IN his letter Pump percentages (Oxford Mail, May 10) Chris Halford said blaming oil companies for fleecing the public was totally wrong.

I agree the tax on fuel is way too high and the public are being fleeced – not only by the Government and oil companies but by politicians as well.

The point I was making in my letter on May 4 was that over the past few months the price of fuel at the pumps has increased on a weekly basis, not due to tax increases but because of oil companies’ greed. To back this up, BP’s profits in the last 12 months have more than doubled.

Now we have the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which is going to cost BP billions of dollars to clear, we can be sure that pump prices will rise even faster. Why? Because BP will want to raise their profits even more next year.

Keith Brooks Gateley Horspath