FUEL prices are on the increase, reaching, and exceeding in some places, the dreaded 80p per litre level which triggered the tanker drivers' blockade a few short years ago. Are we in for another summer of discontent and what can we expect Messrs Blair and Brown to do about it? "Very probably" is the short answer to the first question; to the second it is "nothing at all".

The PM and his Chancellor will point out, with justification, that the current price rises have nothing to do with them. The cost of a barrel of crude has reached its present level because of the volatile situation in the Middle East and a decision by the Organisation of Oil Producing Countries to cut production levels.

The knock-on effect of terrorist attacks on oil pipelines and installations, and the murders of foreign nationals working in the fuel industry in the Middle East, allied to cutbacks in production by the major exporters, has led to the customary reaction from the oil companies. Inevitably it is the consumer, that's you and I folks, who are at the sharp end.

The situation is exacerbated in the UK by the swingeing taxes imposed by Gordon Brown and countless earlier holders of his job, for whom booze, cigs and fuel were immediate, obvious and easy targets at Budget time. Petrol and diesel cost far more in the UK than they do in other "industrialised" countries in Europe and, most markedly, North America.

One doesn't necessarily need the brain power of Albert Einstein to conclude that with the developed world so dependent on oil for virtually everything, financial Armageddon can never be very far away. Small wonder that even a price tweak, or the suggestion of one, from the producing nations sends tremors through the major global financial institutions, especially those in the West.

How many people reading this remember the jubilation at the discovery of massive reserves of oil under the North Sea and the euphoria which greeted the huge rigs which were going to pump zillions of gallons back to Blighty? We were going to be self-dependent, awash with fuel at knock-down prices similar to those enjoyed by our cousins across the Pond, for whom the suggestion of 80p a litre would be enough to trigger a public backlash against the government, toppling it within 24 hours. Well, I don't know what happened but we didn't become self-sufficient and are still being fleeced at the pumps. Maybe the oil companies, or the government, found it more desirable to sell their oil on the open market at prices established by the cartels. If anyone truly knows the answer to that one, I would be mighty grateful for the information.

Not that it would really do me, or you, much good as we wait for the next round of increases and possible action from haulage drivers, their livelihoods again threatened by fuel prices and unfair competition from European firms, whose diesel costs are less punitive.

Holiday flights will suffer price rises, too. Is there any good news? Sorry, no, there isn't. But Blackpool looks good to me!