THE ANTI fuel tax campaign has not been the success that we hoped for, so we will all have to go on paying the higher tax. But hasn't there been some lies? We were told that this is the lowest taxed country in Europe. We were even told by national newspapers that it is cheaper to run a car here than in Southern Ireland. I wonder if that is the reason why more than half a million people cross what used to be the border into the South to fill their tanks and save a staggering £14 sterling in doing so?

One garage owner in Derry says that the few loyal customers who come on to his forecourt can not get back out again due to the flow of cars going to Bridgend and Muff.

If petrol here was sold free of tax, then it would only cost one-fifth of the price. In simple calculation, that is 400pc tax. So that is not only the highest tax in Europe, it is, in true fact, the highest tax on any product in any part of the world.

The £2,000 tax off big trucks is great news for the ordinary working class people. The £5 pension rise is only £2.87 over the two years, and the increase in winter fuel payments is a cheap way of getting out of linking pensions to earnings.

Gordon Brown has not told us what he intends to do with the £16 billion surplus that he calculates to have at the end of the current fiscal year.

A Devlin

Glynne Street,

Bolton.