Britain could be brought to a standstill by the end of the week, the British prime minister, Mr Tony Blair, was warned last night as he ruled out any concessions in face of a widening revolt over petrol prices.
And protesters tried to block Mr Blair's car as he arrived in Hull to join other dignitaries for a party celebrating deputy leader Mr John Prescott's 30 years as an MP. Protesting hauliers, augmented by pro-foxhunting demonstrators, forced Mr Blair and Mr Prescott to abandon the celebrations at a Chinese restaurant - a series of local road-blocks reinforcing television images of gridlock on motorways and in city centres throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
As the sense grew of a rising challenge to the government's authority, Downing Street sources confirmed talks between ministers, oil companies and the police, resulting in "all the decisions that need to be taken . . . in order to deal with the supply of fuel".
The earlier "standstill" prediction from the Transport and General Workers Union's Mr Danny Bryan had been coupled with a warning of potential "catastrophe" if protesting motorists continued to target tankers on motorways across the country.
The union yesterday began advising its members not to take lorries onto the road if they feared for their safety, following a number of incidents where tankers were targeted by protesters and ordinary motorists. Mr Bryan said he was "very concerned" after hearing that ordinary motorists had begun "cutting up" tankers on motorways as a way of expressing their anger.
"They don't realise the potential for disaster, and I appeal for calm," he said, predicting that drivers would increasingly refuse to take their trucks on the road if there was potential for trouble wherever pickets or blockades were organised.
Mr Blair, speaking in Loughborough, declared: "We cannot and will not alter government policy on petrol through blockades and pickets. That's not the way to make policy in Britain and, as far as I'm concerned, it never will be."
Mr Blair echoed the determination of the trade and industry secretary, Mr Stephen Byers, not to bow to demands for a cut in fuel prices, insisting that "the recent rise in fuel prices is to do with the rise in world oil prices". He reiterated that shortages at the pumps were due to panic buying rather than the effectiveness of protests.
But pressure was building on the government last night, as the combination of the two brought the challenge to the heart of London, with long queues forming outside those petrol stations which had not already exhausted their supplies of unleaded petrol. Experts continued to challenge the government's insistence that it could not afford a price cut without reducing spending on health and education.
With eight of Britain's nine major refineries being blockaded and a full-scale petrol crisis threatening southern England, estimates suggested almost half of the petrol stations in the capital would have run out by last night. Some 200 filling stations in north-west England alone were estimated to have run out of supplies by lunchtime yesterday, as protests gathered force from Edinburgh to Essex.
As Downing Street urged the police to take whatever action they felt necessary to ensure the safe passage of supplies, Mr Maurice Fitzpatrick, from accountants Chantrey Vellacott, said the government's extra tax take as a result of higher-than-predicted oil prices meant it could afford an 8p-per-litre cut in the price of road fuels without any implications for spending on public services.
Agencies add: France has called for a meeting of European transport ministers on September 21st to discuss the possibility of harmonising fuel prices and taxes, according to Belgian transport minister Ms Isabelle Durant.
Ms Durant was speaking at a news conference after meeting Belgian transport sector representatives who have been demanding relief from rising fuel prices. Earlier, the centre of Brussels had been effectively paralysed by furious Belgian truckers who parked their rigs on key arteries and threatened to block fuel depots.
The Belgian prime minister, Mr Guy Verhofstadt, continued to insist, however, that a cut in excise tax on fuel was not the right way to combat rising prices. --(AFP, Reuters)