Immediate Alliance encourages Government to be tough on oil companies Against a background of renewed fuel protests across the country, the Countryside Alliance has made clear its support for any Government action to bring oil companies to book on their pricing policy. Downing Street sources told the Alliance today that ministers are in continual contact with the oil companies with a view to forcing pump prices to reflect recent reductions in the cost of crude oil.
Rural people are particularly vulnerable.
We have seen the withdrawal of banking services from the countryside, and now we are seeing an unfair and indefensible fuel pricing policy which affects rural people twice as much as urban people because their journeys are on average twice as long. The Countryside Alliance supports the aims of today's protests but emphasises that it is not involved in their organisation. It has always been the Alliance's policy to support legitimate and law - abiding protests, which are not designed to interrupt the lives of ordinary people.