!

I don't plan on going into detail (unless anyone is interested), but the working situation in hospitals was the principal reason I left to go into the community and general practice. So far, the working conditions are excellent, it is much more humane and stress-free, but there are other problems. However, as I've only been here for a month, I will provide a better assessment on my blog at a later date.

I guess I better talk about the title of this blog. You may have noticed that recently petrol prices have taken a surprising turn, they've actually gone down!! I remember paying 96.9p per litre of unleaded at Tesco's less than a month ago and now the same store is selling it for 84.9p per litre (with a further 5p if you spend £50 in store - 79.9p).

The government always go on about raising oil prices due to various tensions in the Middle East, but tension always seems to exist in the Middle East! As the situation moves from one crisis to the other the price of oil should remain permanently high. A search on Google reveals the current price of oil to be $64.33 (Current oil price) per barrel, during the recent crisis it was quoted as $78 per barrell (Price during Lebanese crisis), why such a huge difference when the tensions still exist? I will never claim to be a financial expert so I can't even begin to understand what levels of tension result in what oil prices, but why are there such large differences?

Looking at it very crudely, war broke out between Israel and Lebanon, as far as I understand, neither country is a mass oil producer for the rest of the world, but oil prices went up. People will argue that such was the tension levels, that the war could have extended to the adjacent countries which do provide oil to the world (eg. Iran, Iraq and Saudi) and thus the prices went up. However, I get the impression that such a tension exists all the time. Even today, there is a chance that war might break out across the Middle East. There are mulitple ways that could happen, so the tension levels should always exist and therefore prices should remain high. The fluctuation in price is not simply explained by the tension levels in the Middle East, so why is there such a fluctuation?

I will stop complaining about the prices, because now the price has dropped considerably. Accepting these price differences, a difference of almost $14 per barrel has resulted in a 12p per litre drop in petrol at our filling stations. This is marvellous, and long may it continue. Unfortuanately I fully expect the prices to rise almost at any time and reports will come in that the "tension levels are rising" (or something to that effect).

But I also see a missed oppourtunity for the government. Whilst prices have been dropping, there has been minimal coverage about the role the government has played. I'm sure their role has been minimal, but I'm surprised they haven't milked it more and gone on and on about the falling prices due to Tony Blair's efforts in the Middle East etc.

I'm guessing this all sounds pretty stupid. I appear to be out of my league when explaining all the above, but they are just my thoughts, so please feel free to comment on how daft/good they are! Do you agree with the oil price fluctuations? Do you understand? Can you perhaps explain them to me (concisely please)??

Take care all.
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?

PS Check out Petrol Prices for the latest prices near your area.