Leader: David Cameron must act on petrol prices

The price of fuel has reached new, shocking levels, which hit the rural folk of Shropshire and Mid Wales particularly hard.

As there is so little in the way of jobs, services, and shopping in the countryside, people there have to travel to towns for more or less everything.

Those journeys were never cheap but are now hugely expensive. The cost of running a car takes a substantial chunk out of family budgets, but there is no realistic or practical alternative.

There is a double whammy, as prices are also pushed up – virtually everything we eat is transported on diesel-powered transport. Businesses are being hit, and that hit is being passed on to consumers.

It is no good for David Cameron to play the not-me-guv card. When he was seeking votes in the general election, he had plenty to say on the issue, with promises of a fuel price stabiliser and much soft soap and sympathy for hard-pressed motorists.

Now he is virtually mute, keeping his head down, hoping that he can get away with doing nothing.

The need for action is staring everybody in the face – apart from the politicians. They seem unable to understand how the high cost of fuel is having an impact on ordinary people and stalling the long-awaited recovery.

Mr Cameron would like us to think that there is little that he can do and that the oil market has its ups and downs anyway. That was not, he should be reminded, the line he took when he was seeking power. The major portion of fuel prices is tax, so the scope for Mr Cameron to act is enormous.

It is time for him to act to get Britain and its economy moving again.