OT.
Sadly the NHS is far from what it was designed to be. If it's not life threatening, some people have waited months or years even- to the detriment of their health - for treatment for things like hip replacements etc. If you can afford it go private, else you'll be in for a long wait, with a good chance of any treatment being postponed or delayed. Even then, my experience of the NHS (with relatives) is that there is such a pressure on bed space that some are encouraged to leave hospital perhaps before they should, to make room fore the next body.
This is the kind of thing which seems to get the most attention at the moment- not decent patient care and attention to hospital cleanliness- cheaper is most definitely not better.
It's not all bad, but it's just it's not all that good either when it comes down to it. A percentage of my salary is deducted automatically, as 'national insurance' to pay for the NHS but the chances are I'd get faster, better treatment (if you can afford it ofcourse) by going private. Unfortunately our NHS service is a second rate organisation with second rate funding and management; bloated and inefficeint.
Back to the fuel thingy, I think I'm right in saying the UK has one of the highest (if not
the highest) fuel prices in the whole of europe, so our prices are probably the exception, not the rule.