DO you remember September 2000? For the only time in the past eight years, Tony Blair's popularity rating dropped below that of the Conservatives; Britons were stock-piling bread and queuing round the block to fill up their cars. And petrol was less than 80p-a-litre.

Oh, happy days.

The news that petrol has now rocketed through the £1-a-litre mark without any form of fuel protest just makes that week in September 2000, when the country rolled to a standstill, seem even more bizarre. What was it all about? The protestors were demanding an immediate 26p-a-litre cut and saying that if the price wasn't down to 50p-a-litre by Christmas, they'd bring the Government down.

Five years on, Mr Blair is still in power and petrol is £1.06-a-litre in some places.

The lack of protest indicates that people have accepted that they can't beat the system, that taxes have to be paid to invest in public services and that if we are to save the planet from hurricanes and global warming then fossil fuel use has to be discouraged.

But these wild fluctuations in price do not help anyone budget, be they householder or haulage firm. Surely the Government, which rakes in additional revenue every time the price goes up, could do something to stabilise a price which is 65 per cent duty?

There are two other more flippant points that might be worth making.

Firstly, of all the incidences of the 99p syndrome - whereby retailers attempt to con the shopper into believing prices are cheaper than they really are - the most pathetic is on the forecourt. Why does the price of petrol always end in .9p? Why is it never .4p or .1p? Do petrol companies think we are stupid?

Secondly, following Katrina, although the petrol companies were quicker off the mark to raise prices than George Bush's government was to send out aid, do you think the price will plummet so rapidly? If a litre has gone up 10p in the past week, do you think it will slump by 10p in the next seven days now the oil market has stabilised?

No. Of course it won't.

And will anyone be surprised when the petrol companies post record profits at the end of the year?