Will Trump bring down fuel prices?

It’s not a great start to 2017, with Ashford drivers now paying more for a litre of fuel than they have for the past two years.

The average price of a litre of unleaded is now around 117.7 pence per litre, with diesel costing 120.3 pence per litre.

So it now costs in excess of £8 more to fill an average car than it did a year ago and prices are set to rise even higher as a previously-agreed oil production cut has just started to kick in, pushing the oil price upwards across the world.

As things stand, crude oil costs just under $56 per barrel, with some experts predicting it could hit $60 soon.

But it’s hoped that prices will not rise as high as they did in 2012, when per-litre costs were well on their way to over 140 pence.

And there could be a light on the horizon as some reports are speculating that an oil price “correction” could be on its way. With Donald Trump about to be inaugurated as the American President and likely to do much to boost oil production in the United States, it may not actually be that long until there’s an oil glut again, bringing prices down. Phew! You may not have taken much notice of this innocuous looking headline that appeared in the KE a couple of weeks back.

It topped a story about how Willesborough-based maritime engineering firm Kineteco is focusing on Russia and continental Europe to boost its exports and turnover.

But hang on a minute ... ‘Firm targets Soviet sales’.

That might have applied 25 or more years ago but not now.

Either our headline writer had forgotten that the Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26, 1991 or ‘Soviet’ fitted the space so well that he left it!

To cut a long story short, the previous day, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, resigned, declared his office extinct, and handed over its powers to Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

The person who crafted the headline has been sent away to brush up on their post war history.

Shall we also let them know The Gulf War ended on February 28 in the same year?

The recent cold weather has set the Nuts and Bolts team talking about how they clear their car windscreens on frosty mornings. We have a kettle of hot water fan (but make sure the kettle’s not just boiled), a spray can de-icer enthusiast, a leave the engine running for 10 minutes aficionado (and hope there’s no car thief hiding in the bushes) and an old school let’s get rid of this ice with a plastic scraper and a bit of elbow grease.

All methods have their pros and cons. Our readers must have other ways of clearing icy windscreens: Suggestions please to kentishexpress@ thekmgroup.co.uk

Have you had to scrape your car this winter?

The flag of the former Soviet Union

Fuel prices are rising