Daphne, it is most likely that they would not pay YOU 1P.

Gregory, St-Leonards-on-Sea, E Sussex

Of course raising interests rates will lower fuel prices. It will strengthen the pound, and imports will cost less. Do it - and do it now - before others do and negate the effect.

j, hassocks, sussex

How much would anyone out there PAY me to come up with a solution to cut fuel consumption by 50% for cars and Lorries. Is any one out there as a Company or Government could pay me 50 Million pounds. I think I have the answer.

Daphne Kenward, Cambridge, UK

To Mary J
By far the largest percentage of immigrants to the UK have come from Poland & other East European countries - I don't think they would like your description of their countries as Third World and culturally incompatible

Graham, Bristol, UK

It is all the game of the free market. We panic. They make dosh. We pay for it. The only answer is don't buy the stuff. The forecourts will soon be in a fix if they don't sell enough. That might teach them all a lesson.

David, Swansea, UK

The economy IS off a cliff; people pretend that it isn't because it hasn't splattered over the rocks beneath - yet! But the drivers are clearly in place. We're in trouble, that we won't escape by easy fixes like interest rates, that will worsen until we admit this and take hard, painful action.

Noel Falconer MEcon, COUIZA, France

Message for Ian Dickson. It is my personal belief that the steep rise in oil prices is a direct result of the Fed lowering US interest rates to 2%. Anybody holding US dollars would efffectively lose money by continuing to hold them hence the switch from dollars to commodities.

Simon, London, UK

The headline of this article is highly misleading. There is nothing in the article to suggest that the cost of living will double over the year, merely that people thing the rate of increase (inflation) will be double the target rate of increase.

Will Powell, Edinburgh, UK

Surely one of the reasons why social mobility is failing in your country is mass immigration of low-skilled people from culturally incompatible Third World nations? If you import poverty, you get poorer as a society. Funny how that works, isn't it?.

MaryJ, San Francisco, Calif.

Our economy is falling like that of America's. Oil prices are high to fund the war in Iraq, just as America's fuel prices soared for the exact same reason as I lived there. I wouldn't be surprised if we hit a depression, it's a repeat like the Vietnam war.

David Redshaw, Newcastle,

Mr Leslie could be correct.But this is the tragedy of the setting of the government interest rate. It is based on inflation criteria that have absolutely no meaning to the ordinary working person or pensioner,who can never afford to buy luxury items.
Their money goes on life's basic necessities.

nic, paphos, cyprus

Unfortunately the rising costs of food, fuel and energy is not going to be reduced with any rise in interest rates. However there will be a sharp fall in the purchase of luxury items, which will come down in price and enable the government interest rate to be reduced.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

Is there anyone who has a clue as to why oil prices are rising so fast? We're told that supplies are well in hand, we know about the government's grasping taxes and we hear about speculators making a killing on future dealings - why isn't anyone in authority doing something to curtail this excess?

Ian Dickson, Brighton, UK