Iis there no end in sight to rising fuel costs?

Almost every day, forecourts increase their prices, with diesel now more than £1.25 a litre at many filling stations across Oxfordshire.

A day after scores of lorries and HGVs brought the A40 in London to a standstill, it was perhaps inevitable Oxford Bus Company announced it was to increase fares across-the-board.

We have seen mammoth increases borne by haulage companies passed on to customers, so it was only a matter of time before users of the cheapest form of public transport were hit.

Train companies are notorious for passing on yearly increases to their passengers, but times must be hard if bus companies are increasing their fares.

Oxford Bus Company operations manager Louisa Weeks wasn't joking when she said current fuel costs were less stable than during the Suez crisis in 1956 or the last fuel crisis in 1970s.

The company's fuel bill has risen by more than 71 per cent.

The company buys a staggering 110,000 litres of diesel a week to power its fleet of 148 buses and fuel is its second largest cost after staff.

As yet, there is no indication as to how much fares might increase.

Life is tough for many hundreds of thousands of families right now.

As we have come to realise, fuel does not affect just the running of the family car - food prices and every day living costs are governed by the price of oil, which shows no sign of slowing down.

It is all very well for the Government to wheel out ministers in front of the television cameras to empathise with the public.

What the public wants is action, not words.

Sympathy is hard to come by when hard-working families are continually hit in the pocket.

It is in even shorter supply when one stops to consider the amount of tax we pay in every litre of fuel we buy.