Pump boycott: Is there any point?

Pump priming Will the protest achieve anything?

As civil disobedience campaigns go, Tuesday's planned boycott of petrol stations is likely to be a pretty civilised affair.

And despite the strength of feeling among many British motorists about the levels of tax they pay on petrol, cynics will simply take advantage of the boycott to fill up their cars without having to queue.

What is the point, these cynics will say, in boycotting pumps for one day, when all it means is that the forecourts will be busier than usual on the next day?

Pump and circumstance

And while Chancellor Gordon Brown might take notice of how strong the protesting motorists' grievances are, he knows that at the end of the week his balance sheet will be exactly as he budgeted.

There is, however, no doubting the passion with which campaigners and newspapers have organised the "dump the pump" demo.

Boycott the Pumps has been organised by Chingford businessman Garry Russell, whose website offers disgruntled motorists the chance to work out how much tax they actually pay on their petrol.

An associated site also helps drivers find the cheapest petrol stations in their area.

But the picture has been clouded by three supermarkets cutting their prices to below 80p a litre.

Campaigner Garry Russell: Stay away

However, the campaign, which has been vigorously supported by tabloid newspapers, shows no sign of running out of gas.

Professor Peter Waddington, an expert in protest politics from Reading University, warned that protests rarely succeed.

Which raises the question of why anyone ever bothers to protest.

"Very rarely do protests achieve their goals," he says. "That's one of the abiding interests in protests for academics - what do people get out of it?"

If they are not getting anything directly out of their efforts, then the act of speaking up must be rewarding in itself, he said.

Source: OPEC

Professor Patrick Minford of Cardiff Business School supports the protest.

He has written that "it is an inspired form of passive resistance because it is completely legal and should not hurt those who own or work in petrol stations".

He added "The sight of empty forecourts will send a powerful signal to our political masters that enough is enough."

Winning protests

CASH MACHINES: Bank customers who campaigned against charges at cash machines got the banks to back down. One group threatened a campaign of writing £0.01 cheques

MARCHIONESS INQURY: Families of some of the 51 people who died when a pleasure boat sank in the Thames in 1989 won a public inquiry into the tragedy

BENTLEY PARDON: Relatives of Derek Bentley, wrongly hanged in 1953, fought for and won a quashing of his conviction for murder, and compensation for his execution

BRENT SPAR: Greenpeace won its campaign against the sinking of a disused oil platform in the North Sea - owners Shell backed down

Mr Waddington said the protests chances of achieving its aim of persuading Mr Brown to cut petrol duty were not guaranteed.

He does though have some encouraging words for the motorists.

"The history of most protests is not successful very often because they are swimming against more forceful tides.

"What strikes me about this protest though is that in a sense it's a rise in a counter-movement.

"It's the opposite of the ecologists' position, it's the opposite of the guerrilla gardeners, who would be in favour of increases in petrol prices."

And the mere fact that the motorists are not the usual kind of people to stage protests could well count in their favour, he said.

"This protest is registering a sense of dissent, which perhaps will set alarm bells ringing inside a government which is particularly aware of alarm bells ringing."