By
The Associated Press
LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair, joined by leaders in Belgium and Germany, yesterday defiantly rejected demands to lower fuel taxes, despite spiraling protests that have left gasoline pumps bone-dry and disrupted schools, businesses and transport across Britain.
"Real damage is now being done to real people," Blair said on nationwide television, blaming protesters for fuel shortages that triggered school closings, delayed non-vital surgery in hospitals and even threatened deliveries by Britain's famously reliable Royal Mail.
Late yesterday, the National Blood Authority went on alert, saying it feared its blood supplies soon could be affected. The government put military fuel tankers on standby in case they are needed to get deliveries through, and banks reassured worried customers they would still be able to get cash.
William Hague, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, urged that Parliament be called back from its summer recess to deal with the crisis, as Blair prepared for more urgent meetings today with top advisers.
Europeans - Britons especially - pay some of the highest gasoline prices in the world. British pump prices average $4.31 a gallon, with taxes accounting for three-quarters of the cost.
Because of heavy levies, public anger has been largely aimed at the government rather than at the protesters who last week began tying up traffic and strangling fuel supplies with refinery blockades and go-slow convoys.
Other European countries, including France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, have experienced traffic-snarling protests in recent days, but Britain was by far the hardest hit.
As the flow of gas dried up, so did rush-hour traffic on normally busy London arteries. Undertakers said they might have to halt funerals if they can't find fuel for their hearses. School closures were expected to affect thousands of pupils today.
Some truckers brought their protest almost to the doorstep of Buckingham Palace. Scores of trucks were stopped by police on a central London street that passes near the palace gardens, as the drivers tried to mass their trucks close to the Parliament.
Blair insisted he would not be pressured into lowering fuel taxes, saying that would shatter his government's credibility.
"Whatever the protesters do ... it cannot be right to try to force a change in policy by these means," he told a nationally televised news conference, his second in as many days. "We will not be intimidated. We will not give into violence, to blockades, to threats."
